Hi again,

We've started getting the usual companies around to give quotes and I've been horrified at the prices they've given... On a quick search it seems our prices differ greatly from ones in the semi-recent archive here too. Mr B now thinks it's "because you're a woman" the prices have been so high as it's me fielding the quoters when they come round. Not convinced by that one at all though!!

Can anyone who's had a recent quote post the price, destination and the rough volume of goods it was for, just so I can get an idea of how ours compare?

Our average is currently running at GBP 4,500 for 700sq ft. That's to Winnipeg, excluding insurance. I nearly fainted.

Thanks in anticipation,

Biiiiink

Hi Biiiink,
we recently had 3 quotes, all roughly the same £3,500 to £3,800 that is for a 20ft container which is 1,000cubic feet. From UK to Halifax. Quotes from Allied Pickfords, John Mason and Brittannia, we think we are going with APickfords.

Thanks Wendy, wow, that's quite a difference! I see you're headed for NS so I wonder if it's the Winnipeg-by-road sector that's making such a huge difference in our quotes, as we've also used 2 of the 3 companies you mention.

Any more for any more?

Biiiiink

Hopefully that will be all that horrifies you. Having paid our money it disturbed me even more that Allied Pickfords took eleven weeks to finally get our stuff over and with an apparent lack of interest in doing so once they had our cash!

We were quoted £3.500 for a 20 ft container by the way.

Again, yours is way cheaper Stepnek. Where are you headed? I'm wondering if road haulage costs is the issue with ours.

Funnily enough, 11wks would be just great for us - we're taking furnished accommodation for the first 8wks and don't actually want our stuff before then But how upsetting if you're waiting for things you need, yikes :scared:

We've just done the reverse. A 40' container from Ontario to County Durham for $4280. Exc. Insurance and packing/loading at both ends.

They gave us 6 hours to load. It took three of us 5hrs and 50 mins to load it.

We have 2 hrs to unload at the other end. Should be no problem as we have a small army of helpers back in the UK.

The company was called AM Freight International. Web - www.amfreight.ca e-mail [email protected]

This got me wondering what our is. We had quoted £3,900 for 1,100 sq feet to originally... Kitchener which is only a couple of hours from Toronto so only a bit of land but now heading for London but we are looking at what we may not take now is it could be cheaper to buy new as against taking items which have no personal value.

Would that not be cheaper? As the containers are brought in via train from Montreal to Toronto. Would the train not go to London? Even if it didn't it's only just over an hour from Kitchener to London.

Our container went from Cambridge -> Brampton (freight forwarder) by HGV, then train to Montreal, and then on a ship.

Being an accountant I calculated roughly how much I was paying for each cubic foot and assigned a "transfer value" to our goods. If the cost to ship worked out at more than the cost of buying new then we didnt bring that item. Personal stuff was a different issue as it was coming anyway - some of it is still in the boxes in the basement but the sudden separation was too much to bear!

And yes I know its not a linear scale but by the time you are up in the mid ranges or top ranges it starts to flatten out.

I had to apply logic or we would have gone nuts.

Mrs G

I paid Pickfords around £1500 for my stuff. They were really great about moving everything, and I didn't have any problems...

No idea how they get the stuff to your area. .... What would be cheaper?

P

We're already here, this all happened late last year. The problem for us was that we were waiting for our items and we had confirmation that the shipment had arrived in Montreal but for some reason or another it was taken right past our doorstep on the 401 all the way to Toronto before it eventually came back to Ottawa and then finally to us. It was in Canada for about four weeks before we finally got delivery. Allied Pickfords were very efficient when we dealt with them in the UK but less so here it seems.

I shipped our stuff (last Jun) from London UK to Toronto, door to door excluding pack. for 200sq. ft they charged me GBP800 including insurance. The company was Britannia.

We've had two quotes, both coming in around the same - 5,600 GBP for 40' container, Aberdeen to Calgary. Door to door should be less than four weeks. I guess we're paying something of a premium for being 'so far north'!

britannia quoted us £5000 for a 20ft container to calgary from devon. interested to see a container twice the size to calgary is only £600 more - which company is that?