vash2009

Hello,
We(partner and two kids) are finally on our way next week to Vancouver 2 years after landing!
wanted to gage from experienced ones the topic of shipping,

How long did it take for you to receive your goods in canada after the shipping company took it?

can anyone recommend a shipping company that would store the goods in the UK for free for up to a month then ship?

How did you manage your packing? we are flying with air transad and of course with their luggage limitations one can't take much so almost everything will go into boxes,so i am a bit concerned about reaching our destination with only our luggage and the necessary big stuff being shipped.

look forward to hearing from everyone

nerdherd

Hi there,

There are several threads on this subject - if you use the search function you'll find all the info you need.

But to sum up - most people seem to use full containers. Length to BC is anything between roughly 4 to 12 weeks depending on whether you go for sole container or groupage... I am guessing that unless you are a minimalist, then with a partner and two kids you'll go for sole container!

In terms of recommendations, again experiences will vary as you'll see on the other threads. GB Liners and White & Co seem to be two that are consistently good, but there are many others. In the end you'll still have to get one or two of them to come to your house and see what you are taking with you in order to give you a quote.

We chose White but as the move hasn't happened yet, can't comment just now on how good (or not!) they are. White will store goods for free in the UK for up to 3 months (I think, but at least one for sure), this was a deciding factor for us vs GB Liners.

For packing for the plane journey - most airlines allow you to take extra luggage and you can often book and pay for this extra allowance online. I'd look at Air Transat's website on the subject and see what they offer. Some removal companies also include as part of their service one or two boxes to be fedex'ed over, allowing you to have some of your essential stuff that you can't take on the plane, arrive very fast.

Good luck

Miss Clinique

Seriously?

Shipping companies are a business, why would they do anything for free? they may give you reduced rate, or some free time, but to offer up to a month in the busiest months of the year.

Ask the shipping company you use, which vessel your goods are sailing on, and its schedule. They should also be able to give you an estimated time of when you can realisticaly expect your goods. Ask them who the recieving agent is and contact them, they should contact you first, but it doesnt hurt to get on to them, establish a rapport with them, and they will do everything they can to get your goods to you ASAP. A good point to remember is delivery is in the hands of the recieving agent, not the people you use in the UK. If you want your goods to be there more or less as you arrive, I would consider shipping them early, rather than put them into storeage in the UK, you may face storeage costs in Canada, you may not, in the summer months movement of containers slows down simply because of volume, this can add 7-10 days.

vash2009

Thank you very much for that useful info, very conscise and to the point. I will definitely do some reading on the other threads.

TheThornes

OK, I know it was over three years ago that we used them but it's a thumbs up from us re White & Co. They packed up our contents in the September when we sold our house and offered a month's free storage (we weren't ready to move over at that stage). As it happened, it was two months before we moved over and they never did charge us anything for storage.

We were lucky in that transit time for our container was one of the fastest I've heard of; UK to Calgary in 11 days! Trouble was we didn't have a house straight away here so it had to go into storage in Calgary for about a month. I forget the name of the company that handled it this end (they were obviously contracted by Whites) but, to be fair, they were great too and we didn't get charged for storage this end either!!

Regarding luggage; we were a family of 4 and we all had a great big suitcase each plus a small trolley case each for hand luggage. They were just OK to be classed as hand luggage; anything bigger and they would not. Its surprising just what you can fit in when you have to!

Best of luck with the move.

vash2009

Called White and co and they will send someone over to collect the boxes which we will pay for and they will store the boxes for I think £5 a week here in the UK.
Still have to chat withthem about the receiving agent .

themcardles

Hi, our container leaves for Vernon BC on tuesday 5th June with brittania,
goods been in storage with them for 4 weeks at no charge, yes no charge.

We are led to beleive our goods should be with us 5th of July.

Regards Paul

vash2009

Has anyone used airfreight for goods?

Former Lancastrian

Millionaires

umpalumpa

We used White&co, get them to pack everything customs prefer it when its been professionally packed our container went from Bournemouth to Bristol
then to Montreal and then to Ottawa which took around 6 weeks, we could also track the ship as it made its journey which was cool

vash2009

umpalumpa- when you say customs prefer professional packing, do you refer to the bulky items like furniture, paitings etc?

umpalumpa

No, sorry to clarify - its to do with Customs and their perceived preference that if you have used a bona-fide removals company who have itemised and packed your stuff, they will have informed you of the things that you should not be bringing into the country. eg. alcohol, liquids, seeds, dried plants...and the list goes on....

If you chose to pack your things yourself and list the contents of each box, you may get a grumpy customs person who insists on spot checking your consignment, then if they come across things like your pine cones off your christmas tree, they start getting funny confiscating/fining you.

That said, when we were undergoing this process, we read some threads on here and the possibility of it "maybe" happening, made me want to go down the route of getting everything packed professionally so we didn't come up on the radar. (not that we did anything wrong anyway!)

It was just our choice That said, when I saw the container when it got here, I was glad everything was export wrapped, the boat had obviously gone through choppy waters - the stuff inside was all over the place!

Hope this clarifies.

Former Lancastrian

Maybe the CBSA officers get grumpy because people dont research what they can and cannot bring
They just throw a bunch of crap into a container and then get pissy when CBSA decides to examine it on behalf of OTHER Govt agencies such as CFIA etc and we start finding stuff that shouldnt have been shipped or items were not cleaned (garden tools still with soil attached) etc etc.
Did you know Jagermeister is not alcohol but apparently a cough medicine?
Well according to German families it is but Im sure Ive seen it on sale in Liquor stores.
Most of the info can be found on the main CBSA public website
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publicati.../pubs-eng.html
Having examined several hundred containers in my career and the things I have come across then you will excuse me for my comments on this subject Nothing personal just pointing it out to others that may read this thread and are getting ready to ship goods.

umpalumpa

Sound comments

Souvy

Our last move was inside Canada. It was a military posting and the military paid for it. The packers had strict rules about what they were allowed and not allowed to pack and ship. Some things they could not pack.

The movers were coming the next day. The packers left us some empty boxes and tape "just in case they'd missed a few things"

They got tipped, obviously.