Hi, My family & I are due to move from the uk out to montreal around mid April & am having trouble pinning any shipping companies down to ballpark figures (ive been asking for a quote on shipping a 20ft container out to montreal, so I have the same comparission for each) They are very reluctant to do so with out actually coming to my house to view my furniture, obviously there are loads of companies out there & to get them all to come & 'view' would be extremely time consuming & a complete waste of resources (not to mention the carbon footprint since we live at the very end of the country!)
Has anyone else recently moved from the uk to canada had dealings with shipping companies? if so, how did you go about finding an appropiate company, & does anyone have any good recommendations?
Also, a couple of the companies Ive spoken to only ship to the port & then you have to arrange a removal comany to pick up & deliver to your new address, does anyone have any idea of how much removal companies charge in Montreal?
I hope theres someone out there who can help me, Im starting to get increasingly anxious about all the things I have to organise & dont seem to be actually getting anywhere!
Thank you

Hi
I have recently gone through the process of having several International Removal Companies pay me a visit to conduct a survey. I am moving a 40' container which is about 2000+ cubic feet of household furniture and goods. Are you sure that you need a 20'? Is this by your reckoning, or have you had someone round to assess volume?

When you say shipping company...are you trying to DIY? It may work out more expensive, will certainly be more time consuming and stressful. We looked at all the 'Big players and they all agreed on volume, but the prices were so greatly differing that I have opted for The Moving Partnership. It is a company which will liase with a local Removal company in your area and arrange shipping and a removal fime to unload at the other end. As they have no affiliations to certain shipping companies, they can search the whole market for the best rates. They use only top removers who are all Bar, Bar Overseas and FIDI and Faim accredited, so there is some reassurance offered by that.

I have opted for the full export packing and the unpacking service and they still managed to come in £2k cheaper than their nearest rivals and were prepared to trim their already keen rate to gain my business. I know the company they will send to pack this end and their representative has been out to do a survey.

Here is the e-mail of Tracy...see what she can offer, tell her that I recommended you....she will be pleased to hear from you. I am sure she will be able to find a good company in your nect of the woods:
[email protected]
Good luck
Stef

I arranged our 20 foot container DIY with Don @ Centenary Shipping 01274 851805 (mention Jason)

Here's how it went;

• We packed the house into boxes and made a list for Don
• Don organised the collection
• We had 3 hours to fill the container
• Container left for Liverpool 13/03
• Container due in to Halifax on Monday 21/03
• I search the Yellow Pages yell.ca for customs clearance and found Livingstons in Halifax, who arrange the customs clearance and forward freight to drop off the container at our house in Halifax
• Livingston issue the arrival notice which I will present to a customs officer (along with a detailed list of items in the container & photo ID (Passport preferably) & the reason the goods are entering Canada
• Customs then stamp release the documents
• I return them to Livingstons and they arrange for delivery
• Truck dropping off at our house on Friday 26/03 and collect empty on Monday - I have to pay for 2 days in the port as we only got 3 days free.

Organising the customs clearance and freight in Canada was easy, just fire off a few quotation request emails and see what you get back.

It may be slightly different for you, because we are based in the port (Halifax)

Hope that helps

We shipped our things with EVL on March 9th..not sure when it lands in Ont, it was 20 ft container and from Essex -Toronto we got it for 3200 quid..ins not inc however
We packed all the small things, and they did the big bits
So far we are quite happy, it is door to door....but I still need to go to TO when it comes in and see customs myself..they will let me know when and where..

Hi. We used White & Co (based in Bournemouth) to move all our stuff from Surrey to Calgary 16 months ago. At the time, they were one of the cheapest quotes (GBP3,900) we got and we found them very efficient; no problems whatsoever. We had a 20' container that we completely filled. We had 2 guys come to the house who spent 2 days packing everything, including wrapping furniture and dismantling where necessary. Their quote also included a month's free storage in the UK. Our goods were delivered to our new house in Canada the day after we took possession and they unwrapped stuff and assembled furniture for us etc. They just left us the boxes of bits and pieces to unpack and sort out ourselves. They even disposed off all packing materials for us too.

We used simpsons last year for the same price and service. Email them for a quote. say Dave recommended them he will give you a good price. [email protected]

Hi All,

Thank you to everyone who reply to my post, you've already helped & Ive started following up on all the leads that you gave to me. Most of the companies mentioned above didnt show up on my search engine! Hopefully I will be able to get the shipping situation all wrapped up shortly & ticked off my VERY long list

I also feel reassured by you all, I was begining to feel beaten with all the brick walls that I was hitting!

Cant wait to get there!

We left rural Highlands of Scotland in December 09. We had a rough idea for prices for a 20ft container to Halifax from this forum but expected to have to pay the upper end of that because we were so far from anywhere in mainland UK. We asked White & Co to come and do a quote because they had an office reasonably near us (i.e. within 100miles) - I couldn't see anyone else even wanting to quote but didn't try it. The quote Whites came back with was half what we were expecting so we just accepted it - maybe naive but there comes a point where there is so much to do with moving that you don't care quite so much. They were excellent - our belongings left our home on Dec 21st (they were delighted to get work that week, I can tell you!) and arrived in Halifax at the end of January. Nothing was damaged - they even packed a ballooon still inflated from my youngest son's birthday in October (obviously I didn't mean that to be packed) and it arrived in one piece - amazing. They use a local company to deal with the shipment once it arrives in Halifax and brought it to the house no problem.