nichburton

Has anyone got a recommendation for a company to ship a small load from the London area (Watford to be precise) to Vancouver? No furniture, just several boxes of crockery, books and misc items, so I not sure a part-container will be necessary.

Speed of delivery is not an issue, in fact we might have to store some of it for a month or 2 before we get it sent so that we can collate some other items into the shipment.

I think I've seen an air freight parcel service in the past but can't remember its name, any ideas?

edwinslad

I'm in the same boat. I have been trying to ship a machine part from Wales to Nova Scotia. It is boxed and measures 43cm X 37cm x 33cm and weighs 51kg. I paid 70GBP for it but the best cost for shipping I can come up with is 530GBP! I've tried to get a shipping company to put it in as a part container load but they tell me the cost would be the same as if I were to ship it air freight.
Any Ideas.

Rich_London

Wish i could be of help but in the same crowded boat here too! We're in London and going to Vancouver in March but all we have in london is a small flat and what we want to take would fit in a couple of boxes....

Siouxie

Air Transat Cargo is one of the cheapest.

Flyingscottie

Me too, me too!

I've tried Air Transit Cargo's web page but it is constantly being 'updated'. How do you get a quote from them?

Cheers

Siouxie

My son paid £150 for 138 kilo's. He called them and arranged in it advance, took it to the airport early in the morning then caught the same flight at lunchtime. He then waited 2 hours to collect it at Toronto. Their prices go down the more you are shipping and you do not have to be flying with them.

http://www.airtransatcargo.com/en


Freight Marketing Services
Unit 7, 80 High Street
Egham, Surrey
TW20 9HE

Tel: 011-44-1784-431-831/431-123
Fax : 011-44-1784-477945

[email protected]

The website appears to be working now..

Flyingscottie

It's fixed! Awesome.

Thanks Siouxie. If anyone else has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Cheers

Siouxie

The other factor to consider is using Air Cargo the insurance is 1% of value, instead of the 4-5% charged when shipping by boat.

Had we realised at the time, my son could have saved around £900 by sending all of his goods by air instead of the majority by sea!

edwinslad

I thought I'd provide and update. I emailed the website for a quote. I got a quick and courteous response. The price was 288 pounds compared to previous quotes of around 450, so I went with them.
They picked the box up when they said they would and told me it would arrive at Halifax last Saturday (snow delay at Gatwick).
I phoned Halifax on Monday and it's been Lost!
I emailed the the Air Transat agent and he told me that Air Canada were to fly it from Toronto to Halifax and they lost it. He was very apologetic and courteous and I actually believe him, it does seem typical Air Canada!
I expect it will turn up eventually.
They haven't billed me yet which I find unusual.
I'll keep you posted.
Eric.

Chookie

When we came over nearly 5 years ago, we brought 10 boxes with us... shared a container as that was the cheapest method. But it did take an age to get to us - nearly 6 months because we had to wait for the container to be filled before it was shipped.

nichburton

Update on my progress so far.

Air Transat cargo: Didn't reply to my email, so I called the Egham number above. They currently only offer cargo service to Toronto; Vancouver flights have stopped now for the winter, to resume again in March/April.

I googled and found websites for Air Canada cargo & British Airways cargo. The Air Canada cargo site had more information, including a pricing document:
http://www.aircanada.com/cargo/share...tes/pr1_uk.pdf

However, best of all so far (in theory!) is http://www.excess-baggage.com. They offer a much more complete service, including delivery & collection of boxes & packing material (free within M25, small charge outside M25) and they happily quoted for both sea & air options. Rates were better than AC Cargo too.

London to Vancouver, they quoted:

• Sea, 5 large boxes, up to 175kg total, 8-12 weeks = £320
• Air, 5 large boxes, up to 108kg, 1-2 weeks = £387.

(Sea shipments are priced by volume. Air shipments priced by weight or volumetric weight, whichever is the greater. 108kg is the volumetric weight for 5 large boxes).

I'll update this post once I've tried them out!

minimeeze

We used Migrate Global to ship over about 35 boxes from Hampshire UK to Vancouver. We had no problems with them and would happily recommend them. Their website lets you do an instant quote. They provided all boxes and packing materials too.

Siouxie

Thomas Cook fly to Vancouver instead of AirTransat during the winter - they also offer Cargo services.

http://www.thomascookairlines.co.uk/cargo-services