Stivo

Has anyone shipped their possessions to Canada on a 'do-it-yourself' basis?

What I mean is, has anyone not used an international removals company but booked space with a freight line, done all the customs paperwork, cleared the goods through customs at both ends and all the other work that is required?

If so, what it easy? Did it take very long? What happened (good or bad)?

SimonG

In the middle of doing the reverse. With a company called AMFreight.

Nothing fancy, we got from them a 40' container, packed up and loaded it ourselves, their price included transport to the docks, loading, shipping and transport from the docks to UK address. I still have to clear the goods in the UK, but they provided me with the paperwork and the contacts to do it. Now the goods are in the UK I have to get that bit sorted before they start trying to charge me for storage.

It's maybe not quite what you where looking for, but for me it was a nice trade off between the overpriced 'we do everything', to the difficulties I could see having to deal with multiple companies and co-ordinating all of the different activities. It was a good deal with the minimum of input.

Simon.

allie2

I'm planning to DIY, but then I am planning to take very little...clothes, shoes, IT books (the ones for old software versions are irreplaceable!), photos and the odd personal thing. This is going to be very hard as I am a complete hoarder and have an attic and garage full of stuff. I figure that I can buy it all again for the same cost as shipping it, and I will have new stuff and satisfy my shopaholic woman tendencies.

BA will allow lots of excess baggage and I got a quote from a shipping company that will charge £190 for 200kg box (I asked for a rough quote)