Hi, sorry just thought of another question, can anyone recommend a good (and cheap) firm for shipping about 6 boxes of stuff and a few pictures not even close to half a container - not even a quarter, but just stuff we do not want to leave behind. Many thanks

Hi

Dont go down the ship route for a small quantity. You can do it via air with courier companies. Try "Transglobal Express" as they are very competitive and can offer a better rate than going direct to UPS, DHL etc.

We paid £250 ish for 8 pieces at a combined weight of around 100kg to Canada via Transglobal Express....it was about 10 days from shipping until I cleared it through customs.....it would have been quicker had it been brought into Ottawa rather than Toronto but still quicker than ship.

If you are flying on Air Transat they will take cargo on the same flight....not sure about other airlines. Air Transat Cargo costs less than excess baggage per kg.

JB

will check that out, many thanks

we were just thinking the same question so thanks for the answer x

Most airlines will ship cargo from airport-to-airport as said above, so it depends if the airports are convenient for you. You'll have to drop the boxes at the airport in the UK and collect from the Canadian airport.

Personally, I've just used http://www.excess-baggage.com/. We shipped 4 large tea cartons of household & kitchen goods (140kg) for 270GBP from London to Vancouver by sea on a door-to-door service. (Insurance is optional, and costs 5% of your estimated goods value). They initially quoted 8-12 weeks, but it looks like it will be closer to 6 weeks. Their service has been very good so far, good communication and easy to deal with.

They also send by air. Their quote was about 70GBP more for 4 boxes but with less weight (max 100kg), estimated 1-2 weeks delivery time to the Canadian airport.

I've just delivered 7 boxes to Airtransat cargo, they will put it onto our flight on Monday and it will be ready for collection 3 hours after we land. Paid around £250 for 150kg in total so it's pretty cheap...good luck

The only reason we didn't use them was that we landed on Friday afternoon in Toronto and would did not have enough time to clear the customs paperwork before CSBA knocked off for the weekend.

Just so others who might read this, the process is:

Land then clear immigration and customs where you declare good to follow (which your cargo is) list which will be stamped
Go to Airline's cargo office and get import paperwork (airway bill)
Go to Canadian Customs Office and present airway bill + stamped goods to follow list....they will stamp airway bill
Take stamped airway bill back to Airline's Cargo Office who can now release the boxes.


JB

Thanks for all the info everyone )

Thanks for that JB