pomomp

Hi,

I'm considering shipping a few items over as cargo rather than buying it again in the UAE. However I have no idea what I need, what size of container is best, and ballpark figures... I do get an allowance to ship stuff over.

I'm mainly wanting to cargo over things like clothes, shoes, iron, paintings and other smallish things. I will be buying sofas/furniture over there.

Any advice? Any recommended companies etc?

Thanks

Brains1983

pomomp

lol, an iron. to iron clothes. My wife has this self proclaimed awesome iron that she cant find anywhere else and wants to take it across

Millhouse

The iron will be wasted on the maid.

I used a 20ft container and it took the whole contents of a 3 bed house. It cost around 2000 at the time, although this was at the peak of the depression when empty containers were being sent to the UAE. Probably about 4000 now.

You need to consider this carefully... The contents of the container was valued at around 12k (by me) for insurance purposes. 4k is a lot of shipping for 12k's worth of stuff (especially as you may well ship it back at the cost of 4k later).

pomomp

Thats the thing, I dont need a huge container... Im just looking for a way to transport some of the things across... Is it possible to get smaller containers or buy a space in a container or something?

And we werent even considering a maid... lol

Millhouse

you can share a container... speak to a shipping company and see what they can do.

csdf

If you share, you have to wait until it's full before they'll ship it...and you won't have much control on how long that takes.

Brains1983

Depends on how much of it you want to do yourself. if your willing to put everything into boxes, and then have them shrink wrapped to pallets and delivered to a co-loaders warehouse at an export port, and take care of your export customs, you can get 1,000 kg // 4 CBM from Manchester to Jebel Ali for around 60 GBP. It'll cost you about 3 times that in local charges after it arrives in Jebel Ali, but even then that's a lot of stuff across for 400 USD as long as you are willing to do some of the work at both ends. Providing you make it clear to the co-loaders that the items are export packed / professionally packed then it doesn't need to cost a fortune. Of course if you want people to do the documentation, the packing, the clearance, the collection/delivery, then the price starts to go up.

kirstyp

You can get part load services, either groupage where you share a container with other customers of your shipping company OR a LCL (less than container load) service where your goods are put into a crate and sent via a consolidator. Groupage is typically slower than LCL and some companies don't offer it to all destinations, but either way you certainly don't need to fill a container.

Check out this thread for some tips on finding shipping companies and getting quotes. http://britishexpats.com/forum/overs...ompany-800081/

Hope it helps!

spiritofistanbul

I used a company called Angloshipping.

Same as you, I only wanted to ship certain personal items across - and in total I had about 15 large cartons, and a golf bag. Total quote was around 650 GBP and then 150 or so for insurance.

They seemed quite good, although I am still awaiting for my shipping to arrive in Dubai as I only shipped the items 4 weeks ago. But they came to my house in the UK, packed any items which I hadn't done and then loaded it into the van. They will then unload the items at my door here in Dubai.

They seemed to be one of the cheapest when I was getting quotes. But I didn't only go on price, I felt their customer service when I was dealing with them was quite good. The other company I nearly went with was crown relocations - they were very professional and had good reviews - but their quote was almost double and given I wasn't shipping any real valuable items I went for the cheaper option (I hope I don't regret it now though) I expect delivery of my items at the end of the month!

pomomp

Thanks for the replies!

As I suspected it seems like I'll be waiting months...

I'll get in touch with those companies. My only issue is that I won't have an address for a couple of weeks when I'm actually over there. Maybe I can have my stuff delivered to the school I'm going to be working at.

kirstyp

The shipping company may also be able to provide storage for you locally short term?

spiritofistanbul

FYI - I didn't have an address too - but I just notified them of my address whilst the goods were in transit.

One thing you will need however is your residency visa or work permit.

pomomp

I have my work permit. I've contacted a friend who runs a travel agency, he does shipping as well.

He's said that he can send stuff over for me in suitcases for £3.50 per kg and can take up to 2 weeks. Which is perfect!