Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

Hi everyone,

I know there's a few other threads not his but nothing too recent. I'm hoping there's someone on here who has/or is doing a similar move.

I've just had a couple of quotes for shipping our worldly goods door to door using a 20' container from Jersey to Christchurch. We have got quotes from Pickfords and White & Co.( who use NZ van lines) and there was quite a vast difference in cost with Pickfords coming out cheapest.

What are people's experiences with these companies? There's even a difference in the standard rate for insurance 2.5% vs. 3%.

We are somewhat limited to choice over here and friends of ours did not have a good experience with Phillips.

Cheers
JerseyMatt

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

We've had various quotes from Crown, Pickfords, robinsons and PSS. Ranging from 5 to 7.5k. For a 40ft container including car. We haven't sat down to compare them yet but I think Pickfords is the cheapest.

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

We went with PSS, other people might have had different experiences but for us they were excellent through the whole process, with a slight smudge against their name for not explaining properly that they would clean my bike to spec, thus charging me for the pleasure.

The only reason this was a problem was because I painstakingly cleaned the thing myself with Jeyes Fluid. I wouldn't have wasted the time otherwise.

Everything arrived in good order and they were efficent. As were the people at this end (NZ Moves - I think).

We also enquired with Anglo-Pacific and Pickfords.

The former were cheaper, but their overall package not as attractive. Pickfords price was just nonsense.

In fact, on the day we moved out, the landlord of our local, due to move to Cyprus later on in the year had decided but not done the deal to move his stuff with Pickfords.

After seeing a fleet of PSS vehicles in our street he got a quote from them there and then. They did the job for half the price!!

Anyway, we got our stuff in August and to date we haven't notice that anything is missing or damaged.


Just seek out your options and take your time. Think about how much you value your time too. PSS packed our stuff for us, which was awesome - they were way more efficient than we could ever have been. You might get a cheaper quote without this service but I felt it represented fantastic value.


As for costs themselves, depending what you're shipping and how much of it you want to insure ... ?

We didn't have a huge amount of stuff and weren't shipping much high value stuff either and got a shared container for just over 2 GBP including the insurance.

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

We went down almost an identical path as TommyLuck and ended up with PSS/NZ Van Lines and excellent services and advice, though for marine shipping insurance we went with http://www.lettonpercival.co.uk/ as other peeps on here will confirm. ;)

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

We also went with PSS and NZ Van Lines this end for a 40' container without any vehicles in it from UK to Wellington.
We did get other quotes from Pickfords, Anglo Pacific etc but PSS was the best overall package for us.
Cost was GBP 5k for door to door including an airfreight package of 100KG's. Took 12 weeks total to arrive for the main container. Airfreight took about 3 weeks in total until we could go pick up from the secure warehouse.
Only other costs was for MAF who wanted to inspect 35 of our shipping container boxes after they had been delivered to the property. This cost a further $440, then they sent a 2 man tent away to be washed clean which cost another $70.
All in all I would recommend PSS. They were fantastic.
Insurance wise, we were going to use Letton Percival as they were half the cost of PSS's chosen shipper's insurance, but in the end my new company in NZ covered the lot for free as part of my relocation package :-)

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

Are you writing that it MAF charged you $440 to inspect 35 boxes of your container?

I think it is high time the MAF charges were nailed down.

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

Check carefully what's included in the quote. We went with Pickfords as it's the same company here unlike PSS who outsource at NZ end. They matched Letton Percival's insurance quote and we didn't pay any extra for the MAF inspection or delivery to the Kapiti coast which others paid as it's about 50km from the port. Friends who used PSS had no problems but had to pay extra for their stuff to be inspected or delivered to their homes as above.

Our boat was here in 8 weeks, but I think that's down to luck rather than company. Great fun tracking it round the world!

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

Yes, I can echo MOSO's point -we went for the cheapest quote then found out it didn't include anything at the NZ end, so we had to pay for the stuff to be lifted off the ship and then to sit on the wharf, and then to be transported to our house. It added up to about the same as the more expensive all-in quote, but it would have been easier to pay for it all upfront in the UK rather than try to deal with here. It seems you pretty much get what you pay for!
On the positive side, all our stuff arrived safely, apart from a couple of kids bookcases which looked like they had stood in a couple of inches of water at some point. And we were certainly glad we shipped it, even if we are now in the process of selling it all before our next move!

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

We used Anglo pacific door to door and had no problems at all.

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

Did Anglo pacific require payment before shipping or upon arrival?

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

Thanks for the feedback, I've had a brief look over the quotes and they appear to be the same although White & co specified a total cubic footage. Pickfords are cheaper and the same company all the way through. Definitely going to look at Letton Percival for insurance when I've got round to doing a valuation.

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

We used John Mason. They price matched with the other two quotes we had. :thumbsup:
Also price matched Letton Percival for insurance too. :thumbsup:
They use The Moving People at this end. Couldn't fault their service at either end. :thumbsup:
Would recommend them without hesitation.

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

We used copsey (Romford) and they did excellent packing. Just over 5K. 4 bed house. No wardrobes but all other furniture. 40ft container including car and insurance 3%. Due to arrive in March. So will keep posting on progress. They use NZ van lines this end and includes unpack.

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

:D Hi. We used Pickfords. Had nothing extra to pay. Very professional. Had to claim on the insurance and had no problems being paid out to. Took our their standard insurance. :)

Re: Cost of (and experiences) shipping UK to NZ.
 

Hi, we've just had quotes from PSS, Pickfords, Atlantic Pacific and Crown for a 40ft container no car. All quotes are between £6-6.5k excluding insurance. Will probably go to Letton Percival's for that, although Crown is only 2%.

Crown are my preferred as they were more knowledgeable on the MAF side of things (have a lot of wooden items and skins from Africa). Expensive business, might try and ditch some items and squeeze into a 20ft if we can....