joshywoshy

Hi All,

So I have had some excellent news, that an employer would like to make me an offer so long as my references are acceptable, and I've been asked to come up with a relocation package that would suit me and my family!!
One of the requests I will make is for shipping costs to be covered for our furniture.

Can anyone offer any advice on costs for shipping a container. What you have paid yourselves for shipping etc. How long did it take to arrive?
We live in Manchester and will be shipping to Hamilton, and will need a door to door service. A 20 footer will probably be big enough, however if the cost difference isn't huge we may go for a 40 ft instead.

Also any recommendations for shipping companies would be great!

Thanks

escapedtonz

Hi,
We shipped a 40 footer through PSS International with them doing all the packing and included a hand made pallet box for a huge glass table top and offloading in to the container 500 Metres away as there was no access for the container to our door. Took the guys 3 full days to do it all. It was a door to door service using NZ Van Lines this end who unpacked and put everything together for us - beds, furniture etc. All up it was 5000 quid. Didn't pay the extra for shipping insurance as my new employer covered the lot for free on the company insurance. That was Feb 2012. Took 12 weeks in total Preston to Wellington. Was very happy with the service. On top of these fees we had to pay around $500 this end to get around 35 boxes through MPI checks. PSS also allowed us a free airfreight package up to 100 KG's for essential stuff that we wanted quickly within 3 weeks but didn't want to have to lug it all the way here on the big bird.
I negotiated $10k for shipping, $5k for accommodation, a rental SUV for 2 weeks and NZ internal flights. The company would have paid for the international flights and all the visa costs, but we already had the visas and flights booked and paid for when I accepted the job offer so they wouldn't stump up the money for those.
With you moving to the Tron, your container is likely to arrive either Tauranga or Auckland. Tauranga is closer and will probably take a truck 2.0 to 2.5hrs to get there. Probably an hour longer from Auckland depending on the traffic - maybe more. This could have an effect on cost ?
Would highly recommend PSS.
Best advice is to get a few quotes from different companies and go with the one that feels the best. We felt PSS knew their stuff and gave us the confidence to use them.

Good luck with the move. We live in Tauranga now and I work in Hamilton.

joshywoshy

Hey,

Thanks for the info! It's very helpful. I think £5k seems to be a good budget price for now, especially as we're taking a smaller container than you. One question I have is did you have a new zealand address to deliver to at the time of paying for the shipping? We will be finding accommodation once we arrive but I assume this is pretty common.

In terms of your relocation package were you moving to a large company? i.e. a multinational corporation? I'm going to ask for visas flights, and a month's car rental and acommodation. Let's see what they say!

Thanks again

kirstyp

Hi,

Congratulations on the offer! Great also to hear your new employer is happy to consider a relocation package.

Typical relocation packages offered by multinationals include (as you mentioned) Visa, flights, temporary accommodation and shipping. Some also offer home search assistance if you will need help finding your long term property or school search services if you need help sorting places for children.

Ball park of around £5k sounds good for a 20ft container, you'd probably be looking more like £7.5k if you needed to go up to 40ft. Don't forget to allow budget for insurance (usually around 3% of the value of your goods) plus as @escapedtonz said budget for any crating of particularly fragile / valuable items you might have and the MAF biosecurity charge (approx NZ$470-520 for a 20' container, paid locally when your container arrives).

Good luck!

escapedtonz

We did have a place to stay for when we arrived but that was a fully furnished Kiwi holiday home so no chance we could have had the container delivered there. We just left the deliver address as "To be notified". We just told them we'd let them know soon after the items had arrived in NZ. We did track the container all the way here so kind of knew when that day was going to be. When we knew the container was only weeks away we went about trying to secure an unfurnished rental and when we had secured one we just emailed PSS to inform them of the delivery address.
Yes I moved to a large company. I work for Transpower NZ Ltd - New Zealand National Grid. They always have a relocation package available but wouldn't even mention it unless a potential employee brought it up at interview.
If you are coming over on the basis of a job offer then you have every right to demand full fees for visas (including them paying for an immigration agent), flights, shipping, shipping and travel insurance, temporary accommodation and temporary car rental. You should also be offered the personal guidance of a migration specialist, someone who can answer all your questions about your new destination - maybe assist you with bank accounts, mobile phones etc etc.