lunarose

Hi

We plan to sell pretty much everything in the UK before we move back to the UK. We will be staying with family when we first move and really want a fresh start.

Can anyone give advice on costs and shipping companies to use/avoid? Budget will be limited.

Many thanks

Pulaski

You mean back to the US, right? (Based on you other posts regarding US visas.)

I just picked a few names of freight forwarders out of Yellow Pages and asked for quotes. We used Allfreight International, that cover London and the SE for close to a 20ft container in 2001 that was shipped as a part container (had stuff from several other people in with ours).

I shipped a smaller amount of stuff after my father died and phoned freight forwarders covering Gloucester for quotes. I picked one and they came and picked up a couple of trunks and a tool box.

ian-mstm

Perhaps you'll have better luck posting this in the general USA forum... because shipping, believe it or not, isn't actually an immigration issue!

Ian

steveq

When and where are you going ? We're moving another 40 footer here with a workshop and personal stuff in it in the next month or so. There's going to be a bit of room in it.

Steve

lunarose

We won't be going before the end of the year, we are at the beginning of our DCF application, when we do go it will be to Bay Area, CA.

steveq

Sorry, can't help then.

kirstyp

Hi Lunarose,
this e-book guides you through the process of finding and choosing a reputatble shipping company from where to look to how to compare them etc. Hope it helps!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/overs...ompany-851592/

davejenk477

Hi, we shipped about 50-55 cubic feet over to New York in November and paid just over £500. It took about 2.5 months to arrive and was a part container load. This was through Pickfords and they were excellent from start to finish!

steveq

We shipped 1280 cu. ft. for £1500 and kept the container. Took 2 weeks.

lunarose

Who did you use?

steveq

We shipped it with a company called Future Forwarding, but my wife did most all the packing herself, after me and my sons packed the furniture items, and for technical reasons it was cheaper to buy our own container than rent one. That, and we were so pissed off with the removal people we said we can do it all ourselves. We were quoted around 5 grand IIRC.

If you PM me, I can name names and give you some more help if you like. Our container was moved on a ship that loops from Philadelphia, to Antwerp, to Bootle, and back, every two weeks. It has a sister ship, so transit times are only two weeks. We live in Pa., so the journey from the dock to here was simple. To get to Ca. they might ship through the Panama, or move it by rail.

Steve

Pulaski

Bear in mind that some (many) shipping companies/ship owners won't take privately owned containers.

steveq

The issue is insurance. We had a marine policy specially.

Pulaski

The reason many ship owners won't take privately owned containers is the risk of something like this happening.

In other words, containers need regular inspections, maintenance, and repairs, and having a container fail during loading or unloading is a right royal PITA when the port is expecting to load/unload thousands of containers a day. The simple solution is to only allowed containers leased from a major container owner.

steveq

We bought ours with a certificate of sea worthiness. I don't know who issued it.