jeyfus

Does anyone know if £6,500 is a good price for a twenty foot container going from London to New York?

It seems too high to me..

Also any meetups that you guys do in NYC?

Pulaski

Seems high to me too, about three times what we paid almost 12 years ago. It might depend how much work is required to pack your stuff, so lots of china and glassware might bump up the cost, but £6,500 sounds steep to me. .... Maybe they're busy at that time and would have to bring in extra labour? - It is common practice to give a high bid for "inconvenient" business, rather than decline the business outright.

kirstyp

Hi,

There are so many factors that go into the cost of a move that it is impossible to tell based on container size alone (this thread explains a bit more http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=782460 ) - so depends on what factors make up your individual move - services you're having, access to properties, special items you may have etc etc.

Have you got any other quotes yet to compare that against? best method is to get 3 quotes so you can make sure they are all in a similar ball park and that one hasn't misunderstood something or forgotten to include something.

Hope that helps?

ottotheboar

That sounds very high I was just quoted $2300 for a 20 from Italy.
I would have thought around $2000 ocean freight. About 450 UK pounds from your point of loading to the docks in the UK. Port handling around $450 in the USA plus delivery to your USA location which is based on miles. Customs charges should be minimal.
Ask for a breakdown of charges and the ability to track the container. If they will not give you that info walk away.
There is no packing or unloading in the above numbers we do our own that is basic rate.

jeyfus

Thanks both that's very helpful, I'll get some more quotes and check out that thread!

ottotheboar

I was just talking to my agent in Norfolk VA and he said rates were similar both ways. If you put 10% on the figures below you should be close.
We are 120 miles from Norfolk VA.
Export docs $100
Bill of Lading $100
Dillwyn VA to UK port $2023
UK Port handling 150 UK pounds
Trucking from port to West Midlands 495 UK pounds.
That was quoted last week

GeoffM

IIRC we were quoted about £4500 for a 20ft container to LA.

CA-NY

We came over in October and paid £5106 for sole use of a 20 foot from Rosyth (Scotland) - New York with Crown Relocations. Breakdown as follows:

£4351 shipping door to door (2 days / 3 men to pack up house and load container in UK, 1 day / 3 men to unpack in US)
3.1% marine insurance £712.69 (declared value of shipment £23k)
6% insurance premium tax (on above insurance) £42.76

Hope that helps.

ottotheboar

The rate I quoted was for a container only we load and unload.

CA-NY

How does insurance work if you pack everything yourself? We were told that we could only get insurance if the removal company packed and loaded everything. Us packing items, especially breakables, was a no-no. We were allowed to pack some soft items e.g. clothing.

Bink

This is what I understood too, I wasn't allowed to pack my own items due to the insurance. In reality I had packed all the boxes myself, then unpacked them but left them in neat box sized piles!

Bob

Is this door to door service?

You say NYC, so if they've got to unload the container from the dock, good chance a large truck can't go through the city to deliver it either to your address or storage place, so they'd need a smaller truck and people to unload and reload and do numerous trips, which might bump the cost.

But hard to say.

ottotheboar

We are commercial and do not ship household effects,and pay 1% of the declared value insurance which is opitional.

lansbury

In that case get some more quotes. That seems very high with you having to do all the work.

ottotheboar

We have been doing it for the last 18 years and the rates we get are competitive. We load and unload with a fork lift and do the drive ins from a loading dock.