Dougster75

Hi all,

We're still in the planning stages and part of negotiations with work are the shipping costs for our stuff. Awaiting one quote for the sole use for shipping a 20ft (1000cu.ft) container to Houston. Does anyone have any idea what would be a reasonable price and any ideas for doing it cheaper? An ex-colleague of mine paid £10k for a container to Dallas but that would be way too steep for us even if work are paying (probably more than the cost of the furniture).

The firm we are talking to first say that it is unlikely we would find someone to share a container with and in any event, we apparently have more than half a container even if we take out the "maybe" items.

Would appreciate the insight of anyone else's experiences.

Thanks,

Doug.

mayhemuk

Who did you get a quote from?
We used Allied Pickfords in the end and they were fine. Part of a consolidated load so sharing a container with several others I imagine.]
This can sometimes add a delay while they wait to fill the container but end to end I think our stuff was 6-7 weeks.
200 cube feet was about £1400 including insurance packing and unpack and take away debris (very helpful that bit)

Some other things to bear in mind.....
On arrival 'our' container was pulled for inspection by Agriculture ($400 charge) and was subject to an spray of some sort (further $400). It was never really clear to me how much of a proportion of that charge we paid so that is a question for your shipper when you get the quotes aswell (And make sure your company will pick up the tab if you're pulled)

Also check the shipper will store your stuff easily if you're not ready for it at the other end. Ours did and continued the insurance until they delivered it. Was cheaper than arranging our own storage and then having to recieve unload then move it again!

Good luck!

SunnyMeadow

It is my belief that ALL shipments are so-called "pulled and inspected", just to raise the revenue - but no actual inspections usually take place, they just tell you they did it.

It cost us £5K to move our stuff including insurance, but we would never use the company we went with as they turned out to be a shambles.

chartreuse

Would you care to let us know who they were, please?

SunnyMeadow

a "company" called EuroUSA, aka The Eurogroup, aka SafePac (must be a joke name - ).

They claim to handle all US military moves from/to UK and US embassy staff in the UK.

SallyCinnamon

I just used Britannia Movers. £1500 but I didn't have a lot of stuff and it's travelling in a shared container.

lansbury

We used Allied Pickfords November 2006 to ship a sole use 20ft container to Portland, Oregon. With insurance if was £4200.

meauxna

I'd look for another firm.

SunnyMeadow

This is not central to your question, but I believe that Mayflower have a good reputation and we will consider them on our next move.
They must have either a UK office or an affiliation with a UK company.

The Horticulturalist

We had a sole use container, we used about 600 - 700 cuft of it, but the quote we were given with Doree Bonner (Dartford Office) was the same as Pickfords for a shared container. I think we paid about £4200 from London to MS via New Orleans in August this year. £10K seems very steep, are you sure it wasn't $10k?

If I'm understanding you correctly the moving firm you are talking to seem to be implying that it's your responsibility to find someone to share the container with?
That's not normally the way it works, the firm put together the shared containers. You don't have to have exactly half a container either, if you have 700cuft then they put that together with someone with a 300cuft load or less. If they can't manage that then I'd talk to another firm.

It's also worth getting several quotes, the DB man was able to match the Pickfords quote and give us the sole use container. You need to shop around!

Dougster75

Thanks for replies. The current quote we are getting is from Anglo-Pacific. It helps to have an idea of what other people paid. Will post when we get the quote through tomorrow!

Yes the price to former boss was £10k for container or £8k for half a container. Sounds like this was very high but I'm pretty sure he didn't shop around...

Cheers,

Doug.

anotherlimey

I see you got fleeced; I wish there was some honesty in the industry.

anotherlimey

The importer (the agent) adds these charges for extra revenue, Customs don't give two honks about your container.

anotherlimey

The economy is in the toilet so no one is shipping anything and there's a glut of spare capacity on container ships.

CarrotCruncher

I moved a full 20ft container from the UK in 2007. I paid £4721, and was pretty happy with that. Had to have insurance on top of that too, but that included the door to door, loading and unloading. What it didn't include were the VACIS examination fee, ( lucky enough to be 'chosen') which was about $500 maybe a little more and a $6 broker fee. I used a company called 1st Move International. Their website is www.shipit.co.uk . Everything arrived safe and I was happy with the service.