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Shipping questions


Lou8670

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Hi all

 

I know there are lots of posts on here asking about shipping but I can't always find the answers to the questions I've got; and I have lots!

 

So to start...

 

Has anyone had quotes from Phillips, Pickfords or Whites recently and what sort of quote did you have for a 20ft and 40ft container?

 

We are thinking of taking our car. Our belongings will fit into a 40ft container with the car. Has anyone done this and what would you recommend? I think the shippers only quote for shipping and don't include gst, customs duties etc. Did anyone else find this was the case and did you do the customs forms yourselves or did someone sort this for you?

 

Is storage costly in WA? Can anyone recommend storage companies?

 

How long did your container take to get to Oz?

 

What do we need to exclude from our shipment? I have some sentimental cork placemats from a local pottery and some wicker items. I've been advised not to bother taking the wicker but I'm not sure about the cork placemats. I've thought it might be easier to put them in my hand luggage and declare them on entering Australia. Is there anything else we should be careful about? We were going to take our Christmas tree but just found it has pine cones on it and they look real :eek:

 

Any advise welcome.

 

Cheers

Lou

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Hi my info is a bit old, but here goes

 

1) We used Pickfords to move our household items. We didnt take a car. They came and worked out how many m3 of space was required, and quoted based on that. They are so large that they don't quote containers, as they have multiple customers going in the same direction, so they fill containers with multiple customers. Total was around $5K for around 20m3.

 

2) WE filled in an inventory list on which basis Customs generated an invoice. Essentially if things are less than 12 months old, then you may be subject to Tax. So be careful / honest about it. As we didnt ship a car, I cant help on that one. We had to then pay customs directly before the goods were released to pickfords.

 

Our goods were packed up mid July in the UK and were shipped striaght away. We had the good unloaded at our rental mid october, so around 8 weeks from start to finish. Pickfords held onto the goods and didnt charge us, but not sure how long before they charged us. AS we moved into an unfurnished rental, then we were really keen to get the stuff as quickly as possible anyway.

 

3) As pickfords packed as well (part of their guarentee for insurance purposes, then they only packed what they know was legal. The only thing they wouldnt pack was wicker, and we decided not to pack any garden furniture or garden tools. Anything that could be an issue (bikes / tools, anything that could have soil etc on it) was cleaned with Jeyes fluid and then a high pressure washer. Those items were removed by customs in Aus and checked. We also got caught with pine cones in our Chrsitmas decorations, and got charged $150 to have the box treated.

 

 

Overall they handled most things and was a really great service, not the cheapest but good. Only one thing got broken in the move, which was good.

 

Hope that helps, I"m sure others will also comment.

 

Nick

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Hi,

We also went with Pickfords, had a 20ft container and it was about 3.5k I think (then insurance on top), the estimate for a 40ft was not quite double so about 5/ 5.5k I think. we didnt take the car, they came and quoted based on the stuff we said that we wanted to take and gave us m3 volume and told us what we would fit into etc. For us they actually came back the cheapest and we felt the most comfortable with them.

 

They sent us all the forms that we needed to complete for customs, our container isnt here yet so I cant tell you how successful that was! They gave advice on what not to pack before the packers came, but they packers literally packed everything that wasnt bolted down and paid no attention to what was not allowed, so I personally wouldnt rely on that! The list of things not to pack went along the lines of food, alcohol (unless you want to pay the import tax on it), natural untreated wood, shells, we were told to pay attention to christmas decs as this is a place that they will look as people often have pine cones etc. Anything that has been into contact with soil needs to be carefully disinfected and cleaned - bikes, garden stuff outdoor toys, shoes etc. Again I will tell you how successful we were when it arrives! hovers are another thing that they target I believe.

 

Our experience with Pickfords to date has been OK, the UK guy that did the quote was excellent, the office staff have been fine, although we think they have given us duff information about our containers progress as they told us it was in port on the 13th Dec, the Australian lot say its not and wont be until the 27th, we were told by the UK lot that it shipped the week after it was packed (wich we expected) but the Aus lot tell us it sat for 3 weeks on the doc, who knows! The short of it is that it hasnt arrived yet so we can only assume that it did not arrive on the 13th as predicted by the UK lot and will wait to see if it turns up in port on the 27th! The thing is if the UK lot had said that it wouldnt be here until the 27th we wouldnt have batted an eyelid as we werent expecting it before Christmas anyway! I will say that they have always been polite and helpful when I have called and emailed though in both the UK and Aus so I have no complaints on that front! I will let you know when it arrives and if there is much damage when it gets here! (oh it was packed at the end of October if that helps with time scales!)

 

To be honest I think all the companies are similar, some will have had great experiences with them, others not so go, you have to go with what you feel comfortable with! good luck with making a choice and getting it sorted!

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We used Whites and cannot fault them. The lady there (Jane) was absolutely fantastic and handled all of the paperwork for us. The three removers who packed the container for us were also excellent. This end, we had Kents. We had heard mixed reports about them, but again, the removers were excellent. We will use them when we move into our new property.

 

We had nothing checked except the Christmas tree, so my advice would be to leave it behind if it has pine cones on it, it could be costly. Re the cork mats, I would pack them, but declare it on the forms and just make it obvious where they are. I packed our wooden items in a plastic container and clearly marked it on the box and inventory as "wooden items". None of them were checked. I would not bring the wicker. We were told to be as transparent as possible on the paperwork so that they could see that you had nothing to hide and were trying to meet the requirements.

 

We paid £2850 for a 20ft container door to door. We packed all the items ourselves. A few boxes were re-packed by Whites on the day as we were a bit concerned about them. We were not charged for this. The container arrived in 6 weeks to the day and took 7 days to clear customs this end. This included unpacking this end, we did not want this as I wanted to go through the boxes myself at my pace. They did, however, unpack all the furniture and took the old packaging with them, but left us with new packaging for when we move again.

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We used PSS, 40ft container with the wife's precious Mini in one end, PSS UK side was faultless and very reasonably priced, less than Pickfords, PSS got let down here in Australia with there local agent, Van Lines, they were useless, but did clear the car which I didn't expect, we had a lot of broken and damaged stuff which turned out not to be insured, this was because your container gets unpacked for AQIS and customs, and then loaded back into a smaller container or a delivery truck, I watched stuff getting packed in th UK, it was all well wrapped & protected, when we got it a lot of stuff had been unwrapped by AQIS but not re wrapped, just chucked into the back of a truck, the insurance was a let down too, it was insured against the ship sinking or the car getting damaged, but unless you specified each item by name & a value it wasn't insured, and if you do name each item with a value it costs an arm & a leg.

 

as for your cork mats etc, I wrapped some stuff up in towels and packed them in a box and named he box towels, it wasn't opened by AQIS, they only opened up boxes that were obvious, like the Xmas tree or the Hoover, shoes is another popular one as is camping gear, make sure things like this are spotless, wash hem in Jeyes fluid and leave them so hey still stink, watch out for ornaments too, no shells, candles or dried flowers, if you do want them, pack them with your clothes.

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Thanks all. This info is really useful. We have a lot to do as we have lots of items needing cleaning like shoes, walking boots, football boots, camping equipment, beach equipment, golf clubs, go-karts! Hubbies bought some Jeyes and will make a start although I said to him not to start too soon otherwise he'll have to do it all over again!

 

Really don't know what to do about the car. We have a landrover discovery 3 top of the range 2009. I've checked and $ price is only about $42k so it'll depend on what we can get for it here.

 

Pickford were certainly seem very professional and they have storage in Perth.

 

Has anyone used their storage facilities or those of any other company they would recommend and why?

 

Also hubbie has a small collection of French wine from our trips to France which he wants to bring and is reluctant to immediately drink or give away. I know we'd have to pay duty but does anyone know how it's calculated? I couldn't tell you what we paid for the wine but it's only gone up in value. :jiggy:

 

Lou

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When you find out what your cars worth in the UK you will see why we decided to bring the Mini over, $42k to replace here in Australia works out to be a very expensive car, when you work out what you would get for it in the UK and then work in the shipping costs etc, you will see its well worth bringing.

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I did it myself, I was even prepared to clear the vehicle through customs, but as it turned out it got cleared with the furniture in the container, once you have your import permit, you need a vehicle valuation, I bought this through red book online, it's very important to get a UK valuation as well or have the original purchase receipt, look at the PIO Forum, Iron Chef has a good post you need to read

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/transport-shipping/97053-transporting-your-car-oz-everything-you-need-know.html

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Thanks all. This info is really useful. We have a lot to do as we have lots of items needing cleaning like shoes, walking boots, football boots, camping equipment, beach equipment, golf clubs, go-karts! Hubbies bought some Jeyes and will make a start although I said to him not to start too soon otherwise he'll have to do it all over again!

 

Really don't know what to do about the car. We have a landrover discovery 3 top of the range 2009. I've checked and $ price is only about $42k so it'll depend on what we can get for it here.

 

Pickford were certainly seem very professional and they have storage in Perth.

 

Has anyone used their storage facilities or those of any other company they would recommend and why?

 

Also hubbie has a small collection of French wine from our trips to France which he wants to bring and is reluctant to immediately drink or give away. I know we'd have to pay duty but does anyone know how it's calculated? I couldn't tell you what we paid for the wine but it's only gone up in value. :jiggy:

 

Lou

 

Regarding the jeyes fluid, I have seen a tip on here, I can't remember who it was from, maybe akasully2 or nikkis2000, about wrapping everything in cling film (or glad wrap if you're Australian :wink:) after you've cleaned it, that way it stays clean and still smells of jeyes if it gets opened by customs. Don't know if there is any value in this but it seemed like a good idea if you want to get ahead in the cleaning game.

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Regarding the jeyes fluid, I have seen a tip on here, I can't remember who it was from, maybe akasully2 or nikkis2000, about wrapping everything in cling film (or glad wrap if you're Australian :wink:) after you've cleaned it, that way it stays clean and still smells of jeyes if it gets opened by customs. Don't know if there is any value in this but it seemed like a good idea if you want to get ahead in the cleaning game.

 

Guilty as charged - though I have to confess to passing it on from another comment that I had seen on here! We had the container loaded yesterday so I'll let you know how we get on on the other side and if it was worth it.

 

I'm a bit worried as I know there are one or two items (cork mats etc) that I didn't get round to chucking that have found their way on there. Hopefully AQIS will pass them by!!

 

Interesting comments about the state that they leave things in once they've checked through. We took out insurance with Letton Percival that covers us from packing to delivery so hopefully this would be included but think I'll check the policy anyway!

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Anyone care to talk prices?

We have just started this process and the 1st company have just been. 900ft3 is what we need and a container is 1100ft3 (so they said), if we want to take our car we need a 40ft container. I don't think UK location will make a huge difference to the prices as most of us live within 2hrs of a dock.

Ours will probably go via Liverpool or Hull as we're in the middle of them and it's going to Perth.

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Anyone care to talk prices?

We have just started this process and the 1st company have just been. 900ft3 is what we need and a container is 1100ft3 (so they said), if we want to take our car we need a 40ft container. I don't think UK location will make a huge difference to the prices as most of us live within 2hrs of a dock.

Ours will probably go via Liverpool or Hull as we're in the middle of them and it's going to Perth.

 

We've had a few quotes but then we have an extra ferry crossing to most. Ours ranged from £4.5k to £6k for a 20ft and with car in a 40ft high top £7.5k to £9.5k :eek: Seemed ridiculously expensive to me but seems the only option. We also asked Iron Chef for a quote and that was cheaper than the extra for the 40ft container and I assumed the quotes didn't include the tax payments etc whereas Iron chef did.

 

Flatpack - I would be interested in hearing what you're being quoted.

 

Lou

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We've been given estimates for cubic volume but I can't believe our stuff will take up as much room as they are saying!!! Did anyone find that the estimate for the volume needed was generous? Was anyone close to the max cubic feet but found that everything went into the container without any problems?

 

Lou

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A friend of ours who went late last year was assured it would all fit in a 20ft container, when the packers came they couldn't fit 3 rather expensive items of gym equipment in. They were flying the next day so had to give it away, they cost in excess of £5k when they bought them less than 2 years ago. As they said, they would have left some cheaper items or got a 40ft container for what they lost on the equipment.

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Hi, we have had just PSS round so far. Very impressed by the agent who calculated the m3 as he went round on a tablet. He said we were in between container sizes. This would mean a 20ft one plus extra in a shared one. That was £3,700 plus about £800+, totalling approx £4,500 plus insurance. I think a 40ft was around £5,500. After getting that price we have started to rethink what we are bringing as we might as well bring more and get the 40ft one.

 

As for what not to bring, he said leave anything stuffed with lavender (my handmade fabric hearts), African wooden statues (not that we have any). He did say that feather duvets and down filled coats were fine and that it was an urban myth that they restrict these. Only untreated feathers are a problem.

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So far we can't rate PSS highly enough. They were great this week. Arrived at 7.30am on Thursday. By 12.30 they had packed and wrapped our entire 3 bed bungle home. I was genuinely concerned that if we stood still for too long we would get packed!

On Friday they arrived at 8 to complete the inventory. The container arrived at 9.30 and pulled away at 11.20! The boys just didn't stop and there were only two of them!

Even the estimation was almost perfect. We were estimated 131 items and they inventoried 133. We think this is only because they packed the skis in three separate packages instead of one! All in it cost just over £4k for a 20ft which was packed to the doors!

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So far we can't rate PSS highly enough. They were great this week. Arrived at 7.30am on Thursday. By 12.30 they had packed and wrapped our entire 3 bed bungle home. I was genuinely concerned that if we stood still for too long we would get packed!

On Friday they arrived at 8 to complete the inventory. The container arrived at 9.30 and pulled away at 11.20! The boys just didn't stop and there were only two of them!

Even the estimation was almost perfect. We were estimated 131 items and they inventoried 133. We think this is only because they packed the skis in three separate packages instead of one! All in it cost just over £4k for a 20ft which was packed to the doors!

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I don't think we have PSS here. I've had some quotes from Whites and Pickfords and I'm really torn with who to go with :confused: When I take into account shipping time, storage, insurance etc there is only £10 in it for a 20ft container. Only advantage is Pickfords have operations in Perth whereas Whites don't. Anyone have an opinion on here? Feel free to PM me if you prefer.

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Hi Lou, We used Whites and thought they were brilliant, but I had read some negative posts about Kents (who they use here) beforehand. Again, we had no probs with Kents and we will consider using them when we are ready to buy and move. I have never heard anything negative about Pickfords. Friends of ours used them and thought they were the dog's wotsits.

 

We used Letton Percival. I found the chap I spoke to be very helpful and nothing was too much trouble to explain the process and offer good advice etc. You will only really know when an insurance company/broker is good when you need to make a claim.

 

You think the visa process is a headache, then you start looking at shipping and the paracetamol come out again!!

 

Good Luck.

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