Shipping quotes for 40' container - are they reasonable?

Hello

I'm new to this forum and will be moving to NZ in mid June with my British partner and our 2 year old daughter.

We're just in the middle of sorting out our shipping and have received three different quotes to ship a 40' container. We are taking our furniture, personal belongings and a car.

I was wondering if anyone with recent(ish) experience in shipping a container of this size could advise whether these quotes are realistic or whether I should be looking for a reduction in price?

1st: £5,600
2nd: £5,900
3rd: £7,800
They all include packing but exclude insurance.

Any advice would be very much appreciated :)

I am prepared for the high cost of shipping but I don't really want to pay over the odds.

Thanks!!

Hello and welcome. :)

I don't know about the quotes, but many on these threads have said to look to Letton Percival for insurance quotes, rather than going with what any transport company offers.

Hello and welcome,
We shipped a 40ft container including a car to Wellington in Jan 2010 and that cost around £5500, including packing.

As above, insurance was cheaper with Letton Percival.

Best wishes with your preparations.

$16k from Glossop to Tauranga at xmas. Did have a cheaper quote at about 13k but went with Crown. Note that crown include all the fees (didn't pay anything extra), Anglo Pacific you'll have additional charges (see other posts on this issue) which equalises the prices a bit. We paid in NZD as I was already here and it was arranged via my work. Actually worked well as the contract was at this end, and when we had to have a discussion on some issues then all the arrangements being from this end helped. DOn't think it would have been quite so easy having to do all the discussions via phone in the middle of the night. Despite some issues we had, then I'd still recommend Crown and would use them again for moves in NZ.

Hi

Thanks very much for your responses, they've been really helpful.
It looks like the quotes might be in the right ball-park so I think I'm going to just speak to the three companies to clarify a few of the smaller details and perhaps negotiate a bit on those.

One more tiny question.... Do you need to do much preparation before the packers arrive? e.g. turning handles around on drawers, emptying dressers, packing clothes and toys into crates or boxes? Or should we leave this all to the professionals?
This is very new territory for me!

We have already started cleaning our outdoors things. We have 8 bicycles to strip and clean so have to get cracking on that, not to mention a lot of off-road running shoes that have just come out of the back of a muddy winter!

Cheers
Nett

There's been lots of discussion of preparing to be packed on the forum before - use the Search on the blue bar above, and the old threads will come up.

We were £5750 for container plus MAF fees of about £400 upon arrival for the goods. I think it was about $1200 to get the car on the road, but can't remember as there was a customs deed, plates, inspection, RUC(diesel vehicle) and road licence. As we brought all our outdoor gear MAF charges were not excessive and in line with the quote from PSS. I think we paid about £1500 for insurance on top.

I would leave it to the professionals but just keep an eye on them! Make sure they use special edging on corners and edges of any big furniture, take out internal shelves, use correct boxes for clothes etc... (ours didnt)
Our packers told us not to seal any boxes we packed ourselves, something to do with the insurance, they had to check out the boxes and seal it themselves. Also put anything you need somewhere safe like in the oven as they do come in like a whirlwind and pack everything! Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kiwinett

Hello

I'm new to this forum and will be moving to NZ in mid June with my British partner and our 2 year old daughter.

We're just in the middle of sorting out our shipping and have received three different quotes to ship a 40' container. We are taking our furniture, personal belongings and a car.

I was wondering if anyone with recent(ish) experience in shipping a container of this size could advise whether these quotes are realistic or whether I should be looking for a reduction in price?

1st: £5,600
2nd: £5,900
3rd: £7,800
They all include packing but exclude insurance.

Any advice would be very much appreciated :)

I am prepared for the high cost of shipping but I don't really want to pay over the odds.

Thanks!!

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Hi Kiwinet,

Would you tell us which shipping companies the quotes were from please as ours are in excess of of £6000.

R

Quotes aren't too heavily biased by the container size, it's the packing / unpacking time that's the issue. So if you've lots of small fragile things that need lots of wrapping then it will be more than someone with a few large items. Also, the road transport in the UK and NZ, the need to double handle if they can't get the container to the house will add more. Actually, after a few losses then I really think I'd prefer to get 2x20' containers sealed at the house rather than the 40' and shuttled via smaller vans.