Shipping large amounts of stuff to US from UK

[Angela256z 30]

What are some good ways to transports my husbands things from the UK to the US? Is there a good cheap pallet service? We will eventually get a container on a ship, but we would like to have some things right away.

[phem0r 16]

I'm trying to figure this out too, have you found out any information yet?

[Sheri&Rich 25]

I've been working in this for a few months and have contacts in the industry.

In my opinion, sending items by pallet will be expensive per square foot compared to a shipping container. As you would expect, there is a mark up on shipping in favour of the freight company to maximise their profit. To explain my point is that if 10 people all put items in one shipping container then they pay considerably more than 10% of what it would cost if they hired the entire container in one go. The other issue is that It is less secure and generally more problematic with customs especially if you are shipping it in advance of receiving your visa.

I had to decide how much stuff I was going to take and what size container. I eventually decided on one 40 foot container which I have been quoted £2400 door to port.

Door - port is that the container is brought on the back of a lorry to my storage facility in Salisbury, Wiltshire, then taken to Southampton docks and placed on the ship. This will then be shipped to Houston docks and I will collect / empty it from there.

You can get port - port or door to door also but you will have to phone for quotes.

The price that I was quoted doesn't include insurance and does not include actually packing the container. You will be give three hours to pack the container 'free' and then they will charge for every hour after that in the region of about £65.00.

What I have done (and you can make a comparison) is I have purchased plastic pallets (DO NOT USE wooden ones) and palletised all my property and shrink wrapped it. Doing this in advance means the container can be loaded by fork lift truck quickly and easily bearing in mind that you will pay more to have the container dropped to the ground off the back of the lorry if you want to fill it that way.

You can hire 20 foot containers and portions thereof but I would suggest that you ship everything in one go after you have your visa in hand and get quotes from 3 companies for a comparison.

If you need any more info.....ask.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Door - port is that the container is brought on the back of a lorry to my storage facility in Salisbury, Wiltshire, then taken to Southampton docks and placed on the ship. This will then be shipped to Houston docks and I will collect / empty it from there.

If you need any more info.....ask.

Will you hire a lorry to take the container out of the port to a warehouse area or is that included. Have you priced that and the ship's agent fees? What are you hiring to get the unloaded items to your home?

[Kiwinyc 62]

I shipped half my house including some furniture. I used a proper international removals company (White & Co.) who packed, shipped & unpacked. Professional packing reduces the risk of an unexpected (and pricey) US customs inspection fee upon arrival and there were no other surprise charges at the receiving end. It was all handled professionally with good communication, down to the name of driver, phone number & 2 hr weekend delivery slot at this end. Was satisfied with the service and would recommend and use them again. Not cheap of course - about £3k for 330 cubic feet inc insurance.

[nobbie 105]

I used Pickfords, was £1500 for 300 cu ft. They have to pack it as they need to know exactly what they are shipping. I could not send it until I had the visa as it was needed for US customs forms I have to fill out prior to shipping. In surance was extra but cannot remember how much it was. Good service though. Just takes a while, 6 weeks ish I think.

[Kiwinyc 62]

Obtw nothing can be put on a ship to leave the country until they have a copy of your k1 visa with your shipping documents, so you can't 'send anything on ahead'.

It does also generally take longer to get there than they say, I'd double their estimates for a realistic amount of time. I've shipped various amounts of belongings from London to NY, LA to Sydney, Sydney to London and London to Austin and just like with builders, never believe their timeframes...

[Kiwinyc 62]

Oh just noticed you're already married - in that case the USC can be the shipper, so no probs sending stuff ahead in that case.

[phem0r 16]

Some good information here. What if you aren't shipping furniture, big items etc, and instead just shipping boxes of items e.g. clothes, sporting items you have, basically just any belongings that isn't furniture. i assume you'd just have to use a courier?

[Sheri&Rich 25]

Will you hire a lorry to take the container out of the port to a warehouse area or is that included. Have you priced that and the ship's agent fees? What are you hiring to get the unloaded items to your home?

The price includes processing through customs and delivery to a warehouse on site within the docks area. I am then going to hire a truck with a tail lift and collect the pallets from the docks in two or three trips if necessary. I am then taking all of my belonging to a bespoke storage facility near the house where I can breakdown each pallet gradually and incorporate my belongings into the house.

Also in the container is one car and two motorbikes and these will be taken out at the docks and the car driven straight to the house and the motorbike will be picked up by a friend of mine on his tow truck and delivered to the house too.

The £2500 quoted includes everything and they guarantee no hidden charges. They will be inspecting the packing to be on the safe side and have given me a list of items that I cannot take.

I am planning this to got as smoothly as possible.

Some good information here. What if you aren't shipping furniture, big items etc, and instead just shipping boxes of items e.g. clothes, sporting items you have, basically just any belongings that isn't furniture. i assume you'd just have to use a courier?

Depends on the 'volume' needed. As mentioned, you can 'rent' part of a container and do it that way. If you call a freight forwarders then they can advise you but best to have an idea of volume before you call.

Rich

[Kiwinyc 62]

Some good information here. What if you aren't shipping furniture, big items etc, and instead just shipping boxes of items e.g. clothes, sporting items you have, basically just any belongings that isn't furniture. i assume you'd just have to use a courier?

You can use a shipping co. that will consolidate your belongings with someone else's to fill a container. They quote on cubic feet though so you need to have an idea of how much room your stuff will need to know how much it'll cost to ship. If you pack yourself to the US bear in mind it needs to be inventoried accurately in full detail or risk being opened for customs checks which they (US customs) charges for and is an unwelcome surprise. They normally x-Ray the entire container and anything weird that might flag as not matching the manifest could result in them opening the container and looking for and opening up the exact box that's odd. As long as there are no food items or anything like that you should be fine.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

We also picked up ourselves in Houston. It wasn't as smoothe as expected. We did the customs clearance ourselves. That's in a high rise office building on the Beltway near the airport. That guy was easy-peasy and cleared release of the shipment without even a customs form. He just wanted to look at the inventory list. Five minutes and free.

But...Container got picked to go to Customs warehouse. Extra transport fee from other warehouse. Storage fee. Inspection fee. And the odd thing was nothing had been opened. Our stuff was still shrink wrapped with the tie bands intact. It's like your stuff was held hostage and you had to pay the ransom.

And we did insure, which cost almost as much as the shipping quote. So when getting quotes from removers, know that is an uninsured price. I thought the shipping was the hardest part of the process. How do you estimate how many boxes/cubic meters until you pack? I'm not so good at visualizing. Then if insuring, seems like we had to itemize and value everything. To me that was harder than filling out some immigration forms and waiting around for a visa which I never doubted we would get. I think I just hate going through junk, packing, and moving so it seemed harder.

[Glyn and Kathy 288]

Hi! We've done the move a couple times now. The very first time, we used UPAKWESHIP with absolutely no problems. This last time we went with Seven Seas Worldwide and they were horrible. Bad communication, bad customer service...just terrible. So I guess my only suggestion is...don't use them!

[Angela256z 30]

Wow everyone. Thank you for all the info. I have been away for a bit trying to send stuff to hubby for the interview and just getting everything ready for him. I will look into all this info tonight.

[Collie 122]

Good info here, thanks everyone!