[kidco]

We are looking at an upcoming move from western Canada to Wellington, with a household volume of around 20 cubic metres to ship. We're wondering if anybody could give us answers to the following:

* What ballpark cost would it be to ship this? Any good quotes out for similar shipments?

* When do you pay the shipping company: is it all up front, or upon final delivery, or something in-between?

* How long, from people's experiences, does it take for a partial container to get from Vancouver to Welly? How about a full container?

Thanks,

Kidco

[tigerlily]

We are shipping a 20 foot container, self packed for $6100 from Spokane, Washington to Wellington door to door. Insurance is on top of that- only total loss insurance is available if you self pack. We have been told that the container will leave Seattle on Nov 22 and arrive Welly on Jan 12. It switches in Singapore I think. We have to pay in total before they will send us out the container. We went with Ranier mostly due to good reports on this board and also that was the freight forwarder reccomended by a local mover here.

As for costs, I was told that 1/2 a 20 foot container would cost almost the same as a whole 20 foot container. I honestly thought that we would have much less than we do, but the bulk of the packing materials themselves was hard to take into account. Ask me next week! We have 24 hours to load it, so I hope it all goes easily.

I got 3 quotes, all were right in this same ballpark. But I saw someone on this board who got quotes for $3000 to ship from the US east coast for a 20 foot container! I have no idea why it would be cheaper from there, since they must truck or train it across the country first. Grrr. But after I added up the cost of my rugs and books alone, it made sense to ship.