[starkhorn]

Folks,

I've done a few searches about shipping on this forum and most of the threads seem to be about shipping entire households in a 20ft container.

Now I've only got a 1 bedroom appartment so there is no way that I could remotely fill a 20ft container so I was wondering if anyone has had much experience of shipping stuff (furniture/fridges etc) that need a decent amount of room but wouldn't fit in a 20ft container?

Would I need to find someone to share a container with or would the shipping company simply put my stuff into a container with lots of other people's items?

Wondering about MAF if I shared a container with other people's things. Would that mean the inspection would have to happen at the port as they opened the container?

Sorry for all of the quetions....just becoming a little freaked at shipping my stuff. Normally in europe I would just hire a van, pack the stuff myself and drive to my new location. I've never shipped stuff so far before.

Cheers
Brendan

[Peter]

Hi Brendan,

Most shipping/removal companies will take small consignments and ship under 'Groupage' terms. This is when your goods are shipped alongside other goods going to the same destination. Normally the shipping/removal company would try to arrange to ship only household effects in the one container rather than mix your goods with possible commercial products. Under groupage terms the shipper will charge you a rate per cubic metre. the MAF charges are per container so the charges will be disbursed amoungst the shippers. I would recommend that you have your goods professionally packed rather than self pack when going Groupage. It is safer and less hassle with insurance claims, should they arise.
If you get a shipping/removal company to carry out a packing survey they will tell you how many cubic metres you have. The company will then make arrangements to ship with other household goods. This can take slightly longer with groupage of household goods because the shipping company has to find others going to the same destination.

We regularly ship household effects by groupage worldwide from the U.K. On small palletised consignments of household effects it is possible to ship Groupage with mixed goods as these are more protected and palletised.

Peter

[starkhorn]

Hi Peter,

Wow that's a great post, I actually understood what groupage means now.

Many thanks for taking the time to write that as I found it really useful.

Cheers
Brendan

[Howie]

We also have less than a full container to ship. Some companies have quoted us for a full container only, some for a partial container and say they put a have to put a partition up between different people's stuff (for MAF purposes?). Others say they can use "lift vans" which I believe are large crates that get put in the container. I'm pretty sure some of these companies don't have a clue what they are doing, I'm just not sure which ones are the good ones!!

Susan