[marcia]

Kev my Oh keeps going to sales and seeing containers that he could buy.

Has anyone bought and used their own container? Is it more expensive this way? Will the shipping companies touch them or not? I told him it was a crazy idea and he would have to reserch it himself, but I know he wouldn't know where to start!

Anyone got any tips where to start?

Marcia

[StevieD]

You read my mind I was only thinking of that today - but remembering the shipping game and transport game, probably more trouble than it worth!

[Lupin]

My brother in law is an artist and makes up containers to ship his installations about in and has offered to "knock us up a few", he says they'll be delayed in customs for weeks but that he's never had any problems. I'm wondering about it but I'm not sure if it's one of those money savers that could go awfully wrong!

[marcia]

I've emailed a couple of shippers to see what they day!

Will let you know what they said (if they ever reply!)

[Bubbles]

I work for a large uk electrical retail company in their distribution division. They have their own inshore container storage facility. The last I heard I think they were charged around £25 per wk hire charge per 40 footer. If that is the norm' then you could save £200 or more, if you had your own. Hubby could use it as a workshop or garage at the other end aswell. :D

John

[veronica]

think the containers cost quite a bit. see them for sale occasionally, and if they are for shipping over seas they have to be complete, no holes etc in them. don't think it would be much of a saving, think the main part of the fee is the shipping of them not so much the container.

[Emma]

hi,

we're thinking of buying a container as well since we don't know where we will end up yet and hubby can't get it out of his head. Daddy-in-law said we could stall the container on his land :nice1. All I could find out 'til now was that a 2nd hand container will cost you about 1000-1200 Euros so I'm not sure if such a smart thing to do. I'm planning to request some quotes from shippers next week to ask them if they would be willing to ship and it will cost. I wonder if will all add up.:roll

[marcia]

I have been told that they have to pass all sorts of tests, to be able to stand the weight of other containers on top of them etc, and that those which come up for sale are usually ones which can no longer be used for shipping!

Still no reply drom the shipping companies on cost!

[PaulJ]

Hi,

I looked into using your own container, and recieved following advice from someone who had been working in the shipping industry in the past: -

Doing you own thing may be cheaper, am not sure. Apart form buying, or hiring the container, you would need to then book space directly with the Shipping Line. I think some lines are reluctant to take privately owned containers, so you would need to hire one from them. There would be the Local haulage costs ex your home to the Docks and then Dock chargesand Customs clearance, in addition to the Ocean freight charge.

In NZ you would face more dock charges, custome clearance and delivery of the container to your new home, then the sales/disposal of the empty.
If identifying all these costs is difficult, an alternative to using a removal specialist could be to book a container with a Freight forwarder, and do your own packing/unpacking. The forwarder would do all the arrangements here in the UK and a good one will have an agent, or own office, in NZ to take care of all the formalities. This might work out cheaper than a Pickfords.

I had followed up with a quote from a freight forwarder, and total costs for 20foot containder worked out approx £2400 + 1.5% insurance. That included delivery and customs clearance in NZ, but packing the container was down to yourself. I only found a couple of companies that would deal with domestic shipments directly, the other one was significantly cheaper and worked out approx £1800 + 1.5% insurance. However the more expensive quote came from pesonal recomendation.

Has anyone else got any quotes from "Freight-Forwarder" ?

Regards,
Paul

[Phil & Ali Smith]

Hi Paul,

Sorry I can't answer your specific question, other than to say our local guy said approximately £2,500 to send to NZ a 20ft container that we'd packed ourselves!

We've beeen looking into this 'buying & packing our own container' issue.
Because we.ve just sold (STC) our house and don't think we shall be going to NZ for at least 6 months, we thought we'd buy the container now to pack & store all our stuff in it, as we'll be moving into rented for 6 months and won't need much of it.

Our local overseas shipper said that the container we buy would be great for storage for 6 months as they would charge about £30 per week to store, but when it comes time to actually ship our belongings, our container would be emptied into a container sent by the shipping company and that we'd have about 3 hours to transfer everything. (Our local shipper also said he'd buy our container from us, if it was OK, for storage in his own yard.)

The question I didn't ask was and that's worrying me is the inventory. I know I can make a list of everything in the boxes, and number or letter them, but what about the furniture, lawn mower, washing machine etc.

Can anyone help, perhaps give me an idea as to how you listed all your belongings? How much detail do you have to give as to what is in every box etc? I have to start packing soon and I'd like to do it all properly the first time. I really don't want to repack everything in 6 months time.

Thanks in anticipation.

Ali

[Smiler]

Hi Ali

Some on the online shipping sites have inventories on them that you can fill in to get a quote.

You could print off a comprehensive one and just add your personal bits to it.

I packed some stuff a while before we shipped and I printed out a list of the box contents, put one inside the box and clear parcel taped another list to the outside.

We also got a cheap job lot of those large clear storage boxes with flip lids and I taped the list to the inside of the box. Easily readable from the outside.

If you have the luxury of time you'll be fine. :nice1

[Jenny & Mark]

I guess it depends on what, and how much you want to send. Mark and I are not bringing any furniture or appliances with us (I already have a lovely big bed in NZ at my parents place) to save a bit of dough. We figure we will use TradeMe and 2nd hand stores when we get there and slowly build up to new stuff when we can afford to. Shipping seems to be an expensive way of going about it (from Canada anyway). We are planning on using the largest suitcases we are allowed, and pay extra for an additional suitcase each if necessary. We're also planning on leaving some items with Mark's family to bring with them when they visit us.
We looked into using rubbermaid bins but quickly found out that suitcases are less hassle and hold just as much.

Jenny