tell me about shipping/sea containers

[meowmix]

i feel like the queen of the naive people dealing with these container companies and am a touch on the COMPLETELY PANICKED side. Has anyone shipped all their chattels to a new company and if so any advice??

What do you want to know? I work in a shipping company so may be able to help.

ok - really basic questions so if I'm being dumb do tell me.

1. packing list - is there a specific form for this or is it just a list of whats packed? how much detail
2. do the shipping company insure the contents in transit or is that separate and if so who does that (am guessing its not a direct line kind of deal)
3. how long should I expect it to take? had one quote of 7 days at sea another of 48..... confused!! they can't both be right surely?

Its going out to Doha by the way if thats any help.

Are you planning on using an international removal company ? If so they will probably do a packing list of the cartons and then provide you with a separate form to complete for insurance, item by item, and perhaps customs.

no we're doing it via 2 firms because none of the big companies returned our calls (useless)

1. packing list - should be a list of everything you pack ie:

4 boxes kids toys 3 boxes kitchen equipment etc etc - but does not need to be on a special form. 2. Ask the shipping company if they can arrange insurance - even if they don't they should be able to advise someone who can. 3. different shipping lines will use different routes which means that transit times can vary quite a lot. (line I spoke to said 20 days from Southampton..) any help?

I've done an international household move a couple of times. First was Denmark to Italy, I got the packers to do everything, and I mean everything but it was crap and very expensive they then tried to take me to court until I pointed out all the errors they had made and told them they would lose the case - they immediatly dropped all charges.
More recently I moved from Italy to Brazil and I did everything. I packed every single box and checked with the relevant Embassies and customs regulations exactly waht was needed. Basically in my case, every item had to be listed (eg 3 suacepans with lids, 8 saucepans without lids) each box had to be numbered and the packing list was in Italian, Portuguese and English with a value priced for each and every box. I arranged the insurance with the shipping company based on the values. Every single electrical item (hairdrier, food mixer etc) had to be listed by make and code number. I got full shipping info from the agent and then arranged customs clearance myself in Brazil and trucking up to Brasilia and warehousing once it arrived here. It took a total of 3 1/2 moths to get here but every item arrived and there were no complications at all. It was bloody hard work and time consuming to sort out (about 3 months) from start of packing to acceptance of documents, packing list and shipping of goods and the shipping company said they had never seem anyone so organised (maybe I went a bit over the top) Going from one highly bureaucratic country to another even more so (and corrupt too) it certainly paid off to do this.
My main bit of advice is to very carefully check the customs restrictions and packing list requirements and then take it slowly, a bit at a time. It's worth it in the long run.

I would strongly advise that if you have children and your company are paying for the move then to use an international agent - I just moved from UK - Chicago. DH was already out here so I managed everything and even having a full service from the packers found it hard going...
If you use a firm like, Crown Relocation or pickfords,(just a couple of eg's) they will pack and unpack for you - sort out insurnace but there is still a huge amt to do in relation to what you send via sea ( need to allow a good few weeks to ake account of customs that noone can estimate ( fyi took 5 weeks for stuuf from Uk to arrive at our door in Chicago), what you send by air ( essentials for kids, bedding, crockery if you are not going to be in a serviced apt for kick of, and what you leave behind in storage ( ie baby stuff o longer needed now..real valuables that you don't want to take ( ie we left behind our antique granfather clock and huge amt of furniture as we were going from 4 bed georgian house to funky 19th fl apt so different soace to fill!)

pls feel free to ask more questions if you ant -w e only moved in May so still v fresh in my mind - and it is v stressful so go with the flow a bit...the companies do tend to do a lot of the work for you....

Just make sure you are totally and completely insured. I had a policy for one company and when I tried to claim I was declined and when I tried to do the ombudsman thing it turned out I was insured with someone else and they were not with the ombudsman.

If the form is filled in by the shipping company, or by you and then sent off then call the company and check you have a policy with the actual company.

Where are you moving to meowmix?

Oh please, please use a removal firm. It's so stressful and as Albert said very time-consuming to do it yourself. Plus you have to be so careful with all the customs/excise documents for the relevant countries and they all have different rules as to what you can or can't import. US means even garden tools have to be scrubbed and disenfected as you cannot import soil!!!!! We used Allied Pickfords and they did everything and the Insurance covered transit and the required marine insurance. And ours managed to survive Hurricane Katrina!!!! So you must be well covered. Ours left UK on 2 September and arrived here in Colorado on 31 October. So took eight weeks, but not helped by the hurricane. Good luck like ChiTownLady still fresh in my mind too. So let's help you if we can.

Slight hijack alert: obviously if you've got an International job offer, the company will pick up the bill for International removals/shipping. Does anyone have any tips for how to economise if it's an individual's wallet that's paying?

If you're doing it yourself, well,

• do the packing list etc yourself - when I did it, it was as Albert says, lists of everything, I don't think I needed serial numbers, but estimates of values and names of everything.
• don't ship stuff that you can get rid of rebuy cheap
• get some bloke in a van to take it to the depot with you
• the cost is by volume, not weight, so large stuff costs more to send
• it is a world cheaper than shipping stuff any other way.

can anyone recommend an insurer?

someone asked where we're going - Qatar. So to add to the mix I need to separate out dvds/cds so the censors can have a good look through our collected works of Balamory to make sure there's nothing smutty going on