International removal companies

Starting a new job or contract overseas will result in you having to find an international moving company to ship your items either by Sea or Air. This can be quite a troublesome procedure but a good moving company should take care of all the hard work for you.

Door to door international relocation should involve the following.

1. Pre-move survey estimate based on the volume of your items.

2. Full packing of your items, valubles safely protected and crating for expensive easy to damage items such as TV's glass tables, art etc.

3. Customs clearance through the port of exit.

4. Loading onto a steamship container, or airplane if air shipment.

5. Customs clearance at the port of entry

6. Full delivery of your items and removal of packing material at your request.

7. Provide you with a quotation for a complete door to door cost (no hidden customs handling charges).

• During the survey make sure the surveyor is making full note of your items. The survey should be a detailed operation. surveyors who are not too interested in your items may want to charge you some flat cost regardless of the volume.
• Upon receiving the quotation, make sure the weight/volume or some kind of measurement is indicated. As this helps to negotiate the price if the final volume is over/under the estimate.
• Agree a fixed price as much as you can and get it in writting. The final result maybe higher than surveyed and some movers may want to charge extra. Also shipping costs do fluctuate and this is another excuse some movers may use, especialy if you put your goods into storage for a number a months.
• Make sure that it is door-to-door at their are no hidden supprised at the other end. Get it in writing that there will be no outstanding customs handling charges at the order end. Many companies will not include this in their costs to make their price look cheap and attractive.
• Cheaper is not better. Why is one quote for $8,000 and the other company is charging $10,000 for the same volume? As mentioned above, go back to the cheapest company and find out if there are any extra costs involved. Get that in writing. If they can't guarantee anything, go for the more expensive company.
• Be proactive, don't sit back and expect it all to happen by itself. Documents will be needed for customs clearance and shipment booking etc.. Complete and return these forms as soon as you can to avoid missing vessel deadline etc.. Late forms can also lead to customs penalties which the moving companies are not responsible for.
• No food - Try not to include food in your internation shipments unless you have confirmed this with the destination country. A lot of people especialy in South/South-East Asian countries tend to try and hide food withing clothes etc.. If stopped by customs the whole container is likely to be held up and penalties will incur.

• For split deliveries between two countries, there are cases where some of the wrong items go to the incorrect countries. Make sure you clearly point out what needs to go where.
• Insurance won't cover residence damage. You will need to make sure the the removal guys cover and protect the wall and floors adequately.
• Goods held hostage untill extra customs fees are payed. This often occurs when documents are missing or submitted to late, customs charges may occur, especially in South American countries. Make you complete and return all documents on top.
• Labourers refusing to assemble items on delivery. Delivery crew may be reluctant to assemble new items/furniture. At the original make sure you confirm that this service is included if you have items which need a specialist to assemble. Some countries will assemble, some won't.