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Sea freight is described as though it were one service. It is not. A container to Perth and a container to Dubai leave the same port, travel in the same steel box and behave almost nothing alike once they arrive. Transit, inspection, paperwork and cost all move with the region. This page takes them one at a time.
We handle international moves only. Furniture travelling between two British addresses goes by road with a local firm rather than in a container, and that is a different trade entirely.
Eight to twelve weeks door to door is the usual planning range, and it is the region where the arrival gap hurts most. Families routinely land two months before their container, buy bedding and kitchen basics twice, and never budget for it. A small air consignment covering the first fortnight is worth its cost here more than anywhere else.
Biosecurity is the defining feature. Anything carrying soil, seed or plant material gets attention: garden tools, mowers, bicycles, walking boots, tents, wicker and untreated timber. Items that fail are cleaned or treated at your expense and the shipment waits while it happens.
Clean everything a fortnight before packing rather than the night before, and make sure it is dry. Sealing a damp cleaned tent into a container for eight weeks creates a different problem entirely.
On these routes containers are opened for inspection more often than elsewhere. A load packed so it can be examined and repacked without damage costs nothing extra and saves a great deal of trouble. Ask whether your mover ships this route regularly.
Quicker than the southern hemisphere and documentation heavy rather than inspection heavy. The inventory must be genuinely itemised and valued, because generic entries are queried rather than waved through. That is the most common cause of a held shipment on these routes.
You generally need to be in the country, or to have appointed somebody, when the goods clear. Arriving after your container rather than before it is an expensive scheduling mistake. Electrical goods run on a different voltage standard and mostly are not worth the freight.
Shorter transit than Australasia and paperwork tied closely to your residence status. Relief on used household effects generally depends on holding the right visa or permit at the time the goods arrive, which means the sequencing is yours to manage.
Certain items are restricted or prohibited on cultural and religious grounds in a way that surprises people, alcohol above all. Ask the destination agent for the current list rather than assuming, because it is specific and it is enforced.
Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan are well served with frequent sailings and efficient clearance. Elsewhere the frequency drops sharply, which lengthens the wait on a shared load rather than the sailing itself. Ask how often your specific service departs.
South Africa has established routes and a mature moving industry. Much of the continent does not, and the destination agent matters more here than anywhere. Ask who they are and how long the relationship has run before you book.
Thin routes, long transits and documentation that varies enormously country by country. Consular legalisation of the inventory is required in several, which is a lead time rather than a difficulty. Start earlier than the transit estimate suggests.
Name the country, estimate the volume and pick a month. Your details go to a single accredited firm that already sails that corridor, not out to half a dozen who would be finding their way on your container. Costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
A forty foot container cannot reach most central Bath addresses, and if it could it would face the Clean Air Zone charge that applies to non-compliant heavy goods vehicles. The usual answer is that goods leave by a smaller compliant vehicle and are packed into the container at a depot.
Outside the city this is less often necessary. Keynsham, Saltford, Midsomer Norton and Radstock all sit outside the zone and many properties there will take a larger vehicle directly.
Either way the shipping and the paperwork are unchanged. What changes is one extra handling stage, which is an argument for professional export packing rather than a reason to worry. International movers and packers wrapping to a shipping standard is what that stage is for.
Ask directly rather than assuming. A search for international removal companies near me returns firms that can collect from the Bath area easily enough. Whether that international removal company keeps a standing agent in your destination country is the question that decides the second half of your move.
Yes, and usually by weeks rather than days. A sole use container sails against a booked schedule. A shared load waits to fill at this end and is broken down again at the other. An international removals company will tell you the current consolidation interval, and international moving companies vary widely on it. On a thin route that difference is substantial.
Often yes, and it is far cheaper than a separate movement. It must be drained of fuel first, and the destination rules on age, emissions and drive side decide whether it is worth doing at all. Price the import before you decide against selling here.
Eight to twelve weeks for a sole use container, longer between June and September when crews book out before container space does. A shared load wants a little more again, because the box has to fill before it sails.
Box sizes and the freight vocabulary used here match ordinary trade practice. Which dock a load leaves from follows the published sailing lists at Bristol Port and Southampton. Quarantine screening, entry paperwork and banned goods are each set by the receiving nation and are revised from time to time. Zone charging detail comes from Bath and North East Somerset Council together with the GOV.UK clean air zone service. Sailing durations are planning figures only. Nothing here carries a price. Verified August 2026, revisit August 2027. Read our Google reviews.
Destination country, rough volume and target month. An accredited international moving company that runs the corridor quotes the freight, the paperwork and the clearance together.
Send your move detailsInternational Removals Companies matches your enquiry with one accredited moving company from the AGM Group network holding a named agent in your destination country. Costs you nothing, and not one container on the water belongs to us.
Nearby: Bath, Radstock, Paulton, Peasedown St John.
Services: European removals, container shipping, part load removals.