A corporate move has two customers. The employee whose belongings are in the boxes, and the employer paying the bill and setting the limits. Getting those two aligned before anything is booked is what makes an assignee move go smoothly.
One vetted mover from our network handles the assignment. International movers who work corporate accounts understand policy caps, and good movers manage the assignee as carefully as the invoice. They know authorisation chains and reporting, which is a different skill from packing a house well.
The question that decides everything is who instructs and who pays. If those are different people, the sequence matters more than the price.
Policy first. Establish the entitlement before anything else. Volume cap, whether packing is included, whether storage is covered, whether the return leg is in scope, and what happens if the assignee exceeds the allowance. This is a conversation with HR or the mobility team, not with the employee.
Authorisation route. Who signs off, at what value, and how long approval takes. A move quoted on Monday and approved three weeks later has lost its packing slot and possibly its sailing.
Survey against the cap. Now the survey happens, with the volume limit known. A surveyor who knows the assignee has thirty cubic metres of entitlement can tell them on the day what will not fit inside it, which is a far better conversation than one held after a quote is rejected.
The overage conversation. Almost every assignee exceeds their allowance somewhere. The policy should say whether the excess is refused, paid personally or absorbed. Deciding this at survey stage avoids a difficult exchange later.
Booking and coordination. Dates aligned with the assignment start, the visa and permit process, school terms where children are involved, and destination housing.
Reporting. Cost centre references on invoices, consolidated billing across multiple assignees, and whatever format the finance team needs. Ask for it up front rather than requesting reissued invoices later.
The return leg. Repatriation is part of most assignments and it is easier to plan when the outbound move is arranged, particularly where part of the household is going into storage rather than to China.
Corporate moves price the same way as private ones, on volume, mode, destination and access. What differs is the predictability, because a policy cap makes the volume known before the survey rather than after.
£1,400 to £4,200
Common for a shorter posting or a part furnished let.
£3,800 to £9,500
The standard family relocation to a coastal Chinese city.
Above the standard bands
Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Harbin and similar.
Tell us the policy cap, the destination and the assignment start. We will work back from those rather than forward from a survey.
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Where an employer is moving more than one household, a few things change and they mostly work in your favour.
Consolidation. Several assignees heading for the same Chinese city in the same window can sometimes share container capacity, which reduces cost per household. It requires flexible dates from all parties, so it works better when the assignment starts are planned rather than reactive.
Consistent standards. One firm handling all the moves means one packing standard, one insurance arrangement and one point of contact for the mobility team, rather than chasing several suppliers on different terms.
Reporting. Consolidated invoicing with cost centre references, and a single status view across all live moves. Ask for the format the finance team needs before the first move rather than requesting reissued invoices afterwards.
Peak management. If several assignees move in June or before Chinese New Year, capacity is the constraint rather than price. Staggering starts by a few weeks where the business can accommodate it makes a material difference.
Destination consistency. Where assignees are going to the same city, knowledge of the compounds, their delivery restrictions and their lift booking systems carries across. That is worth having, particularly in cities like Shanghai and Beijing where building management controls access tightly.
The assignee experience. Worth saying plainly: the person whose belongings are in the boxes judges the whole assignment partly on how the move went. A move handled badly colours everything that follows it, and that cost does not appear on any invoice.
The vehicle page is worth reading before any policy promises assignees a car shipment.
A move usually means moving money too, whether that is a deposit on a Chinese flat or funds coming back the other way. We have helped customers with currency exchange in any currency through trusted partners for many years, and our partners can help with the money side of your move. Mention it on the form and it gets included.
Experts in currency exchange
No hidden fees
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Competitive exchange rate
The volume cap, the approved service level and the authorisation route. Surveying before the entitlement is confirmed produces a quote the employee likes and the employer will not approve, which wastes a survey and a packing slot.
That depends on the policy, and it should say. Almost every assignee exceeds somewhere. The options are refusing the excess, the assignee paying personally, or the employer absorbing it. Deciding at survey stage avoids a difficult conversation later.
Sometimes, where they are heading for the same Chinese city in the same window and dates are flexible. It reduces cost per household. It works better when assignment starts are planned rather than reactive.
That varies by employer and it should be stated explicitly, because the shipment cannot safely sail before the permit is in hand. Ambiguity here is the single most common cause of a corporate shipment sitting at a Chinese port.
Yes, and it is worth specifying the format your finance team needs before the first move rather than requesting reissued invoices afterwards. Cost centre references and a single status view across live moves are both standard requests.
No. Private import of used vehicles into mainland China is closed and a right hand drive car cannot be registered there in any case. A policy that offers it is promising something that cannot be delivered.
Common and worth specifying. Assignees on shorter postings often ship selectively and store the rest, and destination storage is frequently needed while housing is arranged. Silence on storage in a policy causes problems mid move.
The weeks around Chinese New Year, when the logistics chain in China effectively stops, and June to August when family moves peak. Staggering assignment starts by a few weeks where the business allows makes a material difference to both cost and capacity.
It helps considerably, particularly where part of the household goes into storage rather than to China. Agreeing the return terms at the outset avoids renegotiating them at the end of an assignment when everyone is under time pressure.
Send your collection address, your Chinese destination, a rough idea of the volume and your date. A vetted mover from our network checks the route, the paperwork and the access, then comes back to you with the price.
Send your move detailsWe match international moving enquiries with vetted moving companies in the AGM Group network, each holding FIDI FAIM certification and BAR Overseas membership.
We are not a removal firm ourselves. We find you the one that suits your route, and you deal with them directly from there.