A sole use container is not simply the faster option. It is the option where your things are handled once at each end rather than sorted at a depot in between, and for some shipments that matters more than the price.
Tell us what is moving and we connect you with a vetted international moving company from our network that runs sole use containers on your route. They survey, price and carry out the move.
As a rule of thumb published across the trade, a three bedroom home fits a 20ft container, while a four or five bedroom home needs a 40ft. A survey is what turns that into a decision rather than a guess.
Do not choose the container size from a room count alone. Loft contents, garage contents and a garden shed have overturned more surveys than anything inside the house.
a 20ft container takes roughly a three bedroom home and a 40ft takes a four or five bedroom one. It is loaded and sealed at your house and opened at the other end, which means fewer handling stages than sharing.
The obvious case is volume. Once you are shipping most of a family home, the space saved by sharing no longer covers the extra weeks and the extra handling.
The less obvious case is the nature of the load. Antiques, art, instruments and anything awkward benefit from being loaded once and unloaded once, because handling is where damage happens rather than sailing.
The third case is timing. A sole use container does not wait for other shipments, so where a start date is fixed you are buying a departure as much as space.
| ❗ | The number of rooms actually being emptied, rather than the number in the house. |
| ❗ | Loft, garage, shed and outbuilding contents, which are routinely forgotten. |
| ❗ | Large single items such as pianos, sofas and wardrobes that waste space around them. |
| ❗ | Whether garden furniture and tools are travelling or being replaced locally. |
| ❗ | Anything being collected from a second address, such as storage or a relative's house. |
Container choice is a volume decision, and volume judged by eye is how people end up paying for space they do not use or leaving things behind.
A container on a trailer needs room to stand and turn. Where that is impossible the goods are shuttled from a smaller vehicle, which changes the plan and the price.
The cheapest cubic metre is the one you do not ship. Loft and garage contents are where most of the surplus hides.
As a rule of thumb published across the trade, roughly the contents of a three bedroom home. A survey is what confirms it for your shipment.
Roughly a four or five bedroom home. If you are between sizes, a survey settles it, because paying for a 40ft you do not fill is an expensive mistake.
Usually, because it does not wait for other shipments to fill it and there is no sorting at a depot at either end.
Sometimes, where the load is fragile or valuable, or where a fixed date means you cannot wait for shared space. Otherwise part load is the sensible choice.
Normally yes, and sealed there. Where the street cannot take a container on a trailer, the goods are shuttled to it in a smaller vehicle.
You still pay for the container. That is the trade against part load, where you pay for the space your goods occupy.
No. The one year use test, CBP Form 3299 and the separate declaration of anything owned under twelve months apply the same way.
Some companies offer that arrangement. Bear in mind that self loading usually affects the insurance terms, so ask what changes before deciding.
The goods are shuttled to it in a smaller vehicle. It is a normal arrangement, it costs more, and it should be established at survey rather than on the morning.
On a door to door sole use booking, yes. That seal is one of the practical arguments for paying for a whole container rather than sharing one.
Send your collection address, your US destination, the move date and what is coming, including the loft and garage. A moving company from our network surveys it and advises on container size.
A Working Member of AGM Group. Enquiries are connected with vetted FIDI FAIM certified and BAR Overseas accredited international moving companies from the network.
We are an enquiry service rather than a shipping line. Containers are booked and loaded by the moving company you are introduced to.
Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder.