Two quotes for the same shipment can differ by a thousand pounds and both be honest. The gap is usually not the price of the freight, it is where the quote stops.
We connect your enquiry with a vetted international moving company from our network. The quote comes from them in writing, and this page is about reading it properly before you sign anything.
The single most useful question you can ask is where the price ends. Port to port, port to door and door to door are three different products, and the cheapest looking number is often the shortest journey.
a complete quote covers collection, packing, export clearance, the sailing, US clearance and delivery to your door. An incomplete one stops somewhere in that chain and does not always say where.
A quote that does not mention US port charges, customs examination or delivery access is not necessarily hiding them. It may simply not include them, which becomes your problem at exactly the wrong moment.
Port to port is the cheapest and the least useful. Your goods reach a US port and everything after that, clearance included, is yours to arrange.
Port to door adds US clearance and delivery but may still exclude terminal handling and anything unusual at the address. This is where most incomplete quotes sit.
Door to door is the whole chain from your house to your new home. It is the only shape that can be compared directly against another door to door quote, which is why it is worth insisting on for both.
Collection, export packing, export clearance, the sea freight and delivery at the far end. What varies is US port charges, examination fees, storage and anything unusual at the delivery address.
Usually because they end in different places. A port to port price and a door to door price are different products, however similar the numbers look.
Sometimes. Ask specifically, because terminal handling is often billed separately from the sea freight and it is a meaningful sum.
It is normally quoted separately and priced on the value you declare. Ask for the excess and the exclusions, not just the premium.
It applies where the vehicle cannot park close to the property and the crew carries goods further than the standard allowance. Ask what that allowance is.
A payment schedule is normal. What matters is knowing what is due before the container sails and what is due on delivery.
It can if the volume differs from the survey, or if circumstances at either address change. A quote based on a proper survey changes far less often.
Where does the price end. Everything else follows from the answer.
It makes comparison possible, which is the whole point of getting more than one. A single figure with no breakdown tells you nothing about what is missing.
Send your collection address, your US destination, the move date and a rough inventory. A moving company from our network surveys the job and quotes it in writing.
Send your move detailsA 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 and do not set prices. Quotes are prepared by the moving company you are introduced to.
Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder.