Hi
Anyone have experience in shipping a container of furniture to Australia? I've heard it cost around $1500 cubic metre -anyone had any cheaper offers?
cheers

Going the other way (AU->CH) we were quoted AUD 20-25k for an entire (40') container. This was packed & unpacked to bench level, and insurance was about 25% of the cost.

So maybe if you're sending an entire household, getting a quote on a whole container might be cost-effective. If there's no high-end electricals, you could go for much cheaper insurance.

cheers,
(Mr)Wibble

I shipped a container from Zurich to New Zealand 10 years ago. It cost around 12,000 for the complete container (40-foot, the big one) which we shared with another family 50/50

So we got our whole household into a 20-ft container, it cost us a total of 6,000 CHF, and was delivered to our driveway in Auckland the same day we did the NZ customs paperwork. The NZ delivery worked out to be much easier than the Swiss company told us it would be.

Insurance was extra.

We packed and unpacked the container ourselves (with friends :-)

I think you will find it cheaper to get the whole container, rather than pay for cubic metre space in what may be a shared container.
And look at organising a working bee of friends to load the container yourself.
And start packing your small things into boxes 6 weeks before you leave.
We took time to pack things properly and suffered no damage as a result.

You can request the container to be dropped of at your house a few days before pickup, then you can load it yourself.
Make sure you have space for the container - get permission from police / verwaltung etc as required.

We actually had to rent a truck, load everything in the truck, drive across Zurich to the other family's house, and then unload from the truck and load into the container which was on their car park.

But many hands make light work.....

I shipped half a container from Australia to Switzerland (which went via the UK), and this cost me AUD 1,400.00 door to door, including insurance. Not sure how much half a container is in cubic metres, but it carried several large pieces of furniture, and many, many boxes of books and kitchenware.

You'll probably find that prices vary a lot, and it may also depend on the route they take, and the partner company they choose in another country (if any). It may also depend on where you are delivering to in Australia.

I would suggest that you try to organise the shipment by contacting the international removalist companies in Australia. I have a feeling that organising it from Switzerland may be much more expensive ...

No idea about the cost, but I would recommend Packimpex (at least at the Swiss end - the Thai dept. were completely disorganised)

Heya

My husband got a quote over the phone for a 20 ft container door to door Zurich-Melbourne for about CHF8000 from ( my husband has lost the email but we think ...) Knecht AG ( www.knecht.ch) .

A friend of mine also got an initial quote for around CHF8-9000.

Hope this helps

Enjoy
kt

Yes we paid $ 8000 AUD including Insurance to have a sole use container to move the furniture from our three bedroom house to Zurich. We used

Packimpex Ltd.
Brunnmattstrasse 5
CH-3174 Thörishaus-Berne
Switzerland

phone: +41 (0)31 888 14 34

and they were very good. This price also included customs paperwork, shipping costs and also complete packing and unpacking of everything. Packimpex were great, fast and friendly. I am unsure if you are Australian but you need to check on the Australian customs website as some wood, most food, shells and a whole list of things are not allowed in Australia. Aussie customs are one of the strictest in the world.

OOOh yeah - very strict , and costs a fortune to have the wood heat treated to be able to get it in!!

Hi All
thanks so much for ur replies and recommendations- was most helpful and container for $9K sounds quite reasonable and less than I thought phew.
Not moving just yet but am organising myself and deciding whether its worth to keep the larger stuff or not
thanks and have a good evening
L

Having got rid of all non-essential items, we want to ship the essentials to Perth, Australia. We are not fussed if it is via sea or air, just as long as it gets there and is insured.

I have trawled the web, without much luck, and the best option so far seems to be Economy PostPac with the Post.ch. For 1 ~80x50x40cm, 20kgs box, it works out at ~200 CHF.

Having about 8 of these boxes, we want to find the cheapest method to get them to Perth.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks!

By sea will be alot cheaper, but then again alot slower.

True, true.
We had neighbours from Australia - they came to Switzerland for a year. Packed and sent their stuff off from OZ in June. It arrived here just before Christmas... They were tossing up whether to send it straight back without opening it, so that it would get 'home' at the same time as they did.

I spoke to some friends who moved from San Francisco and they claim that sea transport was not that cheaper than air transport. No direct experience, tho.

The OP might want to ask a transport company for an offer.

when i moved here i opted for air, and it cost me alot more (cannot remember now how much the difference was as it was so long ago) than by sea, but i wanted my things with me for when i got here,

We are not too bothered by time. If it is significantly cheaper, then we will go for it.

We have asked a few transport companies, but none are as cheap as Economy PostPac with post.ch (one 20kg box = ~200 CHF).

I just wonder if anyone knows any cheaper methods to get them to Perth?!?

Have you tried a professional removals/shipping company. We used Packimpex to come from Thailand. It took many weeks due to their incompetence in Bangkok, the Swiss end was brilliant. It took around five weeks I think which isn't bad considering the gear was landed in Belgium and driven over.
Should clarify, that from it leaving Bangkok port and arriving it was five weeks, we had been here for three when we discovered that despite paying upfront, the useless agent hadn't processed the paperwork.

Hello,

Any new advice on it. I am moving to Sydney and would like to get some quotes...

Why not contact some freight forwarders or moving companies in Geneva and Basel - get some quotes (and allow time - they are not always quick). Maybe you get lucky and find a good price, now that the transport industry is not quite as strong as it used to be.

Here's the website of what you can't bring into Australia.

Christmas decorations would be top on their list of things they would hand-check on arrival...

http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/travel/e...alia/cant-take

Brooms are a problem, hides, other animal products, food, tea, 'herbals', plant or plant products and wood...

Some thing can be fumigated...if there is even one suspect item they will either fumigate the whole container, or hand-check and send you the bill..

Bark is a problem - I've noticed lots of decoration and hand-made items here with tree-bark still attached...

Heya

being that we are moving at the start of august i thought to contact a friend of mine who works at quarantine and luckily enough in the imports department. Ha told me that every container coming in the has one importer ,as in its not a shared container, is being searched. Also according to him , if there is any sort of wood on the inventory the whole container will be treated. There are two methods , either fumigation where the container is pumped full of some sort of gas ( i have forgotten which one ) or its treated with gamma irradiation.
Gamma irradiation is limited in the size of things that can be processed ( i enquired with a company used by AQIS for my horse equiptment, Steritech www.steritech.com.au)

We have a quote for our 20 ft container from Schneider Moving Excellence for CHF8,500 door to door meaning that they will pack and unpack for us. Insurance is an extra 2.2% of the value of the goods.

Hope this helps a little
kt