Nine out of ten household moves overseas travel in a shipping container, and for one reason: nothing else comes close on cost per cubic foot. A container crossing an ocean is the cheapest way ever devised to move a home, and the price of that is time.
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Air freight is priced by the kilo and sea freight by the cubic foot, and for a house full of furniture the difference is roughly tenfold. A three-bedroom home that would cost tens of thousands to fly costs a few thousand to ship. That single fact decides how nearly every international move is structured.
The other advantage is handling. Once your container is loaded and sealed at our warehouse, it is not opened again until it reaches your new home. It is lifted by crane, stacked on a vessel, lifted off and driven to your door. Compared with anything that gets sorted, transhipped and re-sorted along the way, that is remarkably few opportunities for damage.
What you give up is speed, and a degree of certainty. Vessels get delayed, ports get congested, and customs can hold a container for inspection. We plan around that rather than pretending otherwise.
Loaded at your door · Sealed and shipped · Delivered at the other end
The choice is between paying only for the space you use and paying for a box that sails on your schedule. Volume decides which is sensible.
Under roughly 300 cu ft · groupage or LCL
Your belongings travel alongside other consignments bound for the same port, and you are billed for the cubic feet you occupy. Comfortably the cheapest option for part loads and small flats. The cost is time: the container waits to fill, and clears customs as a group, so one other customer's paperwork can hold up yours.
About 1,150 cu ft · 33 m³ · one to two bedrooms
The container is yours alone. It sails as soon as it is loaded rather than waiting to fill, and it clears as a single consignment. Typically two to three weeks quicker than shared space on the same route, and the right answer if your dates are fixed.
About 2,390 cu ft · 68 m³ · three to four bedrooms
The standard for a family home, with room for white goods, garden equipment and often a car loaded alongside the furniture. Costs nothing like twice a 20ft, so the moment you are over about 1,200 cubic feet it is usually the better value.
About 2,700 cu ft · 76 m³ · five bedrooms and up
A foot taller inside than a standard 40ft, which sounds trivial and adds roughly three hundred cubic feet. Worth asking for when you are close to filling a 40ft, because the alternative is a second container.
The most consequential decision on a sea move, and the one people get wrong most often. See how full your load would leave each size.
An indication, not a quotation. Volume varies enormously with what is actually in your cupboards — a fifteen-minute video survey turns this into a fixed price.
Door to door, from UK collection to delivery. The sailing is only part of it — consolidation, clearance and inland delivery account for much of the difference between the two columns.
| Destination | Shared container | Sole-use container |
|---|---|---|
| United Arab EmiratesDubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain | 5–8 weeks | 4–6 weeks |
| United States, east coastNew York, Houston, Miami | 6–9 weeks | 5–7 weeks |
| Canada, eastToronto, Montreal | 5–9 weeks | 4–7 weeks |
| South AfricaCape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria | 7–10 weeks | 6–8 weeks |
| North America, west coastLos Angeles, Vancouver, Calgary | 8–12 weeks | 7–10 weeks |
| SingaporeCentral, East Coast, Bukit Timah, Sentosa | 8–11 weeks | 7–9 weeks |
| Hong KongThe Island, Kowloon, New Territories, Lantau | 8–11 weeks | 7–9 weeks |
| IndiaMumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai | 8–12 weeks | 7–11 weeks |
| MalaysiaKuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu | 8–13 weeks | 7–11 weeks |
| ThailandBangkok, Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai | 9–13 weeks | 8–11 weeks |
| AustraliaSydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide | 10–14 weeks | 9–12 weeks |
| New ZealandAuckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Nelson, Tauranga | 10–15 weeks | 8–13 weeks |
Europe is the exception: a lorry reaches France or Spain in days for less than a container costs, so we send European moves by road instead. Full detail for each destination is in the individual guides, which give port names, local customs requirements and inland delivery times.
Almost everything, is the short answer. These are the six categories that make up nearly every container we load.
The bulk of what we ship
Beds, wardrobes, dining sets, white goods, the loft, the shed and the garden furniture. If you are moving a home rather than a suitcase, this is the service.
Bulky, heavy, cheap to ship
Exactly what sea freight is good at. A sofa costs a fortune to fly and very little to ship. Check voltage and plug standards at destination before committing to appliances.
Inside your container, or separately
A car can travel in a sole-use container alongside the furniture, which is usually cheaper than shipping it on its own. Import rules vary sharply — check the destination guide before you plan on it.
Custom timber crating
Built to measure around the piece, with the crate itself treated to meet international timber standards. Sea transit is long but stable, and a well-crated piece travels better by ship than by air.
A few boxes upwards
Students, second homes, a room of furniture for a relative. Shared container space has no meaningful minimum, so small consignments are priced proportionately rather than penalised.
The honest test
If you will not need it for two or three months, it belongs at sea. If you will need it in the first fortnight, it belongs on a plane. Most moves use both.
Quoted as one price, door to door. Anything not on this list is named in your quotation rather than discovered later.
The part of a sea move nobody explains, and where every delay and unexpected charge originates.
None of this is alarming and most of it is invisible when it goes well. It is worth understanding because the two things that cost customers money — examinations and demurrage — both happen here.
Free time, examination fees and terminal charges differ by port and change. We tell you the current position for your route in writing before the container sails.
Working backwards from your flight.
Book the survey and confirm the quotation. Start any destination paperwork that needs an appointment or a permit.
Decide what ships, what sells and what goes into store. Begin cleaning anything a quarantine officer will look at.
Complete the valued inventory for customs and insurance. Separate the air freight and the suitcases.
We pack and load over one to three days. The container is sealed and the seal number recorded on your documents.
We lodge the entry, deal with any examination, and book delivery once the shipment is released.
By volume, in cubic feet or cubic metres, not by weight. A shared container consignment is billed for the space you occupy; a sole-use container is a flat rate for the box whether you fill it or not. That is why the shared-or-sole decision matters so much, and why an accurate survey is worth the fifteen minutes.
Below about 300 cubic feet, shared is almost always cheaper. Above roughly 1,200, a sole-use 40ft usually wins on both cost and time. In between it is a genuine trade-off between money and two or three weeks, and we will show you both prices rather than choose for you.
Yes. You get the vessel name, the sailing date, the bill of lading number and the container number, which lets you follow the ship. What we cannot promise is precision: schedules move, and a vessel that misses a berthing window can lose days. We tell you when it changes.
Tell us early and we move the goods into storage at destination before the port's free days expire. Leaving a container at the terminal is the expensive option, because demurrage is charged daily and rises the longer it sits.
It is not compulsory, and we would still strongly advise it. Carrier liability is limited to a fraction of what your belongings are worth, and general average means you can be asked to contribute to a shared loss even when your own goods are untouched. Cover is priced on the value you declare.
In a sole-use container, usually yes, and it is normally cheaper than shipping the vehicle separately. Whether you should is a different question: import approval, emissions and safety standards vary enormously, and in several countries a UK car cannot be registered at all. Check the destination guide first.
Aerosols, paints, fuels, gas cylinders and other hazardous goods are prohibited outright. Beyond that the restrictions are set by your destination: food, plants, timber, soil and outdoor equipment are commonly quarantined or refused. We give you a written list for your specific country before packing.
Rarely, and usually we advise against it. A lorry reaches most of Europe in a few days for less than a container costs, with no port handling at either end. See our European road freight page. Sea makes sense for Cyprus, Malta and the more distant islands.
Tell us roughly what and roughly where. A consultant will come back within one working day to arrange a survey.