Shipping Your Belongings to Australia

Online, December 13, 2009 (Newswire.com) - Shipping to Australia ones belongings can be a dubious task at best. Especially for someone who has not previously moved overseas, packing, shipping, clearing customs delivering and unpacking in Australia can be overwhelming. If one does want to familiarize himself with the process, it pays to start at the beginning. Run a search on Google for information on shipping to Australia. There are lots of sites full of information, and even some who can help you estimate what your move will cost. For starters, if you know approximately what shipping will cost, you can budget your move more wisely. It may be cheaper and easier not to take every last piece of furniture and rather spend a day shopping for furniture once in Australia.

The cost of shipping to Australia by air is prohibitive, and should not be used for moving personal belongings. Shipping by sea may not be as fast but is much more economic. Next is to decide on whether to pack belongings oneself or to have professional shippers do the packing. Although a great deal of money can be saved by self packing, insurance companies are more reluctant to insure your move for damages. They may even hike up the premium in order to discourage you. If one does decide to personally pack belongings get as accurate an estimate as possible of volume of the belongings. There are many online tools where one can get for relatively accurate estimates on volume. With most tools one just picks the number of rooms and lists the furniture and appliances for each room. There is most often a field for mentioning the number and size of boxes that have been packed as well. Online tools are also great for getting approximate quotes that can later be used for negotiating with other companies. This can help save hundreds of dollars on shipping costs.

But the only way to get a truly accurate quote is for the representative of the shipping company to personally view the site to be removed. There are many other issues the movers will take into account when giving a quote. What floor is the site to be moved on, can close can the moving truck get to the site, is there an elevator, are just some of the variables movers need to know. This option leaves you with an exact quote for the site that was seen. The quote should contain a complete and accurate summary of all items that are going to be shipped and what the final cost will be.