Container Moving Services
Allied International can provide container moving services that carry goods to any destination in the world. We can ship your household contents safely and smoothly, allowing you to focus on settling your family into their new home overseas.
Our Container Service
We offer a variety of choices of flexible container moving solutions designed to fit our customer’s budget.
Door to Door – This is the most popular option. We take responsibility for the transfer of your entire household inventory. It includes packing and loading at origin and the actual moving of the consignment. After customs clearance at the destination port, we unload and unpack everything at your new home. This option also includes the removal of all packing materials.
Port to Port – The most basic service. Here we only charge for loading household items onto the ship and unloading them at the destination port. You would handle the transfer of your consignment to the port of origin. After the container ship unloads at the destination, you would collect and transfer your consignment to your new home.
Door to Port, Port to Door – These options allow packing and loading at the home of origin, or unloading and unpacking at the destination address. This is a compromise between the above two options.
Whichever solution you choose, you can be assured that we will fulfill our part of the transfer with the utmost professionalism and care.
Freighting By Air, Sea, and Land
Moving containers can be transported by land, sea, or air. For international relocation, it is most common to transfer containers by sea. Air freight is faster, but can be up to ten times more expensive, which is the main reason that it is not a viable option for most relocating families. Even when relocating abroad, at least a small part of the transfer will be over land, either by rail or road. Predominantly, however, most of the distance is covered by sea, which can lead to a transit time of several weeks.
Moving Container Design
Moving containers have been around since the 1960s, but only became standardized in the 1970s. Made from either aluminum or steel, the two common sizes are 20’ and 40’ in length. A 45’ moving container is also sometimes used. There are slightly taller versions of all three called high cube containers.
Moving containers are designed to be conveniently stacked on top of each other. This greatly decreases transit times and reduces the need for costly labor. Their design is to IOS standards and ensures global compatibility. They also meet the highest international environmental and safety standards.
There are four variants of moving containers based on the 20’ and 40’ models. These are:
Standard – Enclosed with a door;
Open Top – The same as Standard, but without a roof;
Flat Rack – The same as Open Top, but minus the longer sides;
Platform – Floor only.
The last three types of moving containers are useful for carrying out-of-gauge cargo. These are goods that are too large for a standard moving container. Break bulk cargo refers to goods that are so large, they are loaded across several flat racks and secured to the vessel’s deck.
Impact on Trade
Since their introduction, the moving trade has grown fourfold. Moving containers have substantially reduced the cost of transporting items abroad. They are now an integral part of the retail supply chain. Before containers, a significant proportion of the cost of any item was its moving. Nowadays for example, a six-pack of soda can be shipped anywhere in the world for just a few cents.
Unit Capacity
The loading capacity of moving containers is measured in TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units). So a 20’ moving container has a 1 TEU capacity; while a 40’ container will have a 2 TEU capacity. Technically, a 45’ moving container should have a 2.25 TEU capacity, but they are usually counted as 2 TEU for logistical purposes.
An average household inventory should fit into one 20’ moving container. Add a car and you would probably have to switch to a 40’ container. Often, it is better to go for two 20’ moving containers than one 40’ container. A 40’ container actually carries fewer goods by weight than a 20’ container because it is itself much heavier.
Today, 90% of non-bulk goods are shipped by container, with the 40’ container being the more prevalent of the two. There are 5,080 container ships in the world, carrying 17.8 million TEUs. A modern container ship can carry over 19,000 TEUs.
Receiving a Quotation
Speak to Allied International today about receiving an accurate quote for sending your house contents or business items abroad by container service. We can secure a great rate for you, regardless of the size and number of items.
Freight rates are calculated by multiplying cargo volume by distance transported. For the needs of calculation, cargo volumes start from 1cu.m.
You can opt to send a FCL (Full Container Load) or a LCL (Less than Container Load). To obtain a realistic LCL volume, you need to add a few centimeters along each dimension to allow for packaging.
Sometimes an FCL rate works out better for your timescale, and the extra cost is justified by the convenience. Purchasing an LCL means you might have to wait a long time before the rest of the container is filled up by other orders. Opting for an LCL is often known as groupage or shared moving and can often mean a tradeoff between lower freight costs and longer moving times.
Again, whether you choose to send by sea, air, road or rail will determine costs. Allied International is a registered non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC). This means we can pass on the best sea freight rates to our clients.
We also include the following options in our quotation:
- Export documentation;
- Payment of customs inspection fees, import duties, etc;
- Guidance on customs formalities and obtaining a swift customs clearance;
- Transit insurance;
- Computerized cargo tracking;
- Long or short-term storage at a secure warehouse or depot close by.
Whatever you wish to transport and wherever you want it transported, Allied International offers among the best container moving service around.
