Shipping from Asia to UK

[AC123]

Hi

I've seen a bit of an opportunity in shipping something from Pakistan to the UK.

I have quotes from various suppliers delivered to Liverpool Docks (my nearest port). What would I need to do when it's there? I have a Warehouse and a haulier about 50 miles away, although my haulier only has curtain sider lorries. I take it my shippiing container would have to be hauled from the docks to my warehouse and then returned?

Not an area I've been in before so any hints, tips and advice would be very useful.

Thanks

[davepoth]

Most freight companies will quote the haulage if you ask them nicely.

Make sure you take into account any duty, as well as other import requirements, as they can be very expensive. If you need some supporting documentation it may need to be produced in advance.

[N8CYL]

You can PM me if you like. I am a freight forwarder and can help you with this. I bring stacks of stuff into the UK from Pakistan.

No need to use me but I can tell you what you need to do.

Just need to know whether its a full container load or part load in a shared container. Which shipping line you or your supplier is using.

Customs and VAT etc can all be sorted easily as can haulage with a container truck. You will need to offload the truck on its arrival at your place.

The costs will be port clearance, import documentation, UK haulage. If its shared then you will also need to pay for the devanning of the container and storage if delayed for any reason.

[951TSE]

You will have to unload the container on the spot when it's delivered. It's very unlikely that the driver of the truck will help you and you can't keep the container to unload at your leisure.

The easiest way to do it is by fork truck or pallet truck onto a loading dock, the hardest way is by hand.

[All that jazz]

951TSE said:

You will have to unload the container on the spot when it's delivered. It's very unlikely that the driver of the truck will help you and you can't keep the container to unload at your leisure.

The easiest way to do it is by fork truck or pallet truck onto a loading dock, the hardest way is by hand.

This.

On deep sea boxes (which yours will be) the driver doesn't touch the load. All his job entails is the wheels to bring it from the port to you. The box is yours for you to do what you want with, but it stays on the back of the truck and you'll get max 4 hours (sometimes less) to completely unload it including removing all dunnage so that it can be taken to the next customer for reloading or you'll be charged a hefty demurrage cost. Driver will open and close the container doors but the rest is down to you, including breaking the bolt seal when it arrives so make sure you have a big pair of bolt cutters.

On short sea box work (Eire-UK generally) the driver is often required to help tip/load but short sea work is different rules.

[AC123]

Great information, thanks chaps. My haulier does have a wagon with a moffat so unloading the container shouldn't be impossible. It would be tonne tote bags coming across so whilst I could probably do with the exercise, hand balling is out the question

N8 - that would be great, thanks. I will get an ex price & location and drop you a PM.

Cheers

[All that jazz]

AC123 said:

Great information, thanks chaps. My haulier does have a wagon with a moffat so unloading the container shouldn't be impossible. It would be tonne tote bags coming across so whilst I could probably do with the exercise, hand balling is out the question

N8 - that would be great, thanks. I will get an ex price & location and drop you a PM.

Cheers

The Moffat goes with the truck or trailer it's mounted on. Whichever one it's on won't be able to carry an ISO container so if you want to use his Moffat then he'll need to come to your site in his truck separately to the one which brings your box, unless he leaves his Moffat with you in between jobs.

Also, 1 tonne tote bags? Are they bulk bags like they use for aggregate? You could well find yourself attracting a lot of unwanted customs attention given the origin of the goods. What is it that you're importing? I'd recommend you speak to N8CYL about that as he'll be more clued up on any potential issues I'd say.

[AC123]

All that jazz said:

The Moffat goes with the truck or trailer it's mounted on. Whichever one it's on won't be able to carry an ISO container so if you want to use his Moffat then he'll need to come to your site in his truck separately to the one which brings your box, unless he leaves his Moffat with you in between jobs.

Also, 1 tonne tote bags? Are they bulk bags like they use for aggregate? You could well find yourself attracting a lot of unwanted customs attention given the origin of the goods. What is it that you're importing? I'd recommend you speak to N8CYL about that as he'll be more clued up on any potential issues I'd say.

I was thinking Moffat on the back of the curtain sider, take off at port, open container doors, move product from container to curtain sider, container empty and he buggers off to do whatever he wants to do, Moffat goes back onto curtain sider and he comes back tot he warehouse?

Lump rock salt, yes bulk bags. Just waiting for collection info before giving N8 a shout

[Shelsleyf2]

If your seller ships a lot of his production internationally he probably will get better rates than you, also have a price door to door ( I have a friend who imports by container load and will now only ship this way and his seller can get better rates than he can) Door to Door avoids " surprises" in add on costs. The industry term is DDP I think.

Just my limited experience ................

Edited by Shelsleyf2 on Friday 23 December 11:14

[All that jazz]

AC123 said:

I was thinking Moffat on the back of the curtain sider, take off at port, open container doors, move product from container to curtain sider, container empty and he buggers off to do whatever he wants to do, Moffat goes back onto curtain sider and he comes back tot he warehouse?

Lump rock salt, yes bulk bags. Just waiting for collection info before giving N8 a shout

Right, I'm with you. I'm not sure if you can do that on the docks though - depending on which port it is the straddler cranes will be wanting to put it on a skeletal trailer or a flatbed with twist locks. If you want to transship the load on the dockside I think you will have to engage a third party to get it from the stack to where you are and there's bound to be a cost for doing that and no doubt a bunch of H&S. I've done a lot of container transportation off the various docks in my time but that's a bit of an odd way of doing it. To be honest I think for the 50 miles transportation it might work out cheaper just to have the shipping agent get it delivered to you by a container haulier rather than you messing about with the box on the docks where you would need to source your own strong ramps in order for your Moffet to be able to drive into the box in the first place (Moffet's only have limited manoeuvrability and extremely limited ground clearance). Remember you'll still have to pay your haulage man to go to the docks and fetch the load and bring it to your place.

Do you have somewhere at your warehouse for the container truck to reverse onto, like a loading dock? If so I'd get the seller to put the bulk bags on pallets then invest in a pallet truck to wheel them off at your end, or borrow one for a fiver from your neighbouring businesses. If you don't then if it's going to be a regular thing you may want to invest in a proper container loading ramp (old one on Ebay for £1600, more typically £3-5k) or a hydraulic lifting platform for about a grand. You could also consider giving a company called ContainerLift a call - they have cranes front and back to lift the container onto the ground for you so you can unload it. http://www.containerlift.co.uk/