Need to cut shipping costs...

[sam.r]

Looking at saving on our shipping and looking for some reccomendations.

I had a search and thought I would start a new thread as prices are always changing.

At present we received low value items by air once every 3 months from HK.

Its not a big order but at least 50 cartons and the last order was around 500 kgs.

We are looking into shipping by sea if we get our timing right and how this will affect the prices.

How long does it normally take by sea? and how much cheaper is it roughly?

At the moment we are using UPS any other reccomendations for both air and sea?

[ACEparts_com]

We ship from far east to our door a 20ft container and it typically costs about £1500 :S
The handlers come up with such an array of charges for stuff it's amazing

[sam.r]

How long does that take Alan?

[p1carl]

Normally takes about 28 days and is roughly 6 times cheaper. You can go for a 'Half way house' and use a combination of an air/ocean service which cuts the transit time to around 20 days and costs midway between the two.
Give me shout if you'd like to discuss specifics.

Regards,

Carl

[ACEparts_com]

Yes, about 28 days BUT twice the boat has arrived only for the handlers to inform me that my container (and others) was transferred on to another ship half way along the transit due to overloading or some such adding another 15 days to the schedule.

[Jasper Gilder]

Try having a chat with one of the freight forwarders. I did a lot of work with Exel about five years ago - now DHL. They have a specialist freight forwarding division doing sea and air

If you want to stick with air try and find a consolidator, these guys take small(ish)consignments and put them together to keep costs down ( or make profit)

See what kind of a deal you can do