Are you moving abroad or setting up new trade relationships overseas? Do you need to ship personal effects to family members? Or perhaps you are regularly sending products to foreign customers but need to cut costs? Well, sharing is caring in this situation – in more ways than one!
The Problem of Empty Space
Getting personal belongings or company goods to where they need to be overseas– in an affordable way – can cause a considerable headache. Many shipping arrangements are designed for small amounts of goods or items. However, when you have a lot of boxes or bulky items such as furniture travelling overseas, you could well need to hire a suitable shipping container.
This would have to be made of steel and specially manufactured for this purpose, to be capable of keeping your items safe and meeting shipping regulations and guidelines. But most steel containers will be much bigger than you need, and it doesn’t make sense to pay for all that empty space just to ship stuff overseas.
If you’re concerned that the container you’ve chosen might be too big for your needs, don’t worry; you will not be the only one facing this dilemma. Sharing a shipping container could save you thousands of pounds, as you will share all the costs with other individuals or companies.
How to Organise Shared Shipping Containers
While there are organisations that specialise in renting you space in shared shipping containers, including companies that focus on particular destinations, it is also relatively straightforward to make your own arrangements.
There’s more about site cabin hire below, but the general principle is that you need to find one that can easily accommodate shared shipping arrangements. Doing it yourself can cut costs considerably while giving you more freedom over how much of the container space you use for your own personal effects or goods.
Once you have sourced a reliable and affordable steel container hire company, you need to map out how you are going to fill your container. Then you can talk to shipping firms to get the best deals. Shop around carefully, as the price could vary greatly. It also makes sense to find a courier or shipping expert that can help you with the paperwork involved, as the admin and customs duties for each country varies. Completing necessary paperwork accurately could be the difference between your shared container arriving safely or being returned to where it started. You could even face hefty fines for breaching the customs rules in your destination country.
Information on shipping rules across the world is now readily available on the internet if you don’t want to rely on a courier to help you with the paperwork for your shared shipping container.
Care in Filling Shared Containers
If you are sharing steel containers for overseas transportation of goods or belongings, it’s important to check that the other people or companies involved are all on the same page as you.
Have they filled in the customs paperwork and other admin documents properly? Have they packaged up and secured their consignments in a way that keeps the entire container’s contents safe during transportation?
Shared Containers vs. Fast Overseas Shipping
One of the few disadvantages of arranging to transport items in a shared steel shipping container is that you may need to wait. It may take a while to track down enough people or companies who want to send items to the same destination as you, or there could be a delay in them being ready to fill their portion of the container, which means that you may still need to go it alone, if you need a shipping container in a hurry.
Flintham Cabins has a range of units available and can even create bespoke containers for companies who want to ship goods abroad on a regular basis. Providing steel containers for food products as well as anti-vandal units for routes and destinations with increased risks, we can accommodate a diverse range of demands. Give us call today to discuss how hiring one of our steel containers could solve your shipping needs.
