Before you make your purchase overseas you’ll want to know what the shipping is going to cost, so we’ve put together some pre-purchase information to help you along the way.
Getting a realistic shipping quote?
The key piece of information for a quote is to have the dimensions as accurate as possible, as this ensures your quote is accurate with no surprises. If you don’t know the exact dimensions that’s not a problem, but do let us know that they are estimates so we can take that into account. We have a lot of experience in all manner of machinery, yachts, vehicles etc. and may have shipped a similar item previously that we can base measurements on. We’ll need to know the weight, but an estimate is normally okay because in most cases you’re charged on the volume not the weight. The last piece of information we need is where you are shipping from and to.
If you’re not sure about any of these figures because you haven’t purchased the item yet then talk to us and we can advise on which ports are best suited and most economical for the goods you are shipping.
Can you give me a ballpark figure?
Yes certainly in many cases we can give you a ballpark shipping cost. If you’re shipping something between destinations we regularly ship to with items we ship regularly like a car between Australia and New Zealand, then because we ship these items every day we can easily give you a ballpark figure.
Where we can’t easily give a ballpark figure is when you have something like a plane or helicopter and you don’t know the dimensions when it’s broken down for shipping, because we don’t know what loading configurations are available or what the costs may be for you to land your helicopter directly in the port.
These are case by case shipping situations and it can require considerable time and effort to put together accurate prices, and because there’s a large price difference in most cases between containerised cargo and break bulk (RORO), the estimated price may be far too high or too low.
When asking for a quote let us know if you just need an estimate and we’re happy to help, if it looks viable for you then we can firm up a full price once all the details are known.
What other costs do I need to be aware of?
The main extra which we don’t include in our quotation, are the taxes and duties. This is because tax is calculated at the time of importation, on the exchange rate that Customs has set. Often at the time of quotation we don’t know the manufacturing origin of the goods, so we can’t advise if any duties are payable; in addition, each country’s taxes and duties are different and change constantly.
The other cost which is variable are the quarantine charges and associated costs. Because we don’t know the exact amount we use either a minimum charge, which covers a single quarantine inspection, or we charge a quarantine deposit which we calculate based on our previous experience. We then refund you the difference back should your goods not require any treatment, or in cases where there is considerable contamination charges then this will be an additional charge.
