Customs duties

You can’t do much about customs duties. Your destination country will tax your cargo whether you like it or not, along with fees such as port service charges and terminal handling charges. However, these will vary from port to port so you should speak to your shipping company beforehand about what to expect. Our key piece of advice is to declare everything you’re bringing into the country and don’t take anything that isn’t allowed.

Container inspection fees

With the technological advance of electronic scanning machines, it’s unlikely that your container will be physically inspected. In the USA, just 5% of inbound containers receive physical inspection, and it’s even less common in European ports. However, if the scans give customs staff any reason to be suspicious then your container will most likely be opened and investigated. In this scenario, shipping companies will usually ask you to cover all the charges incurred by this process.

General Rate Increase (GRI)

A General Rate Increase (GRI) is the average rise in base shipping rates implemented by shipping companies. They are designed to cover the continually increasing costs faced by freight carriers and they occur very regularly (sometimes once a month). A continual cycle occurs: shipping companies implement GRIs, demand falls, they lower their prices, demand rises and another GRI is implemented. This is what makes container shipping prices so volatile.

Consequently, once your Cargo Ready Date (CRD) has been agreed with your shipping company, be sure to check whether it falls before or after a new GRI as this can make a significant difference to the price.

Inland delivery charges

You need to make sure that your shipping company is clear with you about what service they are providing. They might only be offering you a port-to-port rate, which means they’ll deliver your container to its destination port and then you’ll have to deal with it after that. This can often be more costly than opting for a full door-to-door service and it’s a bunch of logistics that you probably don’t want to deal with. Be kind to yourself and make sure your container is being taken all the way to your new home.

Quarantine fees

Quarantine fees sound like a thing reserved solely for animals, but this is not the case in some countries. In Australia, for example, people there are worried about foreign pests (eg. insects or bacteria) disrupting their ecosystem. Officials will inspect all items coming into the country, looking for unclean pieces of furniture and outdoor equipment. This inspection comes with a fee, along with further charges if they find something that shouldn’t be coming in. It’s important that you know about any quarantine process before you start packing your belongings, so speak to your shipping company.