shipping cost

Hi Tammy,

It is hard to say whether or not that is a high quote because most of th details are missing, such as where these goods are shipping from and what is included in the various charges you were quoted.

I think the only way you are really going to be able to determine whether or not the pricing is high is to call around and obtain other quotes.

Unfortunately, Viking is the only local moving company I am familiar with, but you might also want to contact stateside companies that handle long-distance moves.

Good luck :)!

Sorry Mell.
I guess it would be helpfull to were we are coming from. We live in Norfolk Virginia, which is on the coast of Virginia.
Thanks,
Tammy

Hi again Tammy,

Perhaps someone else here on the board knows of some other local shippers that they can refer you too, but you might also want try contacting some moving companies in VA.

Also, why don't you try contacting some of the shipping companies directly? The two that I know of are Crowley and Tropical -- both have websites with contact info. There are probably others as well, but I think Crowley and Tropical are the two most widely used around here.

Hope this helps :)!

It's costing me "about" $3k to ship my car from AZ. I know that it is $900 to get it to FL. The $3K is figuring taxes, fees and paying Flemming to handle all of the transaction fees and Licensing.
IMHO, I think you are safer having a company in the USVI "pull" the stuff there, rather then someone in the states trying to "push it there. If it gets lost or rerouted in transit, someone on that end is looking for it, and will have a better idea how to correct the problem. A lot of shippers are just middlemen brokers. They deal with different shippers.
When I shipped my security gates from AZ. in August, I used Flemming. They ended up on STT, because the boat that was supposed to go to STX changed it's destanation mid trip. Fleming missed it, and took caree of finding it and getting it to STX with only a day's delay. Witha shipper sending it from the states, it would have probably been up to me to figure it was late, call the shipper to try and have him track it down, ETC, ETC,.:(

Thanks again everyone. I will contact Crowley and Tropical on Monday unless they are open on the weekend. Have a nice weekend.
Tammy

So much involved. Crowley can ship from Philadelphia area; Tropical will need to truck/train container and car to Fl. It costs to get container to you and then to port. Who's packing container? Trucker delivers container for packing, you only get 2 hours to load, then pay extra for every hour, more for overnight. Do you know how to load properly? Who will do export paperwork? Buying insurance--need information, etc. Who's going to clear load when it arrives in VI (customs, excise)? Hire trucker to deliver to your home etc? Unload? Pay trucker to take empty container back to port? This is what you pay others for--some a little, some a lot. You can buy any degree of this from just the shipping to a door-to-door white glove move.
We do most of this ourselves, once every few years. We can load a 40 foot in about 4 hours, with help, when we prep beforehand, but that can take hours or days. Shipping prices have escalated in the past year or so--thousands more than they were, more fees and taxes too. Paperwork is more now too. The first time I did the new SED (shippers export form) it took me hours, working against Crowley's shipping cutoff time, till I found out what they really wanted and then it took me about ten minutes--stress!. We have a commercial location where the trucker can come and we load the container--the first time, we did it in front of our house with a 20' container, and helpers, and it still took lots of hours to load, but nothing got broken. We have used truckers on stx who were terrible--took 2 days to deliver the container to our house, after promising hourly and daily that it was on the way, and then didn't come pick it up either--and someone pays demurrage if it sits for too long. Other truckers are great. The VI excise person in Gallows Bay interprets the law her way (unlike everyone else, and I'm told not in accordance with the law), but mostly the folks you deal with clearing at the container port are good--but there too, sometimes knowing someone helps facilitate (and we don't pay bribes, nor has anyone sought one), but just telling them you are new at it and asking for help often works wonders too.
So--your container price---depends on what you were getting for the money.
The car--were they taking it from your house and bringing it to the port? Did that include insurance during the shipping? Road tax? Any customs due? We can't tell if the price is fair without knowing what you are getting for the money. You will likely find a wide spread of prices if you keep checking though. It is important to insure that you are comparing the same services.