Journey Of Your Shipping Container

Allow us to give you a glimpse of what happens after we pick up your container shipping. First of all, your container or barrel begins a fascinating journey. If you are reading this and located in Florida, it’s likely we would have personally picked up your shipping, you may have seen it loaded on to the truck – and hopefully, as we drove off, you would have downloaded our app for special offers :o).

Depending on the day of the week, we then personally transport all pickups to Miami. We then ensure that your shipping is loaded onto the container vessel, the ship sets sail and crosses the oceans to your destination. For example, shipping to Georgetown, Guyana from Miami is approximately 2216 nautical miles (around 4105 km). Now, depending on the speed the crossing can take up to 9 days to arrive in Georgetown, Guyana. 

On arrival, it’s unloaded and picked up by our organised partnering forwarding agency and efficiently delivered to the consignee.

Let’s assume that you are a company in Florida and you are selling items to a store Barbados. You quickly have two options: ship by air or by vessel. If you have plenty to ship, then a container would be advised. This begins with the customs clearance that we take care for you (and included in all our low shipping shipment rates). The container you are shipping will be loaded, sealed and secured with a seal number, this prevents anyone from opening or tampering with the container until it’s reached its destination. 

Different carriers (vessels) usually have their own routes and hubs for transferring the container. If your container reaches one of the transhipment ports, this will mean it will be unloaded from the vessel and stowed again in the waiting port area. The container will then have to wait for the next vessel sailing the final destination port.

These steps can indeed cause a delay to your shipping if not booked on a direct route. 

When the container has arrived, it will be unloaded, cleared through customs (like we have to when we embark a plane) and then customs may want to examine the shipment and this when officials have the right to unseal the container for the first time since it left your property. This is why it’s essential to detail what you are shipping as if you are shipping a car and state it’s a bike then customs will be suspicious, and this causes more delays.

HERE ARE A FEW TIPS FOR SHIPPING YOUR CONTAINERS

We can provide telephone advice, in the meantime, pack your cargo as perfect as can be and secure them. For example, if you are shipping a car you wouldn’t want to leave the handbrake off. The sea movies have some truth, and the oceans can be very tough and severe. Ask us about insurance.