TRADE AGENT UPDATE: Latest Update and Advice on International Moving

We are now in the moving peak season in the UK and thought it might be worth well sharing the latest advice and opinion for international moving.

?Container haulages: There seems to be a slight improvement in obtaining haulages especially for loading at warehouses rather than live loads at residences. Hopefully this is the start of a more sustained improvement but who knows, especially with the train unions striking. If containers/cargo cannot be moved by the trains, then it will have to go by road which means that haulages may become scarcer again.

Shipping line availability: Where do we start with this?

Unfortunately, the shipping lines are still not fully engaged with the “customer service” experience. Some lines communications are terrible. Some are trying to improve but this is from a very low starting point. Some are just so understaffed that they are struggling to cope.

We are seeing that the lines are making short notice changes to their schedules. ONE line recently decided to suspend their Australia/New Zealand service for a month at less than a weeks’ notice. We still have to give a minimum 6 weeks’ notice to Hapag to even hope to get a slot. The Movers Trader Club (MTC) only get a limited amount of slots on each vessel on each service. Once these are full we have to make do with whatever we are offered.

Re: sole use containers - Please be assured that we always try and give you the best price so that it gives you maximum opportunity to book your client’s move. More often than not, the freight is based on the least expensive line to that destination. We can offer alternative solutions but these will come at a cost that sometimes will make your eyes water.?

Re: Groupage containers – The same applies to getting groupage containers away. Sometimes we may have a little flexibility in which line we use depending on price and availability. What we are trying to do is book as many as we can in advance and fill them, on paper, as we get jobs booked into us. To try and be fair to everybody, including our own clients, we try and load groupage consignments in date order received. On occasions this isn’t possible due to the makeup of the container but we do try and stick to this rule where we can.

Transit times: To be brutally honest, we are not even attempting to quote transit times even to our own clients. It is just impossible to give you an even remotely accurate estimation. The extenuating circumstances that can affect transit times are endless. Vessels late arriving into the UK, missing the UK out altogether, containers not being loaded, delays on route at transit ports, agents trying to retrieve the containers from the port are just a few things that can adversely affect transit times.?

Freight prices: Due to our membership of the MTC we do have some stability in freight rates BUT as part of the contracts the shipping lines are allowed to amend their rates based on fuel surcharges. Of course, with the high price of oil, the shipping lines have ensured that they have used this facility to increase their rates at every possible opportunity. Funnily enough, the rates don’t seem to come down as quickly when the oil price falls. We will always try and maintain a competitive and stable freight rate but sometimes, it just isn’t commercially viable to this. When a rate changes, we always let you know as soon as we can.

The freight rates are mainly charged in US dollars. You may be aware that at this time, GBP Sterling is extremely weak against the dollar, therefore this has had an adverse effect on our freight rates. Again, please be assured that we monitor the freight rates on a weekly basis and adjust them accordingly when necessary.

If you have a concern please don’t hesitate to contact us to confirm the rate at the time of booking.

Services at destinations: Movers worldwide have been affected by the initial downturn in business due to Covid. This has led to some companies letting good experienced staff go. Now that there has been a major upturn in shipments arriving, they are struggling to cope with the existing staff and are unable to recruit enough new quality staff to deal with the high volumes they are experiencing. This has led to service failures especially on the communications front. We are now finding that some agents are “cherry picking” with a) who they deal with and b) what they want to service. Recently we had one US agent who gave us 48 hours’ notice that they were unable to deal with any FCL containers consigned to them. Just imagine the panic that caused in our offices especially as we received the message on a Friday evening? Fortunately, due to the high volume of shipments we have, we managed to mitigate some of the problems. We anticipate that this sort of situation will continue, so we strongly recommend that before you book a move, that you check with us about all of the above.

We have seen long delays in many countries for customs/ quarantine clearances. Once again, Covid meant that a lot of Government organisations stood down a lot of good people. In many of the countries, they have not been able to recruit and train enough staff to cope with the demand. This is leading to major delays in clearance worldwide. We have had instances of 4-6 weeks just to get clearances done on both FCL and groupage containers due to lack of staff at Government organisations.?When you then factor in the time to arrange deliveries after clearance, the delays can quickly mount up.?Once again, please be assured our agents are working tirelessly to get consignments cleared and delivered but the backlogs are building daily. We would respectfully ask that you manage your client’s expectations and try to support both JMI and our agents.

Due to the infrastructure problems at destinations worldwide, including the UK, there is a very real possibility that client’s will be expected to cover the costs of any delays at the ports etc. This normally means quay rent and demurrage charges will be passed on by our agents so please ensure that you manage your client’s expectations.?These are legitimate costs incurred by the industry due to port congestion, vessel delays, lack of haulage facilities and storage costs. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about them.

All movers are experiencing rapid rises in costs. We are seeing that agents overseas are having to adjust their tariffs at alarming rates. One US agent has increased their tariff 3 times this year along with recent increases from South African and Canadian agents. We expect more agents to make changes to their tariffs in the near future. We are expecting this will probably be Australia and NZ. Fortunately, due to the high amount of business we put into a lot of these agents, we are able to leverage a) the rate increase and b) the implementation date. Once we know these changes we will adjust our pricing structures to reflect these changes.

That probably covers most of everything at this time. We appreciate that it isn’t easy and we don’t anticipate that it will get any better any sooner. Just be assured that John Mason International will assist you wherever possible but even sometimes we struggle to make a difference.