Blog

Moving overseas during the pandemic 2021

Monday, 1st November 2021

We have been helping people to move around the world for longer than we care to remember indeed we’ve been doing it for longer than living memory.

Whilst the World Wars doubtless caused difficulties far greater than the ones we are currently experiencing; we can’t remember a time that was more volatile and difficult to navigate both for customers and us.

There are many factors that are influencing the volatility. These include uneven demand for sea and air freight as certain countries effectively close their borders. This has meant that there are too many containers in one place and not enough in another. The demand for certain consumer goods has increased hugely as lockdowns have eased and some consumers have found themselves with unexpected cash in their pockets. This in turn has caused demand for freight to increase and has seen large manufacturing operations effectively bulk buy freight and either price the smaller guys out or simply take up all available capacity.

This lumpiness in demand and supply has also caused certain ports to be overwhelmed to the point of either huge delays or simply closing and rerouting vessels to other ports which are not necessarily en-route to the final destination.

Volatile fuel costs are also causing prices to vary wildly and labour shortages globally within the supply chain are making onward delivery of goods or even customs clearance more difficult than before.

Some common destinations like the USA have seen freight rates triple with little if any notice from the shipping lines, some less common destinations have seen rates increase 13-fold.

What does this mean for our customers?

Essentially what this means is that any international move is a little more unpredictable than usual. Unfortunately, you may find that the price you have been given increases suddenly as the rate we are paying for freight has been increased, you may also experience significant delays and charges at destination which you have not anticipated.

Lots of people are moving internationally but we believe it’s important that you are aware of the difficulties beforehand.

What are we doing about it?

Unfortunately, as these factors are beyond our control there is very little we can do. What we can say is that we have been in business a long time and intend to continue for a long time.

We will do our very best to help you and advise where we can.

What we will not do is profiteer and exploit the situation for our benefit. We will work with you to make the process as smooth as it possibly can be.

The British Association of Removers, the largest professional trade body of the UK moving industry has produced the following guide which may provide further insight. Click here to read.

• 2022 Shipping Expectations - BAR October 2021