How to avoid shipping company going bust at the other end?

[kaoticturtle]

Hi everyone

 

One of my friends is having a nightmare at the moment. Her and her partner shipped about 3 cubic metres of belongings from the UK to Australia through a UK company that doesn't have its own network at the other side. To cut a long story short, after their goods arrived in Australia the company that was contracted to take them from the port to their place has gone bust. The UK company has been very responsive and it looks like they should hopefully see their things in a few weeks but they have still been having a lot of problems tracking down where their boxes are (the phones lines went dead for the bust company...) and how they are going to get them back. Not to mention that they have now been without their belongings for a lot longer than they originally anticipated!

 

My question is this: How do you choose a shipping company to minimise this type of risk? Are there any companies that have their own network at both ends? Do some of the companies always use the same (trusted) shipping companies in Oz rather than just giving it to the lowest bidder? Or, is this a one off and am I being a bit over paranoid?

 

This is something that I have no prior experience with and I hadn't even really given any thought to who would complete the last stage of the journey. I'm just starting the process of choosing a company and I'm putting in a lot of thought into who I trust at this end so I'm a bit worried that my belongings are going to end with the lowest bidder at the other end :arghh:

 

Thank you!

KT

[jgt]

We just had in pss so i hope their ok, hope all gooes wel for you

[KirstyLP]

this is a great question given the current economic climate.

 

each company will work differently in terms of who they use in Australia, some will have own branches, some (like the company i work for) will be part of a long established network so use the same agents regularly, others will select from members of professional associations and others will simply go to the lowest bidder....There are a couple of things you can take into account in choosing your shipper which will greatly reduce the risk for you.

 

Make sure your mover is FIDI FAIM certified in the UK AND that they are using a FIDI FAIM member in Australia. The FAIM accreditation includes examination and audit of a companies finances, so certain levels of financial stability have to be met in order to achieve accreditation. This doesn't completely eliminate the chance of financial difficulty but certainly reduces the risk.

 

Secondly, use a member of the BAR Overseas group in the UK (as well as FIDI, not instead of!). This is who you are contracted with and BAR Overseas members offer the BAR advance payment guarantee. This means if your mover goes out of business then the BAR will arrange for another member to step in and complete the remainder of the service at no additional cost to you, so you wont have to sort all of this yourself and you wont be out of pocket as a result.

 

Hope that helps!