Shipping your personal effects to Africa

sendapack.com has compiled this information page to help you understand what happens when you ship your goods to the various countries in Africa, and to inform you of procedures once your goods arrive.

The page describes how you can help with the smooth clearance of your goods through Customs, so please try and take time to read the information. Do contact us if you require further clarification of any of the points outlined below - we are all available to help you.

General

Please mark your shipment clearly with your name and overseas address. Give us as many accurate destination contact details as possible. Most African countries postal system can sometimes be a bit unreliable, and our agents have found in the past that some of their correspondence to clients has been returned to them undelivered.

If you have a separate mailing address such as a PO Box number or a business address where you have better mail service than to your home address, please give this to us to pass on to our agent. Where possible, please give us a home telephone number, work or daytime telephone number or a mobile number and if you have one, a fax number where you can be reached.

Loading and transit

Your goods will be shipped by what is known as a 'groupage' service. This is a shipping container that is loaded with other personal effects shipments such as your own. When there are sufficient goods to fill the container, it is then booked on a vessel. This consolidation of shipments usually takes between one and eight weeks depending on how much cargo is already available, and will vary during busy or quiet periods throughout the year. Occasionally, to avoid consolidation delays we may elect to load e.g. Cape Town cargo in a Durban container, and vice versa, but when this happens, we cover the overland transport charges to the destination port.

The actual vessel sailing time to the entry ports of most African countries is four and six weeks respectively. This means your goods will usually arrive at the port some time between eight and twelve weeks after collection. This transit time is subject to sailing dates that may sometimes be changed by the shipping lines without prior notification; or to port congestion or other delays which also occasionally occur.

Please take this into account if you require your goods by a particular date. On arrival at the port, the container will be hauled to our agent's depot where it will be unloaded and the shipments will await Customs clearance.

Delivery to your home town/destination of goods

We aim to have delivered to your goods to your door step within 8 to 12 days after vessel arrival, assuming you have supplied all the necessary documents to clear Customs.

We at sendapack.com provide a 24hr 365 days tracking service free of charge where you can track your shipment from the time we collect to the time it is cleared at your designated destination so giving you a peace of mind on your precious shipment.

Freight charges

It is to your advantage to ship your goods on a door to door basis This means you do not have to pay again in your home country for container uplift; haulage, unloading, handling, Customs clearance, and the final delivery to your residence. If you have paid to 'arrival port' only, you will have to pay these charges to the destination agent. We are a bulk buyer of destination services and we obtain these services at rates lower than a member of the public will pay.

Consequently, in most cases you will find that It can be more expensive to ship to 'arrival port' and then pay destination charges, than it is to pay initially for door to door shipment. The term 'arrival port' is a shipping term which refers to the payment of freight charges and does not mean you can collect your goods directly at the port to do your own Customs clearance. The whole container is consigned to our agent who will unload at their own bond store. Shipments paid to 'arrival port' e.g. Mombasa or Port Elizabeth or to 'arrival depot' Johannesburg or Nairobi will be routed through either Cape Town or Durban or for Kenya Mombasa. The transport charge to move the goods to these destination ports or depots from the entry port will be met by us, but unless you have paid for door to door shipment, all other destination charges will apply. If you have paid for a door to door shipment, the costs of container uplift from the wharf, haulage to depot, unloading, notification; 'Customs' clearance, and delivery to your residence are covered. Other possible charges which are not covered will be informed when we take your booking.

Shipment classification

There are two classifications personal effects and household effects Both these shipments are subject to Customs examination; shipments which are classed as Household effects may be examined at Customs' discretion. In most African countries, examination is at Customs discretion irrespective of how the shipment is classed, but in any case you will only be billed if examination has taken place. The charge for Customs examination will be advised to you upon booking and must be paid in local currency to the agent prior to delivery. Please note that this charge if levied is not covered by any payments already made in the UK.

'Personal effects' shipments are those which consist solely of items of a personal nature, i.e. clothes, shoes, books, CD's, cassettes, videos, letters, photos, etc. Any other shipments which exclude furniture, hi-Pt, television; or items which cannot be seen as purely 'personal' items are classed as 'Household effects.'

On Arrival

The container carrying your goods will be consigned to our appointed agent in your destination country, who will collect it from the port and unload all the shipments into their bonded store where Customs clearance will take place As soon as we load a container, we send our agent a 'prealert' advice so that they know which consignments are on the way. If you call the agent for information, they will be able to let you know when your goods are due at the port, as well as being able to help you with any queries which you may have. Before the vessel arrives, an arrival notification will be sent by our agent to your destination address, together with a request for any documents which you have not already supplied which may be required to clear your goods.

If you have paid freight charges to 'arrival port' only, you will also receive an invoice for destination services as described in an earlier paragraph. The name of agent will be adviced to you upon booking your goods.

Tracking

We at sendapack.com provide a 24hr 365 days tracking service free of charge where you can track your shipment from the time we collect to the time it is cleared at your designated destination so giving you a peace of mind on your precious shipment.

All information on this sheet is given for guidance only, and although we believe it to be correct at the time of writing, we do not accept any liability for errors, omissions, inaccuracies or misinterpretation. All charges, regulations and procedures are liable to change without notice. sendapack.com