Just a brief background before I get into the main topic - R2I'd to hometown

(Hyderabad); 11 years in east coast (primarily in NYC metro area); Financial Trader
by profession; Married, 2 yr old son; GC Holder (applying for USC next yr).

SHIPPING:

During the whole process, one usually deals (directly or indirectly) with the
following folks- Booking Agent - The first point of contact and the folks whom we
deal with mostly. For Ex: Air7Seas, Sky2C etc) Shipping Company - The folks who
owns/operates the shipping line. For Ex: MSC, NorthAmericanLines etc. Inland
Transporter - The local transport agency contracted by the shipping company/booking
agent who will haul the container from your house to source port and from
destination port to your house Customs Clearing Agent - The agent (contracted by
the booking agent) who is responsible to clear the goods at destination

A month before our intended ship date, we contacted 3 booking agents (Air7Seas,
WorldWideShipping, Sky2C) and requested for the quotes for LCL and FCL. All three
of them were prompt in providing quotes and were reasonably professional in their
service.

Decided to go with Sky2C because of - a) favorable feedback from previous R2I'rs b)

their quote was the most competitive of the three.

Decided to go for FCL because - a) For our estimated requirement of 600 cu.ft, FCL
was costing same as LCL (I was advised by booking agent that for anything above 450
cu.ft, LCL will cost the same as FCL, as was evident in their quotes. So if your
requirement is 500 cuft or more, then FCL is the way to go) b) Also we decided to
take our furniture and were advised that palletizing is not an option for irregular
shaped items such as furniture. (If one has more than 2 pieces of furniture, then
FCL is preferred/cheaper option)

The whole process of getting quotes, deciding on the shipper, finalizing the
modalities took about 10 days. Since we had enough time, we have decided to do
packing ourselves. It took 2 weeks for us to finish our packing and our final tally
was 104 boxes (incl. furniture items). There are enough informative posts about how
to pack, preparing packing lists etc, thanks to previous R2I'rs, so I will refrain
from details (Should someone has specific Q's about packing, I will respond)

For FCL, once has an option of delivering the goods at shippers warehouse or one
can opt for the container to be brought to your house (they charge about $45/hr for
the driver). We have decided to go with the later option. Also one can request the
transporter/booking agent to get the labor to load the container with them or one
can hire their own help. In our case we decided to hire our own help because it was
cheaper. The transporter will call few days before to confirm the date & time and
address for the container arrival. Things to do a few days (preferable a week)
before the day of container arrival - a) If you live in an apartment complex, you
may be required to take permission with management for container to be parked in
the lot for at least half a day. (If you live in an independent house with ample
street parking, you can get by without taking permission from the city/town
authorities. Confirm with local authorities though). Also if you live in apartment
complex make sure that the container can get close to your unit. The 20ft container
is about 38ft in length (incl. the hauler), so if you do not have big enough sub
roads/parking lot required for wide turns, it may not be possible to get the
container close to your unit. If this is the case, plan accordingly (you may have
to hire more labor to speed up the loading) b) You should arrange for temp labor to
load the containers. The best place to get temp help is from laboready.com. They
have offices all over US. They usually charge about $14/hr/person (with a minimum
of 4 hrs). When you call them, you should ask for the guys who have experience
loading 20ft shipping containers. You will need 2 or 3 guys. You need to notify
them at least 4 days in advance.

The container arrived promptly on the specified date and time. It took about 5 hrs
to load 100+ boxes with the help of 2 guys. The container has capacity of about
1100 cuft. We used up only about 60% of the space. (If one does not have enough
stuff to fill-up the whole container, it is preferable to load in such a way so as
to use up all the space length-wise and width-wise and leave room height-wise. This
is the recommended way of loading a partial container so that goods do not move in
transit. To absolutely make sure that goods do not move, one can get 2x4 planks
from HomeDepot and nail them down to wooden base in the container to secure the
boxes). Since our guys did a good job in loading which resulted in almost a snug
fit without much room for boxes to move, we didn�t bother to use the planks. Once
the loading is done the driver will seal the container in front of us and give a
written confirmation about the number of boxes loaded. The written/printed document
(Inland Transport Bill) also has seal number, container number and contact info of
the transporter and the shipper.

Once container left for warehouse, I contacted the booking agent and faxed a copy
of Transport Bill provided by the transporter. I also sent him a detailed item
list. I was in frequent contact with them to enquire about departure status until
the container left the port. Alternately one can also contact the shipping line
directly to get the status. Once the ship leaves the source port, the booking agent
prepares BL (Bill of Lading) which is the official document listing the number of
items, description of contents and has all the consignment details needed for
customs clearing (incl. the Customs Clearing (CC) Agent's contact info.). From this
point onwards, one usually should deal with CC Agent to find out about the
container arrival status.

The booking agent gave us the following schedule for my consignment -

April 28th - Container Loading at our House and Hauling the container to Shippers
Warehouse May 4th - Container Departure from the Source Port (Elizabeth/Linden, NJ)
June 3rd (+/- 5 days) - Container Arrival in NhavaSeva (Mumbai) Port June 18th -
Container Arrival at ICD (Inland Container Depot), Hyderabad

However, this is how things transpired -

April 28th - Container Loaded at our House and Hauled to Shippers Warehouse (On
Schedule) May 12th - Container Departed (Delayed by week, because the Ship did not
reach Elizabeth port on time because of mechanical problem) June 21st - Container
Arrived in Mumbai Port (Delayed by 10 days, because the ship was struck at
intermediate stop at some port in South America because of unknown problems) July
12th - Container Arrival (by train) at ICD (Inland Container Depot), Hyderabad
(Delayed by a week because of port workers strike in Nhavaseva)

So overall my consignment arrived 25 days later than expected date. Since I was not
in hurry to receive the goods, barring some anxiety, it did not matter much to me.
(From the feedback I got from others, it seems 1 to 2 weeks delay is a common
occurrence. So although the booking agent says that it takes about 45 days from
port to house, plan for additional 2 weeks).

Regarding payment to Sky2C, although I insisted on making half payment when the
container leaves the source port and rest when the goods reach (safely) at the
destination, they said that it is standard industry practice to make full payment
within 30 days from the order date. I am not sure if this is infact a common
practice followed by other agents, but with Sky2C I had no choice but to make full
payment even before my consignment arrived in Mumbai. Also I wanted to pay by
credit card, but they said it would be additional 4%, so I ended up paying by
check.
(Advice for future R2I'rs - Discuss the payment options with booking agent before
you finalize the order and insist on withholding part of payment until the goods
are cleared at the destination. This will give you some recourse in case goods are
delayed/damaged/mishandled)

Sri/-