International Removals

F Smith & Son are committed to providing a Quality, Reliable and Personal service. F Smith & Son has been trading for over 75 years giving us the wealth of knowledge that is required to maintain a successful and professional removals company. We offer a 1st class service to all of our clients relocating Internationally.

We have a complete relocation package that can help you, whether you are relocating for business or personal reasons.

To be able to deliver this level of service, our staff are trained to a high standard and are experienced in problem solving and overcoming any difficulties encountered whilst carrying out your removal. Our specialist export team will follow the following process when carrying out any International shipment.

With our worldwide network of fully bonded agents, F Smith & Son are able to offer relocation services for all popular migrant routes and a large number of other destinations. We pride ourselves in offering a hassle free, safe and efficient relocation service.

International locations are generally deemed as those outside of the EU where goods must be cleared through customs to enter the country or remote European islands such as Malta.

When shipping goods to International locations by sea or air, we recommend that your goods are packed and wrapped by our highly trained team of specialists to greatly reduce the risk of damage whilst in transit (however this is not a requirement of our service and you can pack the goods yourself should you wish, we can provide packing materials for you to do so).

Our packing team will protect your goods to a high standard using the best packing materials available to us.

A detailed packing list will be created before removing the goods from your home. This will identify each item to be shipped by name, number and shipping method.

Bulky items such as Upright / Grand Pianos, Grandfather clocks, Fragile Mirrors etc may require accurate measurements and custom built wooden crates to be made to ensure they receive the correct level of protection whilst in transit.

To ensure that your goods arrive at your destination of choice in good time for your arrival we offer two forms of shipment, by air or by sea.

This service allows for your goods to be sent directly to the destination of your choice in the shortest time possible. Clients will usually send their essential items such as clothes and important paperwork by this method in order to get set up for short term living in a new country. This service is the ideal method for essential goods due to the speed in which we can get the goods to your destination. However we wouldn't advise this for all goods being shipped due to the premium cost associated with this service. For shipments by air charges are based on size and weight.

Shipping goods by sea is the slower but more economical way of moving goods around the world. There are 3 types of sea shipment that we can offer.

• When the volume of goods being shipped is sufficient to fill a 20ft or 40ft steel shipping container.
• The container will be for your use only, with no other consignments on board
• This service provides the quickest of the sea shipments from A to B, and is commonly used when professionals are being relocated for business purposes or when families have decided to escape the UK and relocate all of their possessions.

• Usually appropriate if you elect to take just personal goods or you move only part of your household
• Your goods will be loaded onto a 40ft shipping container alongside other consignments destined for the same area
• Your goods are numbered, listed and bar-coded to avoid any mix ups between consignments
• All consignments within the container will be household goods
• This will offer a financial saving when compared against a FCL, however, it will take longer for your possessions to arrive at their destination
• Collection and delivery dates will need to be flexible to take advantage of this type of service

• For the less common migrant routes where there are no groupage containers available to us
• Goods are placed into liftvans (large wooden crates) where they are loaded directly into a shared use container at the docks.
• Goods may be placed with other general freight within a container due to the irregularity of goods being sent to this destination
• Collection and delivery dates will need to be flexible to take advantage of this type of service.

Shipments to International destinations generally include a full unpacking and unwrapping service allowing you to check that the goods have arrived in the same condition as they were sent in.

It is advisable for clients who are looking at relocating to an International destination, to contact our office and arrange for an estimator to call on you at a mutually convenient time. We provide free removal quotations within the Greater London, Surrey and Kent areas, giving you the chance to meet our representative and get a feel for how we operate. This survey allows us time to evaluate all of your requirements and generate an accurate quotation.

We understand that it is not always possible for clients to be available for us to call on them. This is why we have the option for you to receive an Estimate simply by completing our online inventory. However we must bring to your attention that it is very difficult for removals to be correctly gauged by submission of an online form internet or by phone. We advise that you be as accurate as you can when completing this inventory and only use this as a guide when budgeting or comparing prices.