International removals

Why is international transit insurance important?

When we move our customers overseas you can be assured that we will do our best to ensure hat they arrive at your new home safe and sound. After we have packed your goods they will pass through the hands of other firms including stevedores, shipping companies, airlines and handling companies.

The transit itself involves movement by sea, air or land or some combination of the three with loading and unloading along the way – all outside of our control. There is often storage at intermediate warehouses.

Most international shipments reach their final destination in good condition but from time to time accidents do happen. If your goods are going by sea then you may even find yourself having to pay a contribution towards the cost of salvaging the ship if it runs aground, even if your own goods are not damaged.

Your Removal Contact gives you some rights of recourse against your moving company and they will pass on to you rights of recourse that exist against shipping lines and airlines. However these won’t always be adequate by themselves. They are limited by international conventions and often require proof of negligence. Given the number of hands through which your goods pass this is, in practice, far from easy. It is also difficult to instigate litigation in a foreign country with an alien legal code and in a different language.

This may seem like a catalogue of woe but please don’t be put off. The solution is to purchase insurance, which provides cover when accidents do happen provided you have declared your goods and complied with the terms and conditions of the insurance policy.

Pickfords offers Total Value and Defined Value cover