This is extremely important especially if this is your first time of getting your goods to Nigeria by sea freight. I bet you if you ring up any shipper at this very minute, ask the shipper or the shipping agent that when are they sending their next goods to Nigeria. Ok, cool, carry out this simple test. Now navigate away from this blog. Do a search on the internet or ring up any shipping company that you know or you're acquainted with. Ask them when is the next loading? It will shock you what an incredible response you will get. While on the shipping company's agent line of enquiries, tell them you have between 1000 to 1500kg items to ship to Nigeria. Eeeeh! I can assure you that 90% of shippers will tell you "Next week". Some of the shocking answers you will get would be " in fact we are closing our container in 72hrs". Every one of them (us) trying to put you in a patronage frenzy. The question is most cases, those containers are not even half way full.In other words, here is the state of the container in the picture below.
This makes you be in a CuoCuo land. Is such shipping company sailing an empty container to Naija or what? You would ask.
Now, here is the catch. Every one of us including me when I first started this business and in a desperate bid of getting customers. We are all guilty of this at one stage or the other in this our business. If I have just sent my container last week and I am sourcing to loading another container and a customer came to me that they have 1500kg of goods to be shipped; they want the goods in Nigeria within a month. I would be crazy to say I have just sent my container the week before. Knowing fully well that I stand the chance of loosing such customer to my competitor. In an ideal business man world I would promise such customer that it is very possible to get the goods there in that timely fashion. I would then gear up my effort in getting the goods there on time.
These are the simple tips for getting your goods to its destination speedily using the sea freight method.
1) Make sure you make provision for 6 to 8 weeks for your shipment to get to its destination from the time of handing it over to your shipper. You never know the goods might get there earlier than you'd expected.
2) Ask your shipper if they have a specific date at which their cargo will be leaving the UK for Nigeria. If a shipper tells you they have no specific date on file yet, then suspect that nothing is happening in regards to getting you goods there on time.
3) Desist from sending small item through sea freight, especially if those items are urgent ones. I do understand that customers want to save money by using the shipping option. But at the end of the day the difference between air cargo and sea freight is not that much especially where the item to be shipped is less than 50kg. It used to be cheaper those days but now that the clearing duties in Nigeria sea port has been increase by almost 50%, obviously you won't save much money in relation to the time it takes the goods to arrive. To me it is not worth the pain and the wait if I am sending my cousin's wedding dress to Lagos by sea freight when the wedding is three weeks away.
4) Recommendation matters . Shippers are more busier than each other. Some shippers do at least twice a month shipping while some do once a year shipping. Good luck with your choice of shipper.
You're reading my blog. We have re invented the way shipping is done to Nigeria with a guaranteed once a month container available for all our customers. Why not take a look at our price list page and take advantage of the cheapest shipping offer .
(c)
