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Removals Update on the Shipping Market Expectations for 2022

Friday, 28th January 2022

Happy New Year to all our customers. We hope you have a great year ahead and if you are moving homes with us, we can't wait to help you get settled into your new home seamlessly and with as little stress as possible.

There's lots to look forward to in 2022, however we have an update to share from the British Association of Removers (BAR) on what customers moving homes overseas should be expecting for the year ahead. It concerns the continued deterioration of service which lies squarely on the shipping lines shoulders.

Rates for 2022

Compared to previous years, recently the general market ‘Freight All Kinds’ (FAK) levels have risen dramatically. In fact, rates are still changing so trying to give precise expectations as to what members will be paying on the 1st March 2022 is difficult. This makes the coming year’s negotiations especially tough as different shipping lines will likely have different ideas as to where the rate levels sit. For customers, rates are worthless if the shipping line won’t let you book at them, which is why the BAR have released a document to make it explicitly and transparently clear to everyone where the actual market rate levels sit. You can view that here.

Levels of service

Over the past 18 months, there has been a dramatic decline in customer service and reliability offered by the shipping lines. We’ve all heard the reasons for this decline in service; excessive demand, congestion, equipment imbalances, infrastructure failures, be it haulage, rail, port capacity, lack of staff, but the freight rates keep getting higher and the service levels continue to deteriorate.

The decline in level of service has been to such a degree that we now see an issue or failure on nearly every booking, and we’re sure members will all agree it has become almost impossible for members to book, load and ship a container without incident. This in turn has led to more complaints from customers who wrongly believe that these failures are the moving company’s fault. Many eventualities that can now happen to a booking that might impact the customers experience with either a delay or additional cost are actually outside the control of the moving company. What’s worse is that shipping lines will generally accept zero responsibility for any of these service failures or rate increases.

Summary

Customers also need to be aware that shipping lines are changing their services on a continuous basis. We hope this helps customers understand how difficult it has become to ship goods worldwide and that as moving companies we are doing the best we can. Generally, the problems experienced by customers are being caused by shipping lines who take limited, if any, responsibility for these service failures, and simply pass on to the customer any increase to the cost of the move.

You can see the full document released by the BAR which has much more detail on the failures of shipping lines here.

• 2022 Shipping Expectations - BAR December 2021.pdf