Thirty things people ask before booking

A 20ft container door-to-door is USD 3,000 to USD 7,500; a 40ft is USD 4,000 to USD 12,000. Shared container space is USD 150 to USD 300 per m³. Air freight is USD 5 to USD 15 per kg with a minimum charge of USD 200 to 500. Courier is USD 50 to 200 for documents and USD 100 to 500 for small parcels.

Volume first, then origin, then service level, then whether your goods are dutiable. Fuel and peak-season surcharges sit on top and are revised quarterly by the lines. For air freight, volumetric weight rather than actual weight often sets the charge.

The three that catch people are destination charges at Benoa (around USD 600-1,200 for a 20ft), import duty and VAT, and demurrage if the container sits waiting for paperwork. Ask for the quote itemised by line and ask explicitly what is excluded.

Measure your volume properly — below about 12-15 m³ a shared container beats a half-empty 20ft. Ship in the shoulder months (April-May and September-October) to avoid surcharges of 10-20%. Split urgent items to air rather than paying air rates on everything. Consider replacing bulky low-value furniture locally.

Bank transfer and major credit cards. The structure is a deposit to confirm the booking and the balance before dispatch, on a date set in the quote.

For regular commercial volume, yes — it is worth asking rather than assuming the published range applies. For a one-off household move the honest lever is container size and timing, not negotiation.

Six to ten weeks before a full-container move, so packing, pickup and the sailing schedule can be aligned. Two to three weeks is usually enough for air freight or a small shared load. Add lead time for July-August and December, when space is tighter on both vessels and aircraft.

Origin address, delivery address in Bali, approximate volume or weight, your date, and whether the receiver is a private individual, a company or a visitor on a stay permit. A basic inventory grouped by category is enough to start.

Measure each package in metres — length times width times height — and add them up. As a reference, a one-bedroom apartment is usually 8-12 m³ and a family home around 28-30 m³, which is a full 20ft container.

Within 24 business hours, typically under 24 hours for a written quote. The desk works Monday to Friday, 09:00-17:00 WITA.

For anything household-sized, yes — a video walkthrough or an in-home visit. It is the only way to get volume right, and volume is most of your quote. For a multi-supplier buying trip it also scopes consolidation and repacking.

Yes. Pickups scheduled, goods checked, repacked and documented into a single export consignment. Say so in your first message so the quote includes warehouse consolidation rather than point-to-point transport.

Sea freight is 6-8 weeks door-to-door from the UK, Europe and North America, and 4-6 weeks from Australia and Southeast Asia. Air freight is 3-7 days, courier 2-5 days plus local clearance. Ask for a best and worst case, not one figure.

Most ocean freight does not call at Bali directly. It lands at Tanjung Priok or Tanjung Perak, Surabaya and feeds the island on a domestic leg — one extra handling step and three to five extra days. Oversized air cargo often clears at Jakarta and moves to Bali as domestic cargo for the same reason.

You get the bill of lading or air waybill reference and the carrier name at booking, so you can track on the line's own system. We push milestone updates at collection, departure, arrival in Indonesia, customs release and delivery scheduling.

You are told what the hold is and what is being done. The common causes are a document discrepancy, a customs inspection, or a port holiday. Weather delays at Ngurah Rai are measured in hours; a vessel reschedule can be a week.

April-May and September-October. The wet season (November to March) adds 3-5 days of sailing and stretches container dwell at Benoa from about three days to five or seven. The dry season (June to August) brings surcharges of 10-20% and four to six weeks' booking lead time.

Nyepi closes Bali completely for 24 hours — the airport, every seaport, all road traffic. Idul Fitri runs terminals on reduced schedules and restricts trucking. Both move each year against the Gregorian calendar and both are announced well in advance; budget 3-7 days around either.

Duty runs 0% to 40% of CIF value set by HS code, plus VAT at 11% and in some categories luxury goods tax. Used personal effects owned for over a year get preferential treatment and sometimes clear duty-free, but that depends on your permit status and on the inventory supporting the claim.

A commercial invoice, a detailed packing list with descriptions, quantities, weights and dimensions, and a bill of lading or air waybill. Personal effects also need passport and visa or residence permit copies. Wooden packaging needs an ISPM 15 stamp; plant-based materials need a phytosanitary certificate.

Narcotics, firearms, ammunition, explosives, pornography and counterfeit goods are prohibited outright, with severe penalties. Telecommunications devices, pharmaceuticals, food, alcohol, tobacco and drones need permits or face caps. Used vehicles are heavily restricted. We screen your inventory against the Lartas list before booking.

Customs can order re-export or destruction rather than release, at your cost. That is exactly why the screening happens at quoting rather than after the container is on the water.

Under-declaring value. Bea Cukai runs its own valuation, and a discrepancy means re-evaluation, fines and storage charges while the cargo sits. A realistic declaration is cheaper than an optimistic one every time.

Yes. Commercial cargo is classified by HS code for duty and may need import licensing or product certification — API-U or API-P for the importer, plus registrations from ministries such as Trade or Health depending on the goods. Personal effects run on a different declaration entirely.

No, and carrier liability is not a substitute — it is capped by weight or volume, usually far below what your goods are worth. Marine cargo cover is 1% to 3% of declared value and runs from packing at origin to delivery in Bali. For a USD 20,000 shipment that is roughly USD 200-600.

Either. Full export packing adds roughly USD 800-2,000 for a household and USD 200-400 for a small shared load. Self-packing is cheaper and perfectly viable, but poorly packed goods are the leading cause of damage claims and can be refused by a carrier.

Double-walled cartons, individual bubble or foam wrap, crates for anything genuinely fragile, and furniture disassembled where it can be. Keep original packaging for electronics if you still have it. Label clearly, and keep the packing list consistent with what is actually in the box.

All wooden crates and pallets must be heat-treated and stamped to ISPM 15 before entering Indonesia. Untreated wood is a rejection at the border, not a negotiation. We handle this, and so should anyone else quoting you.

Document the condition on arrival, before unpacking further, and keep all the packaging. Report it immediately — claims are assessed on the evidence from the first hour, and a photograph taken then is worth more than an argument a week later.

Every full container load is sealed at origin with a high-security bolt seal. The number is recorded and given to you so you can verify on arrival that it was not opened in transit. Delivery vehicles in Bali are GPS-tracked for the final mile.