Our Shipping Container Experience

How one company made our move easier...

So, how was our experience with our freight forwarder, Portugalia Sales, the company who handled the shipping of our forty foot container from the US to Portugal? The TLDR answer is "Pretty Damned Good!" But read on if you would like to learn more about our process and experience with getting our household goods moved safe and sound with minimal headaches.

Portugalia Sales is based in the Ironbound neighborhood in Newark, NJ. The Ironbound has been a predominantly Portuguese neighborhood for the past century, and one of the largest Portuguese communities in the US¹. Portugalia Sales is family owned and has been serving the Portuguese community since the late 1970s. You will see why this is important further along in our process. Also... I want to be clear that we were not in any way compensated by Portugalia for what I am about to share.

Portugalia Sales in the Ironbound, Newark, New Jersey (image: Google Maps)

Before I get into how we shipped our stuff across the Atlantic, I want to briefly review what occurred before we handed off our household goods to Portugalia. We were living in Philadelphia, and before our stuff was ready to load onto a container, we had to store it for a few months. So, this past July, we loaded what ended up being two sixteen foot PODS, and had them stored at our nearest PODS facility located in Newark (pronounced New-Ark), Delaware. I won't go over this process much as it was very specific to our situation, and I already wrote about our PODS debacle last summer².

I had initially contacted Portugalia in June to begin the process of deciding who to work with. Thus began an email chain of communication with Beatriz. She was very helpful with providing some initial information as well as explaining the overall process. I looked at a few others freight forwarders websites, and sorted through the experiences of members of one of our Portugal Facebook groups. There were plenty of horror stories out there, including shipping companies who don't know how the process works with Portugal, leaving folks forced to pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars in customs duties and/or stuck paying huge storage fees because their stuff is sitting at the port unable to be unloaded pending paperwork. My fear that something could/would go horribly wrong was certainly elevated. And with good reason.

While Portugalia does freight forwarding to multiple international countries, their specialty is shipping to and from Portugal via Newark, NJ. The other companies I looked into all said they shipped anywhere, including Portugal. But none of them seemed to have a specific specialty in shipping to Portugal. While we did not get quotes from other companies, and I am sure there would have been lower priced quotes, I just sensed that Portugalia would do it better.

Before leaving for our new home in Portugal, I had a sense that we would be able to ship our stuff fairly quickly, and it would be delivered by October or November. I was so very wrong in that assumption³. While Beatriz clearly explained to me early on what the process was, I only heard what I wanted to hear. So, it wasn't until I contacted her from Porto in August that I became clear about the process (yet still not realizing how long it would take). When our visas were approved in mid-August, and we planned our trip back to the Newark Consulate to get our passports stamped, we decided the best thing to do would be to go over to the Portugalia Sales office in the Ironbound.

Our exciting day receiving our visa stamps in our passport.

We flew to Newark in mid-September to get our visa stamps at the Newark Consulate. After an excitedly sleepless night at a nearby airport hotel, we Uber'd in the morning into the heart of Newark, to the consulate, where we very excitedly got our passports stamped with our D7 visas. We'd given Beatriz a heads up a few days earlier that we would be stopping by after our visit to the consulate to meet with her about finalizing the plans for our container.

We were warmly greeted when we arrived and met Beatriz. It was so nice to meet in person. We sat down and she went over all the details, and reviewed the required paperwork as well as making copies of our passports and visa stamps. Most of the required documents to ship goods from the US to Portugal were provided by us. We had everything needed except one which I will note below. Portugalia handled compiling all of the documents as well as obtaining a Certificado de Bagagem (certified list of inventory), which they obtained on our behalf at the consulate.

I had already done what I thought to be a fairly thorough inventory of what we packed (a spreadsheet with 336 items consisting of boxes, furniture, wrapped artwork, and other random objects). But ultimately, Beatriz used their form to detail out the items we were bringing.

She wrote up the invoice which included a myriad of line items including:

• Shipment from Newark (Port of New York) to Leixoes (the port in Porto)

• Consulate documentation and preparation

• Unloading the PODS into the container

• Load and transfer support and securing the container

• Portugal expenses (customs clearance, terminal fees, port fees, etc)

• Unloading from container to a truck to bring to our apartment building

• Unloading the truck into our apartment on the 13th floor.

• Insurance covering total loss of goods

All of this came with some clarity about when to expect our stuff to arrive (she clearly said it would not likely be before January 1st) along with an invoice with a total cost to ship a forty foot container across the Atlantic Ocean. No, it was not inexpensive, but given that it would cost several times more than the shipping to replace everything, we felt was fair.

I am not going to reveal our final cost as prices can vary a good amount due to fluctuating market demand and rates, time of year, and container fees. We went ahead and paid 50% on the spot (with the balance due a couple of weeks later). With that done, we spent a couple of days at my in-laws place in Manhattan before flying home to Porto.

Our local Junta de Freguesia do Bonfim (image: Google Maps)

The only remaining form we still needed to get was an Atestado do Residençia (proof of entitlement to reside in Portugal). We needed to go to our local Junta de Freguesia do Bonfim (neighborhood municipality office). We did this the following week after our return to Porto. There we needed to present documentation proving who we were, a copy of our lease, and our passport. Once we had our Atestado do Residençia, we scanned and emailed copies to Beatriz.

The only hiccup in all of this was that there was the very real possibility of an upcoming port strike which would basically shut everything down for the duration. Fortunately, the strike ended up being only three days long before they were able to strike a deal and go back to work.

I then arranged to have the two PODS trucked from Newark, DE to Portugalia's warehouse in Newark, NJ on a specific date in mid October. They transferred our stuff from the PODS to the container, after which I’d arranged for the now empty PODS to be picked up from Portugalia's warehouse.

Then it was a matter of waiting to get the container loaded on a ship. In our case, it was only a couple of weeks. Our container was on container ship APL Florida, which left the Port of New York on November 2nd where it floated across the Atlantic to Rotterdam where it was then transferred to another ship in early December. From there, it made its way along the coast of France and Spain before arriving in Leixoes (which is about 15 km from our apartment) on December 27th.

Then one week later, we received a call that our stuff was on a truck and ready to be unloaded that day (January 3rd). As I noted in my last post, the move went well. We do still have two boxes I have not come across, but I am pretty sure they are here and I just haven't seen them (I hope).

As for complaints.... Honestly I only had two somewhat insignificant things to complain about.

1. The first has to do with the numbered identity stickers Portugalia applied to everything. As I unwrapped and unpacked, I came across a few of the stickers placed in less than ideal locations on different items including painted surfaces. Unfortunately when removing them, they left a sticky residue behind which has been a bit challenging to remove (I did manage to find an adhesive remover here, but it is not nearly as good as ‘Goo Gone’ or ‘Goof-Off’).

2. The other minor complaint is related to the movers themselves. When packing up boxes and various items, there were a few things I clearly labeled with large arrows and 'THIS SIDE UP' in both English and Portuguese ('ESTE LADO PARA CIMA'). Some things just need to remain upright otherwise there is risk of damage should it be placed upside down with the full weight of the item on an easily damaged top area. Fortunately, to my knowledge, thus far nothing is actually damaged. But I still have boxes to finish opening and going through (so many boxes...).

So... In the end, we are both very happy with Portugalia based on our experience. We would be happy to suggest other folks work with them too. Beatriz was outstanding, very quick to respond, and very helpful with ensuring we had everything lined up. They have been doing this for nearly 50 years and have established personal relationships with people on both sides of the Atlantic which made the process go smoothly. We didn't have to do anything on our side as far as customs was concerned. It was just taken care of.

If you have read this far, I am impressed! As always, I want to again say a very big thank you to all of my (almost) 500 subscribers. I have been writing about various topics for the past ten plus years, and it warms my heart to have all of you reading about our experience, with both its ups and its downs.

Parting Shot:

While writing this yesterday afternoon, I looked up from my desk in my studio to see this stunning rainbow. The photo does not capture how beautiful it was.

1. The Ironbound is also home to the US offices for TAP Air Portugal (the Portuguese airline) and just a few blocks outside of the Ironbound you will find the Portuguese Consulate Newark Office where we had our initial appointment and obtained our visa.

2. Our PODS experience was overall pretty good as well. I would use them again without hesitation. Our PODS debacle was more my making than anything PODS did. Fortunately, PODS was very responsive to my screw-up and their customer service folks were helpful and sorting things out.

3. There’s an old saying about assumptions that goes: “When you assume, you make an ‘ASS’ out of ‘U’ and ‘ME.’” It’s a play on the spelling of “Assume” when broken down as “Ass,” “u,” and “me.” Basically suggesting that your assumptions could be incorrect, you end up making yourself and the other parties involved look foolish.