Sea Freight — FCL & LCL Container Shipping

Sea freight is the most cost-effective way to move volume or heavy cargo into and out of the UK — typically 4–6x cheaper per kg than air freight, at the cost of longer transit times. Gxpresss runs FCL (full container load) and LCL (less than container load) shipments on all the major trade lanes: China, India, USA, the Middle East, and intra-Europe.

We handle the full chain — origin booking, ocean transit, UK port arrival, customs clearance, and inland delivery to your door — as one service under one invoice, not split between a forwarder and a separate broker.

All our seaport pages below carry live transit-time and duty guidance for that specific gateway, so you can plan the actual route your cargo will take rather than a generic estimate.

Sea freight customs entries are checked against the same document set as any other import, but the longer transit time means errors surface earlier — if your paperwork is wrong, you find out while the cargo is still weeks from the UK, not on the day it lands. The core documents we work from:

• Commercial invoice — the declared value used to calculate duty and VAT. Must match what's actually being shipped, not a placeholder or proforma figure.
• Packing list — itemised contents, weights, and dimensions per container or pallet, used to cross-check the invoice at the point of entry.
• Bill of lading — the shipping line's contract of carriage and proof of title to the goods. Ocean B/Ls can be issued as "straight" (non-negotiable) or "to order" (negotiable) depending on your payment terms with the supplier.
• Certificate of origin — required to claim a preferential duty rate under a UK free trade agreement; without it, standard UK Global Tariff rates apply even if your goods would otherwise qualify.
• Import licences / product certification — needed for regulated categories such as food, chemicals, or restricted materials before the container is released.

We pre-lodge your customs declaration against the bill of lading before the vessel arrives, so clearance runs in parallel with unloading rather than starting the day the container hits the quay.

Most sea freight delays at the UK end are avoidable with the right preparation:

• Customs holds — usually caused by a commodity code mismatch or missing certificate. We classify and check your paperwork before the vessel departs, not after it arrives.
• Demurrage and detention charges — port storage fees that accrue once a container's free time expires. Pre-lodged declarations and pre-arranged inland transport keep containers moving off the port within their free period.
• Port congestion — peak-season volume at major gateways like Felixstowe can add days even with clean paperwork. Where relevant, we'll suggest an alternative UK port with shorter dwell times for your route.
• Container inspections — a small percentage of containers are physically examined by Border Force. This is random, not a sign of a problem with your shipment, but it does add 1–3 days — we build a buffer into delivery estimates for exactly this reason.