If you need storage at origin, whether you are shipping to Israel or shipping from Israel, request it well in advance. Kef can sometimes offer free time. We can also arrange private storage throughout Israel and storage at the ports.
Planned Storage in Israel
If you need storage in Israel, you can choose to store your items at the port upon arrival or at a private location.
If you are shipping a full container, it is very expensive to leave it in the container at the port.
If you are shipping less than a container, the costs are per tonne. However, in order to store the contents of a container, whether at the port or privately, the container must be devanned (unloaded). Consequently, there are additional expenses associated with storing the contents of a container in Israel, in addition to flat storage rates.
Self-storage vs. commercial storage: If your goods go to self-storage, for which you have your own key, your marine insurance ends. In commercial storage, you have no key, limited access, and a warehouseman taking inventory of goods going in and out. Commercial storage is sometimes billed on a net basis (you are billed by the measured space of your goods), while self-storage is billed on a gross/brut basis (you pay for the entire space your goods occupy, most often by the room, whether or not the room is full). Still, the cost for self-storage is about half that of commercial storage, and it is not less secure.
If you store goods outside the port, you use your paid-for delivery from Kef by bringing the goods there. You will be billed for a second delivery to bring goods from the storage unit to your eventual destination.
Unplanned Storage in Israel
When shipping to Israel, shipments can be early or late and information/documentation is often late, incomplete, and inaccurate, which can further delay your goods. Delays also result from congestion of vessels, trucks, and delivery teams, missed connections, etc. If your documents are not fully prepared and presented well in advance of the shipment's arrival in Israel or you cannot accept delivery when available, there could be very expensive delays. Please do what you need to do ASAP—opening a file at Customs, supplying documents and making payments, etc. Storage and other delay-related fees are yours to pay.
Even if everything proceeds according to schedule, it often takes about a week to clear a container through customs and deliver it. Therefore, you should expect a few days of port storage charges and container rental. Depending on a container's origin and whether the shipment stops elsewhere in Israel before its destination port, a few free days of port storage are usually granted.
Partial storage
It may be possible to store part and deliver part of your shipment, but you must prepare for it before pickup. Before the packers arrive you must sort, label, and divide the parts of the shipment. Make labels easily visible with clear markings of destination, and separate packing lists for each destination.
