Can an adult help me?

[verdict]

I know the title may sound like an 8 year old wrote it, but if it got you in here, then it worked

Anyway, my family is moving and we'd like to ship some stuff overseas. The problem is, air freight is really expensive. My parents aren't in a rush to get the stuff anywhere, so we would like to use ocean freight to ship our stuff, but we don't know how to do this. We're not shipping stuff like furniture, just a bunch of boxes (possibly a dozen boxes or more).

What should I do?

 

[Doc4]

You can bowwow my nice widdle bowat ...

(adults indeed! )

 

[Edcculus]

Hmm, I thought about doing this when moving, but was never organized enough. I'd contact either Fedex or UPS and ask about freight rates. I'd track down a pallet(s) and some of that plastic they wrap pallets in, then arrage for them to pick it up.

 

[ouch]

Sending back that mail order bride, eh?

 

[Go West Young Man]

I know the title may sound like an 8 year old wrote it, but if it got you in here, then it worked

Anyway, my family is moving and we'd like to ship some stuff overseas. The problem is, air freight is really expensive. My parents aren't in a rush to get the stuff anywhere, so we would like to use ocean freight to ship our stuff, but we don't know how to do this. We're not shipping stuff like furniture, just a bunch of boxes (possibly a dozen boxes or more).

What should I do?

Where are you moving from/to? And do you want packing to be included, or will you prepare everything for shipment?

 

[RF1963]

We would like to use ocean freight to ship our stuff. We're shipping just a bunch of boxes (possibly a dozen boxes or more).

What should I do?

I've cut down your original post to get to the gist of your question.

You need to contact a shipping agent and arrange for your boxes to go to the destination as part of an LCL container load. What does this mean? Your goods won't fill a 20 or 40 foot container, so in an LCL container the container is filled with lots of different loads. Effectively you rent space in the container rather than renting the whole container. This might mean it takes longer for your goods to arrive because it might take time to build the full load. You also require your agent to deal with Customs at destination. The agent might arrange to uplift the boxes from your home or you might need to take them to his yard. Similarly at destination they might deliver to you or await your collection.

 

[luvmysuper]

Where are you moving from/to? And do you want packing to be included, or will you prepare everything for shipment?

+1

There are some places you should have an Agent to act as a freight expediter. I have friends who sent items to Asia in a Container and waited 6 months for it to clear customs after arrival.

Here is a site that has a lot of info, including a freight calculator.
It is annoying, but has a lot of pretty good info. Use them as a tool, then pick your own agent / mover combo.

http://www.shipping-worldwide.com/

 

[Austin]

Sending back that mail order bride, eh?

Nice one Dice! I thought you were retired.

 

[BigFoot]

Also be very meticulous on your paperwork. A lot of the equipment my company uses comes from Italy. We had this new machine we were doing back flips waiting on tied up in customs almost a month because the name of our company was misspelled.

 

[Crixus]

Sending back that mail order bride, eh?

And in multiple boxes, no less. Must have been some honeymoon.

 

[verdict]

Where are you moving from/to? And do you want packing to be included, or will you prepare everything for shipment?

They're moving from New York City to Hong Kong (coincidentally, both cities have very good ports ). We're going to pack all our stuff in cardboard boxes, so if that counts as packing then yes, we will prepare everything for the shipment. If not (what is a pallet?) then we will need packaging.

+1

There are some places you should have an Agent to act as a freight expediter. I have friends who sent items to Asia in a Container and waited 6 months for it to clear customs after arrival.

Here is a site that has a lot of info, including a freight calculator.
It is annoying, but has a lot of pretty good info. Use them as a tool, then pick your own agent / mover combo.

http://www.shipping-worldwide.com/

Thank you for the link, it looks like my parents and I have a lot of work to do. How do we find an agent/mover combo? Should we just call UPS?

 

[Go West Young Man]

I've cut down your original post to get to the gist of your question.

You need to contact a shipping agent and arrange for your boxes to go to the destination as part of an LCL container load. What does this mean? Your goods won't fill a 20 or 40 foot container, so in an LCL container the container is filled with lots of different loads. Effectively you rent space in the container rather than renting the whole container. This might mean it takes longer for your goods to arrive because it might take time to build the full load. You also require your agent to deal with Customs at destination. The agent might arrange to uplift the boxes from your home or you might need to take them to his yard. Similarly at destination they might deliver to you or await your collection.

Hmmmmm- you have the sound of someone in the shipping business. 20 years with Zim, OOCL and Hanjin myself.

 

[ImaWestie]

A pallet is that wooden/plastic thingo that they stack cardboard cartons on so they can move a whole bunch at the same time with a forklift. (What all the boxes are sitting on at Costco?)

You will want all your cardboard boxes on pallets - the more of this you do yourself, the less you will pay, but the more you will be responsible for damage etc yourself.

Probably, you're best off getting the shipping company to put your boxes onto pallet(s), and wrap the whole lot in plastic (packing glad-wrap). Then put all that onto a container. Then ship the container to HK and get your pallets shipped to your parents ... house? appartment? work?

 

[Crixus]

One other possible suggestion:

There is a 99% possibility that although they'd LIKE to send ten boxes of stuff to Hong Kong, they really only NEED to hold on to four boxes of the stuff. I suggest several rounds of priority needs triage and keeping only the true irreplaceable items in the Hong Kong boxes. You'd be surprised how well you can live without those items you once thought you couldn't live without.

When you get it down to several/less than half dozen boxes, bite the bullet and ship them some traditional way (DHL, Fedex, UPS, etc.), pay the somewhat steep fee, and avoid most of the aggravation.

It sounds like a whole lot of hoop jumping and unnecessary work and stress to save a little bit of money (which may and may not even be the case). Just something to think about.

 

[Stan Marsh]

I second the advise to contact freight forwarder. A LCL from NYC to HKG should be really cheap, if you are in no hurry. The one thing you will need to take exceptional care of is the customs paperwork. Remember - you are shipping to CHINA. Every (and I mean EVERY) pair of socks must be documented.

Good luck!

 

[Go West Young Man]

Yup, just look in the Yellow Pages for a freight forwarder who offers LCL (Less than Container Load) or Consolidation services.

In the NY/NJ area there will be thousands, of course. If you have any Chinese friends, they'll probably have a friend or family member who sends merchandise home fairly regularly and can give you a recommendation. Alternately, grab a local paper in any Chinese neighbourhood, the local specialists will be advertising in there.

 

[stobes21]

For a lot of household goods you may well find that it is cheaper to list your stuff on craigslist or have a good old fashioned yard sale and then purchase replacements once you get to HK. This would be especially true for bulky but relatively inexpensive items like pots and pans, linens, dishes, small appliances, etc.

 

[Stan Marsh]

For a lot of household goods you may well find that it is cheaper to list your stuff on craigslist or have a good old fashioned yard sale and then purchase replacements once you get to HK. This would be especially true for bulky but relatively inexpensive items like pots and pans, linens, dishes, small appliances, etc.

I would disagree here. Hong Kong isn't a cheap place you most probably imagine it to be any longer. Of course, some research what could be sold and what shipped could be done, but I would suggest to ship everything, just to save yourself trouble and time.

 

[Crixus]

but I would suggest to ship everything, just to save yourself trouble and time.

It doesn't sound to me like you're doing that. Maybe the OP could list ten or twelve items they want to ship so we'd be better informed.

 

[stobes21]

I would disagree here. Hong Kong isn't a cheap place you most probably imagine it to be any longer. Of course, some research what could be sold and what shipped could be done, but I would suggest to ship everything, just to save yourself trouble and time.

My brother-in-law was there last winter and commented that almost everything was quite inexpensive compared to american prices with the notable exception of real-estate. But I have never been, so I don't really know. My point though is that even if prices are on par with goods here for bulky but inexpensive items it may still be cheaper or equivalent price wise to replace rather than ship.

Either way though freight shipping can also take a long time. So for some items like sheets or cooking utensils it may be not only expensive to ship them but also impractical since you'd need them very soon after you arrived at your new residence.