I have about 30 regular moving boxes to ship to the US, from the Swiss Romandie. There will be no furniture to ship or other bulky items and the timing will be June-July 2023. I heard that filling a part of a shipping container with my stuff would be cheapest option for the move. I would appreciate any other info, ideas or moving service company names (especially if they are operating near Lausanne, Fribourg, Bern but also if they operate Swiss-wide). Thanks in advance for some help regarding the move.
Hello,
If it's only regular moving boxes, see how many you can strap on a standard pallet (EPAL).
It's often a lot cheaper to get a quote for shipping goods by the pallet than boxes individually.
I'd start by asking expedismart.ch for a quote per pallet by email.
Watch out when asking quotes for individual boxed shipments however, their website leaves a cookie which will increase the quote by 15% at the time you are actually booking/paying the shipment.
Thanks a lot for the tip regarding shipping pallets rather than boxes. Just to understand this better, how do I prepare my clothing, shoes, etc., to fit on top of a pallet, do I still pack cardboard boxes from Bauhaus, etc. for a regular move and then give the moving company exactly the number of boxes that will fit in a pallet? Or do I need to do something else? Thanks in advance.
1 pallet will make very little difference price wise !
You would need to pack into sturdy boxes, get them on a pallet, shrink wrap and secure them........and then, how do you move the pallet ?
Packing your boxes and then giving to a consolidator to palletize and ship as a part cargo in a container will be more expensive than normal post probably.
Try the post office, they used to have very good rates for a few boxes
Okay Biro thanks for your comment and suggestion, I will try to get a quote from the Swiss Post website or go ask them in person. From Swiss Moving Service AG in Zurich I got a quote for CHF 3500 for 25 regular moving boxes with only clorhing, books and shoes basically inside, with a caveat for potential additional fees if the shipment gets help somehow at the port of entry in the US which would mean additional warehousing costs, etc...Seems to be awefully expensive to me.
Hi, I just called the Swiss Post to inquire and they do handle moving boxes for international shipping, for private customers too. For a box with stuff upto 30 kg the website quote is CHF 137. I guess some insurance charges could be optional on top. And expected delivery to the port of entry in 15 working days, better than consolidated containers from private moving companies which wait to fill the container with other peoples shipments. Overall the Swiss Post seems to offer a better deal if not shipping furniture, bulky items, etc. Thanks for the tip.
If you don't mind me adding... Make sure you list the total of each box as being under $100 (or whatever it is, you'd have to look it up) so you aren't charged import charges by the US. I'm not sure how it works when shipping from here to the US, but when I moved to Switzerland from the US, I shipped about 20 large boxes to myself via the post office and had to keep each one under a certain amount and mark it as "personal used goods -- moving" so that I wouldn't be charged customs or VAT by Switzerland. The only thing I did end up having to pay customs on was my electric guitar from some reason.
Where in the US? Prices will vary dramatically from major airport hubs to obscure rural Alaska.
If it’s a big city with frequent flights from Europe check the websites of airlines with direct flights from their hubs. ie If you’re going to Austin check Lufthansa and British Airways as they both fly there directly from Europe (Don’t worry about the service from Switzerland to their hubs all network airlines have extensive RFS (Road Feeder Service) in Europe.
Volume is more important than mass as with modern aircraft they ‘cube-out’ before they exceed maximum weight. Unless you are shipping your gold ingots of course.
Of course if there is no urgency look in the yellow pages
Thanks a lot for the tip!!!