Help with freight forwarder recommendations for Texas to Singapore

[HogHollow]

Hi everyone,

I've accepted a job offer for a position in Singapore, andtentatively plan to move from Texas in June for my start date on July 1.

Can anyone share recommendations on how to best ship our personal effects from Texas to Singapore? We won't be moving any furniture, so it's mainly our clothing/shoes/books, and probably some stuff from our kitchen.

I've heard that there are options to reserve half a container's worth of space or something, but that's probably too much for our stuff. I was wondering if anyone has rented a smaller sized POD like people use to move domestically in the US?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can share.

[Lisafuller]

I personally use myUS to ship my belongings and packages to Singapore. They are primarily a mail forwarder, however it is my understanding that they ship larger, personal packages as well.

[HogHollow]

Thanks for the recommendation on MyUS. They seem to have a pretty informative website, and I'll look into them in more detail.

[Myasis Dragon]

There are moving companies that will sell you a "van", a wooden box that fits inside a container. They are usually offered in 1/4 or 1/3 of a twenty foot container.

Allied in Texas and Allied-Pickford in Singapore handled my move and I used about 2/3 of a container with vans. I am not recommending Allied Pickford because they tried to screw me on charges, although they eventually honored their original quotes. I will say that the move went smoothly and Allied Texas honored the quoted storage charges (I rented for a few months before moving into my home).

What you really don't want to do is be part of a partial container where you boxes and such end up piled into a container without being separated. It's just too easy for parts of your shipment to be lost.

I would also note that if you elect to pack yourself, you can pretty much forget trying to get the Moving Company to pay for damaged goods... only if they packed will they accept responsibility.

[HogHollow]

Hi Myasis Dragon,

Thanks for the recommendation on getting a "van" since we don't have near enough stuff to fit in a full container.

Also, great point about getting the company to pack for me, and I'll have to put a little more though into this. With the Covid situation being pretty bad here Stateside, I'm a little apprehensive about other people going through our stuff. I might risk packing the stuff myself since it's mostly clothes and nothing of high value. I have 3 check-in luggages to use for my flight over, so I'll plan to bring my valuable items with me on the flight.

Did you have any issues with any of your stuff getting damaged from the move?

[Myasis Dragon]

Hi Myasis Dragon,

Thanks for the recommendation on getting a "van" since we don't have near enough stuff to fit in a full container.

Also, great point about getting the company to pack for me, and I'll have to put a little more though into this. With the Covid situation being pretty bad here Stateside, I'm a little apprehensive about other people going through our stuff. I might risk packing the stuff myself since it's mostly clothes and nothing of high value. I have 3 check-in luggages to use for my flight over, so I'll plan to bring my valuable items with me on the flight.

Did you have any issues with any of your stuff getting damaged from the move?

I had one cheap IKEA coffee table that came apart on one end... 15 minutes and Elmer's glue fixed that. No other issues, although we discovered that one muppet in Singapore wrapped whole drawers with contents intact... fortunately nothing breakable.

Like you, we loaded up our luggage for the trip back. The estimates of the Movers were too high for the stuff we were going to take... we could have taken more since we had additional room in one van. Not a big deal, I suppose... just a warning that accurate estimates of volume, and hence, your costs, are worth paying attention to.