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.

[HogHollow]

Good to know that I should watch for the accurate estimates on volumes. I did a quick estimate on the amount of stuff we have, and we'll probably need 3 lift vans. One thing I'm going to have to really guesstimate is the weight of the stuff we'll ship.

Also, my wife has a few luxury handbags that we'll hand carry into Singapore. Do you know if we have to declare these to customs?

[Myasis Dragon]

Good to know that I should watch for the accurate estimates on volumes. I did a quick estimate on the amount of stuff we have, and we'll probably need 3 lift vans. One thing I'm going to have to really guesstimate is the weight of the stuff we'll ship.

Also, my wife has a few luxury handbags that we'll hand carry into Singapore. Do you know if we have to declare these to customs?

3 vans is pretty much a 20 foot container. Worth checking costs both ways. Moving companies like a whole container... drive it up to your place, fill it, lock the doors, and the next time anybody cares is at customs clearance on the other end. Vans are typically brought in on local trucks, filled, hammered closed with nails, then sit on the shipper's warehouse floor until additional vans going to the same destination can be found to fill up the container.

It has been 8 years since I moved from Singapore to Houston so my information is dated. As I recall, though, in these forums, were a number of posters who suggested that you should only use door to door connected services, for example, Allied Van Lines in the USA and Allied-Pickford in Singapore. A number of the international moving companies are really just brokers, hiring local movers on one end to pack, getting the container onto a ship, then getting a customs broker and movers on the other end. Cheaper, and, as you might guess, more opportunity for things to go wrong.

This seriously influenced my decision to go with a company that had its own representation on both ends.

PS: Unless you're talking about crap you're going to take with you on the airplane, weight almost doesn't matter... you'll "cube out" long before you "gross out"... unless you're carrying a large stash of gold ingots.

[HogHollow]

Ha ha...I wish I had a stash of gold ingots...but good point on consideration weight vs volume then.

I've scheduled a virtual appointment with Allied to do a walkthrough of my house(they now offer these de to Covid). I'm going to get a similar quote going from United Van Lines too, which I think also owns Mayflower.

[Lisafuller]

Good to know that I should watch for the accurate estimates on volumes. I did a quick estimate on the amount of stuff we have, and we'll probably need 3 lift vans. One thing I'm going to have to really guesstimate is the weight of the stuff we'll ship.

Also, my wife has a few luxury handbags that we'll hand carry into Singapore. Do you know if we have to declare these to customs?

I doubt you’ll need to declare them. My understanding is that you only need to declare things you bought overseas while on a short term trip. If these handbags have been your wife’s for some time they are clearly her property and she should not need to declare them.