Shipping furniture from the states

[clem24]

Anyone have any experience shipping furniture up from the States, namely Florida? I want to buy some pieces of furniture from there, but I need someone to fetch it and ship it up. Can you recommend any shippers and how much approximately do you think it would cost? I need to know if this will actually be worth my while.

[Weapon_R]

It costs a lot of money to ship furniture from the U.S. to Canada. Wouldn't you be better off taking that style to a local builder and having it made?

[yellowsnow]

I purchased a massage chair down in the states.. and the import duties/taxes was insane. Costed me a few hundred dollars to import it.

If you can, try using USPS, don't get UPS or fedex to ship your items from the states. They charge crazy amounts of duties/shipping fees.

[clem24]

Well, as it stands right now, the exact same pieces I want to purchase will be about $3,500 LESS than purchasing them locally (and that is each piece). I plan on getting 2 pieces or 3 pieces. At this point, I am prepared to pay about $2,000 in shipping and taxes if it'll save me $5,000.

I've looked at a few movers (like Allied and Atlas). All of the couriers are out of the question with the exception of UPS. They might be able to handle it. I am fully aware of the insane UPS charges (I've been ripped off by them many times before), but, the good news is, they're rate is generally fairly flat, so it's actually not bad to bring in something over $500 or so with them. When I spoke to Fedex last month about importing something, they said they charge no brokerage.

Anyway, these are likely too big to go with the couriers anyway. USPS is completely out of the question..

[FiveFreshFish]

You need to contact freight forwarders or trucking companies. They can ship your furniture on a common carrier, i.e. you share the truck with other people's stuff.

With furniture, you'll be paying by how much volume it takes up on the truck. You will need to know the package dimenions and weight of the boxes, and whether or not they're on pallets. When you have this info, call a few freight companies and tell them you have a less-than-truckload shipment (LTL).

[clem24]

Hey thanks! Can you recommend any carriers? So far, I've looked into Pak Mail, which is based out of the states but has offices in Ontario (and looks to have an office in Edmonton too), but that might be a more expensive solution.

They go there and pack everything up, then send by whatever means it takes to get here. I think they use third parties like Fedex or as you say, other trucking companies.

[FiveFreshFish]

Check PM.

[clem24]

Here's an update to my furniture shipment:

I did some research and couldn't find anything at all. Anyway, when I talked to Atlas Van Lines, they recommended a place called Pak Mail. They are basically a 3rd party shipper that'll go to the location, pack up everything, and ship them via different carriers. I used Pak Mail in Boca Ratonm FL. The guy's name is Juan and he was super nice. He even personally went down to the place I was buying from and took measurements of what I was getting.

Anyway, the actual shipment took about 1 week by ground. When it arrived in Calgary, I just went down to customs (by 32nd NE Staples) and paid the taxes (only GST!! woohoo, thanks NAFTA!). The shipper holds the item in their warehouse until you clear it, usually you have to do it within 48 hours.

I think the actual shippers were UPS at one point, and then transferred to Roadway Express/Reimer. So yes, it was an LTL. The guy had all the furniture packed on 3 separate pallets. The big 3 seat couch was on a big pallet that was built up from 2, plus 2 more pallets for the loveseat and chair.

He did a real good job and was smart enough to use screws to build the big oversized pallet, so it was a real bitch to take apart (until we figured out to use a screwdriver!!). All of the furniture was first wrapped in cellophane, strapped down, then completely covered in cardboard and strapped down again. It was very profesional, so it arrived in great condition.

Total weight was about 1,000lbs, but LTL shipments don't usually go by weight. They go by dimensions, since that is really the bigger constraint for the trucks. Shipping costs to me was about $1,200USD. After shipping/taxes/etc.. I basically saved about 60% of what I would have paid here. Mind you, the furniture wasn't in perfect 100% brand new shape (like equivalent to a floor model), but whatever. I am quite the happy camper and would not hesitate to do it again.