# Shipping bulk personal items USA to France



## imokruok

Hi everyone. I'm sure some have come across this issue in big moves (_not_ paid for by an employer), so I'm checking to see what services people have used to ship items to France from the US with no urgent timeline (i.e., it can go ocean freight).

I have about 12-15 large cardboard boxes, say weighing 30-40lbs each. It's all personal items – clothes, shoes, books, kitchen accessories, papers, bedding, etc. This is too much to direct ship, and if I use something like DHL or UPS, I don't have a ton of control over delivery and I know it's obscenely expensive.

It'd be great to have a solution where I can put it at a freight dock somewhere in the US (I'm in LA right now), have it sent via ocean, customs cleared, and I can send a person to go and pick it up somewhere in or near Paris or have it delivered by whichever freight company receives it in France.

Any ideas? And thank you in advance!


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## Bevdeforges

Your best bet is to contact a moving company in LA that advertises itself as an "international" mover. You will need to have an inventory of everything you have boxed up - ideally with (estimated) acquisition dates and values - as these will be needed for customs clearance on arrival in France. They may have to find a partially full container headed to France to include your stuff with, since so much is shipped via container these days. 

Coming from the West Coast, your shipment will go via the Panama Canal, so will most likely take a good 12 weeks (assuming it isn't backlogged in all this shipping backlog hassle). But using a moving company will allow them to do the contacts with their customs clearance contacts and whoever they use in France for the ultimate delivery. 

Ideally, you should contact at least 2 or 3 moving companies in your area to see what your shipment will cost and what delays or issues you'll be facing.


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## travertine

I agree with Bev's comments but offer more info. I'm currently arranging shipment from Canada but have linked with a companyi n the US that offers a service that may suit you and the quantity involved. They're UPakWeShip and they offer a door-to-door service (UPakWeShip International Shipping Company | International Moving Rates). They can send to your residence a flat pack that includes a wooden pallet, heavy duty cardboard walls, a cardboard cap, plastic wrapping and strapping. You pack your individual boxes at leisure and then build your pallet, seal it up, then call them to collect, ship and deliver at the other end. The price is fixed for the pallet based on origin and destination. Whether you completely fill the pallet or not it's the same price. You can ship 1 or more pallets and the unit price decreases with the latter. I don't know about shipping times for LA but shippers in Vancouver aren't giving any durations at all - it's just too uncertain and it seems personal effects are a low priority for the shipping companies when they are struggling to attend to larger/more important clients. I'm preparing for 3-6 months.


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## jweihl

You mention say that DHL costs a ton of money, and I guess it's all relative. We did opt for using SENDMYBAG.COM and had good luck with them. For our shipment, they used DHL. It was a bit on the expensive side, but the service worked well and our items arrived almost TOO early, even as some of the boxes went via Amsterdam, and others through Marseilles. We sent 7 boxes ranging from 30-40 lbs each (we used 17x17x17 inch UPS shipping boxes). From Michigan to Nîmes each box cost $164. When we added insurance and tracking, etc, the total bill for the boxes $1,450. We had to be pretty selective about what we sent, and limited ourselves to things that would be difficult or expensive to replace, or that had sentimental value. 

I will say that the process was easy and the customer service was quite good when we needed to make a change in our shipment. I'd definitely use then again in similar circumstances.


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## Peasant

travertine said:


> I agree with Bev's comments but offer more info. I'm currently arranging shipment from Canada but have linked with a companyi n the US that offers a service that may suit you and the quantity involved. They're UPakWeShip and they offer a door-to-door service (UPakWeShip International Shipping Company | International Moving Rates).


I can also recommend UPakWeShip. They moved our stuff from the US to France and my daughter's stuff(and her husband's) from the US to the UK. Easy to deal with, fairly priced, things left on schedule and arrived on schedule.


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## imokruok

Thanks everyone! Some great data points here on this. I'll probably choose something in the next month or two and will update the experience...


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## bhamham

The movers came last Friday to pack my things for my move from Austin, TX to Nantes. I used Allied van lines or the local affiliate, Berger Allied. It wasn't a large shipment, only 262 cu ft of mostly my hobby and personal stuff. No furniture. For 262 cu ft the cost was $3974, much less than UPakWeShip (240 cu ft at $4604) and I didn't have to pack a thing. I was very impressed with the packing and how efficient they were. No styrofoam or plastic peanuts just wadded-up paper.

They ship to Amsterdam and then it's trucked to France. I was told that Amsterdam is really backed up and it may take up to 100 days for delivery, which probably means 4-5 months.


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## Befuddled

When I left LA I used Bekins . I packed my stuff into a few crates and trunks. They came to the house and took it away (including some furniture) and put it into storage. When I made my mind up about staying in UK I contacted them to ship it to the south of England. It arrived at the door in a container. I was only 23 at the time and I didn't think it was terribly expensive. I didn't have to do any paperwork myself. Bekins, or their agents, did the lot. Of course this was a very long time ago.


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