It has been 7 or 8 years since I looked, but there used to be an outfit called U-Ship. All they did was list people that wanted something shipped and the movers would bid on the service. Most of the movers were not anything related to professional. An example is at the time we had a horse boarding stable, we knew we had a horse coming in from out of state. When it arrived it was in a 4 horse trailer along with a dog in a crate and furniture that went to different places in Florida. In other words, the shipper was just a guy with a horse trailer and a truck that bid on anything along his route. Forget any kind of commercial insurance since he had no DOT number or MC number. He depended entirely on flying under the radar.
During that time period you could get horses moved for $.50 per mile. In most cases you got what you paid for.
U-Ship still exists. They’re the broker behind the scenes of TV’s Shipping Wars. If the transporters on that program are an accurate representation of real life, there are some actual pros and a bunch of utter fools.
By comparison, the similarly named U-Pack is a service of ABF, a long-established LTL or “less than truckload” shipper. Think of them as a variable-sized PODS-like service. They deliver a 28-foot trailer for you to load and bill you for however many linear feet you use. Last I looked, they want you to estimate how much trailer you’ll use, but there wasn’t a penalty if you used more. A plywood bulkhead is installed to hopefully keep your stuff safe from prying eyes at the freight depot, then the remaining space is used for commercial freight going in roughly the same direction as your stuff. Unlike PODS, there is a time limit to how long you have to load/unload.
Well, the movers came by the storage unit today and picked everything up. There were no extra charges, except for $75 since the hallway in the storage building was more than 100 feet, and they insisted I buy a box ($10) for my vacuum cleaner. Past that, everything seemed to go swimmingly, and my stuff will get to my new home whenever it gets to my new home.
hmm, the long carry charge isn’t unusual in and of it self, 175 feet is the standard we use at my company though. I would challenge the box charge for the vacuum though. That was an unnecessary charge. Vacuums don’t need to be boxed, can be wrapped in a pad (moving blanket).
My stuff showed up today, for the most part in one piece (or the correct number of pieces). One of my bookcases was damaged, though. I think someone tried to move it upside down, and the top separated form the sides. I’m annoyed by that, but if the insurance I got doesn’t cover it, I should be able to fix it. Luckily this bookcase is six feet tall, so the top doesn’t have to look nice.
Inside the box, it turns out, was a whole bunch of smaller boxes and little rugs with the vacuum cleaner, like my lava lamp and so on.
So, a cross country move for $1300 total, with one damaged item, I’d say is a win.
That’s not a bad amount. How did the movers get access to the storage unit? Usually, you lock the unit with your own lock and keep your key, so did you mail the key to them?
Ah, well that’s different then. That’s actually somewhat common to do when packing a house. Haven’t seen it done with a vacuum myself though.
Your bookcase that was damaged, was it solid wood or particle board? Particle board furniture (ikea, anything from walmart, and astounding amount of furniture these days) we actually have a waiver of liability for the shipper to sign because it is so easily damaged during transport. Bookcases are usually the most easily damaged large item.
It was particle board, and about 6 feet tall. I think something smashed into the top of it, since everything is fine but that part. I think it’s fixable, but still kind of a pain.