Maximum shipping cost for bulky heavy crated item.

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I need to find a rough upward bound for shipping costs for a roughly 300 pound 6’x3’x3’ crate containing a very rugged item. The originating address would be in Santa Barbara. I need to find a shipping address in a small obscure town in the continental USA that would be maximally expensive to ship to. I’m thinking Maine or Florida.

Can anyone suggest a town in East Bumfuck that I can give to the shipping company to guess at an upper bound of shipping costs? This should not be an address of a shack on a dirt road in West Virginia 100 miles from the nearest town.

The shipping time is not of concern so long as it is faster than about a month.

#2

We just went through this. Two dinning room chairs that were not easily taken apart. Not heavy but obviously bulky. The UPS store could not ship them UPS but they did work with some local shipping company. It ended up costing 300 dollars per chair. We did this for some friends. I’d never pay that. My dinner guest could sit on milk crates for that kind of money. Though it was better than the 900 per chair Rooms To Go wanted to charge (and hell, that didn’t even include hookers and blow).

Not sure that helps other than to prepare you for possible sticker shock. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find something a bit more reasonable.

#3

Using the uShip Price Estimator and Santa Barbara to Medway, Maine (pop. 1489) gives a price of $599.

#4

Thanks. I think I’ll just run with Ashland, Maine. Population 1309. It’s pretty far north and not on any major highways. I already ran the figures for Portland, Maine (starting at $600). The lady from the freight consolidator kept asking me for an address and I kept saying I don’t know what the address is, choose an obscure town in Maine. She asked me for the zip code about a dozen times. I’ll just cap shipping costs at $1000 and leave it at that.

#5

I just got a scooter shipped to Arlington, SD from Dallas, TX and they only charged me $49. They used SAIA.

#6

I’ll drive to Santa Barbara to pick up the crate and drive it anywhere in the 48 states for $50,000. Is that a workable upper bound?

#7

I was looking at a handmade table while I was on vacation in Hawaii and he showed me pictures of one that he shipped from there to a buyer in Toronto. The table was $40k and so was shipping. I didn’t love the table quite that much.

#8

This is my basic experience for something ~ 4.5 cubic feet, a bit under 100 lbs. $300 and they had to work it out with the shipping company, iirc. This was almost cross country, too.