A friend is gathering clothes for children in Peru, apparently they’ve been hit with unseasonably cool temperatures and there’s a lot of need.
We’ve assembled some stuff, now we need a cheap way to get it there.
Any ideas?
Well, first of all, it won’t be cheap. Do you have a specific person or group you are planning to ship to? You can’t just send such items to “Peru.”
It also depends on how much you have. Get at least an estimate of the weight and volume. If it’s just a few pounds, heck, ship it via Fed Ex or similar international carrier.
If it’s a large quantity, you are going to need someone to handle the logistics. Your best bet is to deal with a freight forwarder. Freight forwarders can arrange to ship the cargo, either as a full container or less than a container load. (The smallest normal container will be 20’ long and 8 1/2 feet high.)
Assuming a full container load: The forwarder can arrange for a trucker to come to your location (hopefully a warehouse with a loading dock), where you or warehouse personnel load the freight into the container. A seal is placed on the container and it is delivered to a rail ramp or seaport, from whence it is shipped to the destination. At that point the local agent for your recipient, the consignee, will arrange for the container to be delivered someplace where it is unloaded, and the container is returned empty to the port.
Assuming less than a container load: The forwarder can arrange for a local trucker to come to your location as before, pick up the loose freight (hopefully boxed or crated, ideally loaded on a shipping pallet) and take it to a warehouse. Alternatively, they can give you the address of the warehouse and you can take your cargo there yourself. It will then be placed in a container with other freight headed to the same overseas port, and handled as previously described. In Peru, things proceed as before, with the additional step that an agent at the destination will have to receive the container and unpack the various shipments and distribute them to the various consignees.
Your freight forwarder does not necessarily have to be in the same place where you live. The one I work for handles shipments from all parts of the country to places all around the world, although we specialize in the middle east.
Theoretically you could do all this yourself, but you’d pay a huge amount more. Freight forwarders already have contract rates with steamship lines, agreements and relationships with truckers, and contacts with agents overseas.
I wish your location was something other than a political statement, and then I might be able to give you a vague idea of the approximate range of costs you could expect to pay.
Send me a message if you want me to try to give you more information.