OK, question...
Any ideas for shipping two tubas to the Middle East? I don't mean flying them on your same flight, just a means of shipping them ahead of time.
UPS, DHL, FedEx, etc???
Shipping a tuba to the Middle East (not just flying)
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MartyNeilan
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Shipping a tuba to the Middle East (not just flying)
Adjunct Instructor, Trevecca Nazarene University
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MartyNeilan
- 6 valves
- Posts: 4876
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 3:06 am
- Location: Practicing counting rests.
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LoyalTubist
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- Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:49 pm
- Location: Arcadia, CA
- Contact:
Hi, Marty,
This is Bill. I have been busy lately trying to arrange moving to Vietnam in August. I have done three international moves, one through the military, for the other two, I worked for local organizations--and the job I will hopefully getting in Vietnam is for an American corporation.
If you are doing it through the government or civilian authorities, the rules are the same--it's just for the government, there is no cash required up front.
When I moved to Indonesia, we categorized our things into two categories--what we need now and what we might not need for a long time. What went into the first category were: most of our clothing, appliances, ONE tuba, a few children's toys (my daughters were small then), and about half of our books. These were sent on the same plane with us and we paid for excess baggage. We used normal shipping boxes you get from a self-storage place. There were four of us traveling, so we divided these boxes by four, so we paid correctly. You will need to weigh everything. To get them to the airport, you will need to rent a small passenger van (2 ton capacity, plus passengers) and a friend will have to drive you there, since you will too busy to take the van back to the truck rental place with the boxes at the airport. Make sure you contact the airline first to see if they allow excess luggage of up to 500 pounds per person. OK, for the stuff you don't need immediately, you will need to ship this out as soon as you know you are leaving and know where you are going. Actually, if you have the name, address, and phone number of the organization you are working for, that is good enough. Find a shipping company that deals with the country where you are going. You bring the items to their warehouse and the will pack them. Get some of those boxes from the self-storage place and mark the boxes as to their contents. Most musical instruments in cases will go loose. Do not put any important documents or pictures in this shipment--they should go with you on the airplane. The shipping company will charge you for the number of cubic feet used in a shipping container. And, generally, if what you have fills 85% of a container, you will be charged for the whole space. If you use 75% of it, someone else's things will be put in the container with yours. When they fill up the container, you will get an invoice of the shipper's charge. Now, when I did this, I thought that was all I was going to pay. It didn't work out that way.
I left for Indonesia on August 6 and arrived on August 10. We had to stay in Singapore for two days to get my work permit. I sent the cargo shipment (my unaccompanied things) from a shipping company called Asmara Electronics in Culver City in the middle of July. Everything that came with us on the airplane arrived safely and nothing was missing. The unaccompanied shipment arrived on October 10. It would not be released to my company until I paid a shipping tax on the crate to the Indonesian government. Next, a trucking company had to be hired to bring the goods to my house, some 60 miles from Jakarta's Cengkareng Airport (which is about 25 miles west of Jakarta--I lived about 30 miles south of Jakarta). I paid the tax and I paid for the truck rental. When the goods arrived at my house (on October 12). I also had to pay the driver and for his crew of about 15 helpers who unloaded the van. I was missing two boxes (and I never got them).
Marty, this is my only post today, and it's the only one I made in several days. I will be doing field work beginning tomorrow, so I won't be on the Internet until almost next weekend. But what you asked about is something I lived through and I hope this can help you. I will have to go through it again in a few weeks.
Bill
This is Bill. I have been busy lately trying to arrange moving to Vietnam in August. I have done three international moves, one through the military, for the other two, I worked for local organizations--and the job I will hopefully getting in Vietnam is for an American corporation.
If you are doing it through the government or civilian authorities, the rules are the same--it's just for the government, there is no cash required up front.
When I moved to Indonesia, we categorized our things into two categories--what we need now and what we might not need for a long time. What went into the first category were: most of our clothing, appliances, ONE tuba, a few children's toys (my daughters were small then), and about half of our books. These were sent on the same plane with us and we paid for excess baggage. We used normal shipping boxes you get from a self-storage place. There were four of us traveling, so we divided these boxes by four, so we paid correctly. You will need to weigh everything. To get them to the airport, you will need to rent a small passenger van (2 ton capacity, plus passengers) and a friend will have to drive you there, since you will too busy to take the van back to the truck rental place with the boxes at the airport. Make sure you contact the airline first to see if they allow excess luggage of up to 500 pounds per person. OK, for the stuff you don't need immediately, you will need to ship this out as soon as you know you are leaving and know where you are going. Actually, if you have the name, address, and phone number of the organization you are working for, that is good enough. Find a shipping company that deals with the country where you are going. You bring the items to their warehouse and the will pack them. Get some of those boxes from the self-storage place and mark the boxes as to their contents. Most musical instruments in cases will go loose. Do not put any important documents or pictures in this shipment--they should go with you on the airplane. The shipping company will charge you for the number of cubic feet used in a shipping container. And, generally, if what you have fills 85% of a container, you will be charged for the whole space. If you use 75% of it, someone else's things will be put in the container with yours. When they fill up the container, you will get an invoice of the shipper's charge. Now, when I did this, I thought that was all I was going to pay. It didn't work out that way.
I left for Indonesia on August 6 and arrived on August 10. We had to stay in Singapore for two days to get my work permit. I sent the cargo shipment (my unaccompanied things) from a shipping company called Asmara Electronics in Culver City in the middle of July. Everything that came with us on the airplane arrived safely and nothing was missing. The unaccompanied shipment arrived on October 10. It would not be released to my company until I paid a shipping tax on the crate to the Indonesian government. Next, a trucking company had to be hired to bring the goods to my house, some 60 miles from Jakarta's Cengkareng Airport (which is about 25 miles west of Jakarta--I lived about 30 miles south of Jakarta). I paid the tax and I paid for the truck rental. When the goods arrived at my house (on October 12). I also had to pay the driver and for his crew of about 15 helpers who unloaded the van. I was missing two boxes (and I never got them).
Marty, this is my only post today, and it's the only one I made in several days. I will be doing field work beginning tomorrow, so I won't be on the Internet until almost next weekend. But what you asked about is something I lived through and I hope this can help you. I will have to go through it again in a few weeks.
Bill
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