Experiences Shipping Luggage with Freight Carriers (job, cheap, shippers, UPS)
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I am considering moving the majority of my stuff, two large suitcases, by shipping them via FEDEX or UPS, or possibly another freight service. I want to do this, because I need to take the train where I am moving, in order to take my bike and not be charged outlandish fees for checked baggage (it's a folding bike, but I don't want to risk it getting broken/dinged up, since it cost me nearly seven hundred dollars). I would strongly prefer to only have to take a small luggage bag and my bike, and can stop at some places along the way and ride it. Amtrak is very open to letting people take their bikes on the train, and it's only ten dollars extra to keep it as checked luggage.
So has anyone had any experience shipping entire luggage bags via FEDEX? The rates are surprisingly cheap, around a dollar a pound for three day ground delivery, and I am seriously considering this. Of course, I'll make sure to pad all my valuable stuff so it doesn't break along the way, since they probably don't handle baggage very well at all. Any advice and tips is greatly appreciated.
In my experience working in a shipping/receiving job at a car dealer parts dept, shipping anything by any service that is not in a sturdy, "square", cardboard box is risky. If you don't need the suitcases for future travel just pack your stuff in a box. Otherwise pack the suitcases in a suitable ( no pun !) box.
Shippers like FedEx and UPS send your stuff thru at lot of sorting machines that do not work well with odd-shaped stuff. At best it is set off to the side, hand sorted, but that has resulted in delays and mis-routings.
IIRC, Fedex has a service for AIR travelers who don't want to check bags, but it is not cheap as it assumes you want the bags delivered ASAP.
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