freight shipping of furniture when moving. (packers, movers, job, Allied)

[buenos]

Did anyone use freight shipping of furniture instead of loading them into moving containers?
Is it cheaper? How much?
2 large sofas would possibly take up a half Upack ReloCube, which means coast to coast $1000.
For example ship few important large furniture items as freight, then ship all other personal items and small furniture (chairs, tables) in one relocube.

[Sicilee]

I see there were no responses. What did you end up doing?

[TimAZ]

“Freight shipping” is just that. Freight typically moves from one commercial loading dock to another. How many homes have loading docks? Yes you can get lift-gate pickup and delivery — for an extra charge. Now where is your pallet jack or fork lift to put that pallet on the lift gate?

This is why there are services called moving companies...

[reed303]

Originally Posted by Sicilee

I see there were no responses. What did you end up doing?

I hope the OP used Upack's partial trailer service instead of the ReloCube. You pay by the foot used.

Closest method to an LTL freight service, which would usually want the stuff crated or boxed, besides pickup & delivery issues.

[buenos]

I didn't move. Getting a job out of state is very hard, especially in the south east US.
But the plan is to use one uhaul container, and give away everything that does not fit in it. Then buy it all new again on the other side.
Freight shipping supposed to be cheap. 2 Years ago I ordered a sofa for $720 with free shipping from east coast to west coast. It took over a month to deliver it, but with free shipping!!! Any other container or moving method would cost more on the coast to coast shipping for a sofa than the price of a new sofa.

[reed303]

Originally Posted by buenos

I didn't move. Getting a job out of state is very hard, especially in the south east US.
But the plan is to use one uhaul container, and give away everything that does not fit in it. Then buy it all new again on the other side.
Freight shipping supposed to be cheap. 2 Years ago I ordered a sofa for $720 with free shipping from east coast to west coast. It took over a month to deliver it, but with free shipping!!! Any other container or moving method would cost more on the coast to coast shipping for a sofa than the price of a new sofa.

It can be if you are a regular shipper. When I worked at a car dealer parts dept, we would regularly ship repairable parts, etc back to the car co, and we got a steep discount from their "list" prices.

And it gets worse if you have to add residential pickup and/or delivery charges, and any required crating or boxing of items.

Many threads on this Forum recommend sell the old stuff, and buying at the new place.

BTW, At least $100 of that $720 covered shipping

[mschrief]

Atlas and Allied quoted us $14k - both of them - from TX to WA. Really? We ended up using a 26 foot Uhaul for about 3k total including three nights in a hotel, food and gas.

Nothing we owned is worth that - we could have sold or given away everything and purchased new stuff.

Highway (forgive the pun) robbery!!

[GotHereQuickAsICould]

Once you've pared down your belongings to things that you would pay to ship, call U Pack.

They will send out a trailer. You have a few days to load. You pay by the foot. I think there is a 7 ft. minimum. Then you lock a plywood bulkhead.

They fill the rest of the trailer with freight they are shipping your direction. Pallets of who knows what.

If you need to store it, you pay a storage fee for the trailer.

When you are ready for it, they will drop the trailer off at your house and you have a few days to unload.

When we've priced it out, it has always been cheaper than renting a truck or using pods.

So once you have gotten rid of everything but what you don't want to replace when you get there, call U Pack.

[buenos]

I just got some online quotes:
1 uhaul ubox container: few pieces of furniture and all personal items: $2500.
1 48x45" cardboard box with UPS: only personal items: $950.
My furniture full set would be $4000 to buy new.

[Sparrow_temp]

This is the service I used in my last move from NM to CA. I hired packers and loaders on the front end and just movers on the back end to unload. This was the easiest way to move but the issue is always finding people who know how to properly load a trailer without ruining your belongings. I'm mainly talking about the large items that don't go in boxes that are being wrapped in plastic/blankets/etc. If you're a novice (which most of us are), you don't know how they did until the other side of the move when you examine your belongings and hear the movers on that side complain that the first company didn't know what they were doing if anything is broken.

Originally Posted by GotHereQuickAsICould

Once you've pared down your belongings to things that you would pay to ship, call U Pack.

They will send out a trailer. You have a few days to load. You pay by the foot. I think there is a 7 ft. minimum. Then you lock a plywood bulkhead.