BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi Everyone

Hoping someone in the lovely community can help me out with my question.

I have accumulated quite a lot of souvenier stuff since I've been here in Canada - Calgary that I want to ship home (Australia - Melbourne) by boat so that it is cheaper and it doesn't really matter how long it takes to get there as long as it does. Would anyone know of any companies that I can use to ship my stuff by boat from Calgary? Most are just clothing and little bits of souveniers. Probably no heavier then 10kg all up.

Any help will be great.

Thanks in Advance

AT

For such a small amount it is probably best to see if the Post office can send it by surface mail or to send it as unaccompanied luggage.

If you want to send it as 'sea freight' then you have to pay for a minimum 1cbm (cubic metre) plus docs and other fees. 'Freight only' will probably be about AUD150 if sending from west coast Canada, add fees and Australian local charges to that and you are probably looking at a total of around AUD300 - if they don't charge extra for handling 'personal effects'. Find a 'Freight Forwarder' to quote on it. If you were sending around about 1cbm then it is probably worth it. If you are not sending from West coast - forget it. Cartage within Canada and/or freight through the Canal will hike your charges way out of control.

Less than half a cbm and you would probably do well to look at 'Air freight'.

Less than a quarter of a cbm (sounds about the size you are describing) and you are best to get quotes from the post office and from an 'Unaccompanied Luggage' specialist.

How to work out cbm...
Make sure you use metres and overestimate the measurements:
Length x Width x Height = cbm

Therefore a box that is...
cbm = L40cm x W35cm x H45cm
cbm = 0.40 x 0.35 x 0.45
cbm = 0.063 (i.e. very small)

Good Luck

If you've only got 10Kg of stuff, definitely go with the post office. You can check the rates here. If you're in no hurry to get your package, international surface should be about $90.

Shipping can be a real hassle. I did it when I left Turkey and it took weeks to sort out and even longer for the box to get to Cape Town.

I spend a year living in South Korea, accumulating a lot of souvenirs and cold weather clothes in the process. Before heading to southeast Asia for several months of backpacking, I surface-mailed several large boxes of stuff back to the States. It took two months, but I was still traveling when they arrived in the States, and it was quite cheap.

Surface mail isn't available from all countries, though.