Moving intercontinentally>>cheapest way to ship stuff?

Question

I have boxes to ship home with books, clothes, and my other life possessions. I'm currently in Belgium (West Europe), gonna move to Indonesia (Southeast Asia). What's the cheapest way to ship my goods? I don't care if it takes 3 months, just as long as it's low cost. Also, I may have a few boxes with fragile contents. Somebody told me about a "door to door" service, do you know what this is? or do you have any other suggestions? serious answers only, please.

Answer 1

Assuming mail and freight fowarding services work in similar fashion (I used to be the logistics profession here in US), I may suggest you to check out the Belgium mail service first. If you don't really have too many things, I would first suggest checking out the national mail service of Belgium. They usually or should have the best rates but they won't take a huge amount of personal effects. You'd have to mail a few pieces at a time. 3rd class (by sea) is always the slowest and, thus, most economical. And, the service is "door to door", which means it will arrive at the location of your choice. You'll have to fill out export papers yourself and, if you have things of value, you may also think about insurance.

The other route is to find a freight fowarder. Don't know where you live but there should be plenty of them around. This is especially true if you live close to a major city like Antwerp or Brussels. Why? You will be close to a port of exit (air port/sea port). Whether smaller companies or large ones, they'll do everything for you. All you have to do is to drop all of your boxes to them and they'd do the rest. And, yes, most will also offer "door to door" services. What will happen is that they'll get your personal effects over to Indonesia and either their Indonesian office will finish the rest or they will have an agent there to take care of the customs entry and delivery for you.

The cost? They will charge either by the overall cubic meters or space your goods should occupy in the container or they'd charge you by weight. Why? Are you shipping a huge pile of cotton or are you shipping crates of bricks?

One thing about freight fowarders, you need know that they ship everything in bulk, so, your goods will arrive at destination on a pallet. Therefore, if you want their "door to door" service, be prepared that you have a place at destination that'd be able to receive an entire pallet (say a garage or dock). Otherwise, be prepared to pick it up by yourself at their warehouse in Indonesia.

Either way, I highly suggest you keep a detailed packing list not only so that you know what is in which box but all shippers, especially freight fowarders will need such a list. I also suggest you clearly label your boxes and number them accordingly for the same reasons.