IckleHelen

Hello Everybody

I'm just looking at prices of shipping a few boxes from Chester to Calgary and there seems to be a big difference between the cost of Door-to-Door and Door-to-Depot. We are looking at sending our stuff by air as one of the boxes will be our iMac and don't want to be without that for months on end.

What exactly is the difference between Door-to-Door and Door-to-Depot? The shipping companies talk about the 'extra' charges you may have to pay when you collect from the depot, but I'm not sure how much of this is true and how much they are just trying to make you order the Door-to-Door service instead.

Has anyone had any experience of Door-to-Depot? As I say we'll only be shipping a small number of boxes, so they'd fit in a car if we went to pick them up.

Thank you.
Helen

Surrey Expat

Door to door - Pick up at your premises and drop at destination premises.
Door to depot, pick up at your premises and deliver to their depot, you pick up from there. usually only charges may be brokerage and customs release. All depends on how far the depot is from you at the destination. You can also arrange for a local courier to pick up for you. We have freight come in to YVR, our broker clears customs for us and we arrange for a local courier to pick it up for us. Far cheaper than I could go to the airport for and same day service.

IckleHelen

Thank you. Are brokerage and customs release expensive?

Surrey Expat

http://www.pcb.ca/pgoods.asp

If these are items you have owned for sometime and are on a goods to follow list, you should not have to pay taxes or duties. You might want to ask your shipper to write to you with a list of charges for pick up at the depot.

IckleHelen

I think I understand now. So, brokerage is payment to a company for sorting out the tax and duties, but we can do this ourselves. And since whatever we take will be on our 'goods to follow list' we shouldn't have any taxes or duties either. I also need to check with the shipping company what other fees are payable. Is that right? Will we have to pay for Customs Clearance? Thank you.

Surrey Expat

A broker does a bit more than sort out the taxes & duties, but you really should not need one. You may have to pay a small fee for customs clearance, however you can ask the shipper to clear it for you. Once cleared, go to their offices, pick up the clearance document and then present yourself at the warehouse and they should hand your boxes over. This is the easier way and should not cost a lot, my guess is well under $100. If your shipper is not very helpful or clear on the charges, maybe try a different shipper. We've used DHL for some heavier shipments (1500lbs+) and Fedex (Fedex charge us $7 to clear customs).

IckleHelen

Thanks Surrey Expat for explaining this to me.

moondevil

We have just booked through easysending.com

Seemed the best as they do the door to door and less hassle
There quote came through and is lower than the ones that deliver at the depot or airport, so my fingers are crossed all is well.

Delivery in 1week as well

IckleHelen

Thank you moondevil, prices on their website don't seem too bad. Can you let me know how you get on? When are you actually sending the boxes over?
Cheers

moondevil

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