Does anyone know if any of the international shipping companies (Crown, etc.) accept partial containers – i.e. shipments that do not fill a container?
I know people have posted in the past information about shipping stuff home, but didn’t pay much attention at the time.
Sure they do, you pay per CU.FT. space and you need to pay the documents and handling.
Maybe they charge you for storage of your goods for a couple of days.
Most accept partial - and some offer free storage for a period of time (up to 6 months).
The main worry with this is that your stuff usually ends up waiting to be combined with other partial loads. That can mean that your stuff is waiting around for some time (depending on the popularity of your destination). As such it is more prone to walking/damage than if in proper storage.
Anyone know how much stuff you need to fill a container?
approximately 2.6 buttloads 
The interior dimensions of a 20-foot container are 19’4" x 7’8" x 7’10" … you can do the math yourself.
You don’t need to fill the container, and you’d be foolish to fill a shipping container to the roof with boxes that were of uneven sizes. Find out how much it costs to get your own 20-foot container, even if you just fill it to a depth of 4 feet or so. I was surprised that I could ship a 20-footer halfway round the world for just a few hundred US$. If you get your own container, you can pack it as you want. You can pack it yourself if you want.
Part loads for a shared container are stacked onto pallettes, wrapped in plastic and kept in a secure warehouse before being loaded into the container (if they are even-sized boxes.) Uneven items will be packed into crates, and the crates then stacked in the container in the correct order for removal. You’ll be billed for this extra packing work.
I think you get a month’s free demurrage at the far end, but you’ll have to check with your shipper who will have the receiving port’s regulations.
Ask the transport company to come to your house to make a quotation first. They normally do that for free and you can discuss all the details like packing, storage etc. with them.
I shipped some (well, a lot) of items from Malaysia to Germany and I wasn’t bothered with the size of the actual container, only by the volume of my stuff.
It all was packed (bubblewrapped, cardboxes etc) and arrived in excellent condition on two pallets.
It seems like we’re talking about two different things – those shipping companies that pack for you, etc. charge a few thousand US for a container (maybe 6K). Monkey must be talking about something else – how do you get your own container that you pack yourself and ship for only a few hundered dollars?
When I moved here to Taiwan, I called up the cargo company, and they brought the container around to my house and parked it outside (still on the trailer of course). Then I borrowed some local labor to help pack my gear and put it in the container.
The cargo company brought the tractor unit back when I told them to, and they sealed the container, gave me the bill of lading and hauled the container off to the port. Not too tricky.
Here’s the catch in Taiwan … they couldn’t bring the container to my apartment because city regulations outlawed it and the streets near my place were too narrow to drive an articulated truck through.
Call a cargo company and ask them what they can offer you. If you’re in the city limits, don’t expect to get a container delivered to your door.
SJM, a few thousand seems a bit exaggerated but also consider that they will take care of all the formalities, especially the import / custom clearance at the destination.
I agree that a few thousand is exaggerated, but that seems to be what companies such as Crown charge. Expats I’ve spoken to say they’ve paid 200K NT. Maybe that’s just the exaggerated fee they charge when they know a foreign company is paying for an overseas move.
That might well be true, on a similar note I was offered an apartment at Lotus Hill for half the price expats of my former employer pay - because the agent obvioulsy knows the buget their company provides.
When I told her that my budget was only half of that it was no problem to get a unit for that, too, though I choose not to take it due to the distance / travel time.
Yesterday I called a local dealer for selling me some test equipment and first questions they asked (probably because I don’t speak Chinese) is if the company is foreign owned.
Should be difficult to guess what that question was intended for …
Rip off! 
What’s the best company to use from Taiwan to, let’s say, New Zealand? Any takers?
Try Transworld: 2836 1000 or 2836 5000
Can’t vouche for anything but perhaps you get an idea about the price / arrangements …
thanks