I’m looking for a freight forwarder to the mainland. Site search only turns up some very old threads, and no specific contact info for freight forwarders, only moving companies. I don’t want to use a moving company due to the expense. I used a freight forwarder when I moved to Taiwan, no problem, but now I’m facing a different international move. Anyone have contact info?
Maybe Schenker
Great, thanks–got their address from the web site and will try them on Monday. Meanwhile, if anyone has more forwarders to compare, please post.
Kerry logistics
Oh, right, I see their trucks all the time. thanks
In case anyone else ever finds this thread, there’s also:
Evergreen Logistics, 5F #170 Minsheng E. Rd., sec. 2 (near MRT Xingtian Gong)
Asia Shipping, 12F #170 Minsheng E. Rd., sec. 2 (near MRT Xingtian Gong)
along with the ones already mentioned:
DB Schenker, 2F #51 Minsheng E. Rd., sec. 3 (near MRT Xingtian Gong)
Kerry Logistics, 14F #50 Xinsheng S. Rd., sec. 1 (right outside of MRT Zhongxiao-Xinsheng exit 2)
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Follow up, in case anyone has money-saving advice. I went to each of these companies personally, told them what I needed, and was told to wait for their email. Schenker will only ship business to business, not individuals. Evergreen and Asia never got back to me, so I guess they leave it up to you to ride them until an agent gives you their attention. Kerry sent two responses: one agent rejected me because they don’t ship personal effects; the other agent started working on my case because they ship personal effects, so I went with that one. The one who rejected me now also works on my case.
I should mention that I first went to Allied Pickfords, whose sticker shock seemed to bear out what people on these boards have called movers’ tacking on unnecessary charges. That’s what sent me looking for freight forwarders in the first place. For comparison, I’ve been getting estimates for 7 cubic meters (cbm). Allied said NT 95,000 door-to-door, which is 50% more than I paid when I shipped twice as much stuff from the U.S. to Taipei, door-to-door. So I thought I was so smart for getting Kerry on board, until they quoted me 110,000. After giving them a big wtf, they clarified that they were breaking the shipment into air and sea so that I could get the stuff qualified for air a few days faster than the other stuff–hardly worth it. For everything by sea, they quoted me 70,000, which is a worthwhile savings over Allied’s 95,000, except it was clear from the first that Kerry isn’t used to dealing with an individual’s personal effects.
Then, Kerry starts telling me about stuff that they worry will get the whole shipment rejected, such as including religious materials. I have no worries there, but then they follow up with no books at all, just to be safe. Mind you, they provide this info piecemeal, so that it’s clear that they’re not used to or set up for dealing with individuals. I mean, they’re competent and professional etc., but keep having to check on things for what is an ordinary personal move. So they say that I have to take care of books myself, via the post office or DHL, etc. I compensate in my mind for that because it’s just a couple of boxes, but now I have to deal with two shippers and there’s no economy of scale with the post office: separate boxes are separate shipments, so there’s that extra tracking and receiving effort (no guarantee they arrive together). Then Kerry tells me no large computer monitor because it will get the whole shipment rejected. So I accept that and plan to give that large monitor/TV to a friend. So then I follow up with Kerry–and now I’m doing a lot of work with them just at this preliminary stage–that wouldn’t the TV/monitor be OK if I just pay customs duties? They answer with “no 3C”. So suddenly, it’s basically no electronics at all, and they again recommend the post office rather than risk getting my whole shipment rejected. Apparently, to Kerry anything subjected to customs duties gets the shipment rejected. But wouldn’t you think a shipper is set up to pay the customs duties (or determine them in advance) and then bill the customer? So now a whole lot of my stuff is split between Kerry and the very inconvenient and more chaotic (because each box is a separate shipment) post office. Eyeballing the differences in costs (smaller volume, but more post office) reduces the 25,000 Kerry savings to 10-15,000.
So now, weeks later, I go back to Allied because I’m losing confidence in Kerry, not because I think they’re incompetent or trying to squeeze more money out of me, but because they’re fully as inexperienced with shipping individuals as they say. I mean, what if at some point instead of commonsensically paying an unforeseen fee and holding back my delivery until I pay, they just pooch the shipment and give me a lot of boohoweesa’s while I’m 2000km away? Allied verifies–and they put me directly in email touch with the relevant China office–that there’s a standard price list at China’s customs, and you pay a duty percentage based on the listed price for that item. They also say that one box of books isn’t an issue, as long as there’s no religious stuff. Why doesn’t Kerry know this instead of checking on each aspect of my order, gradually, over a span of weeks, so that they still can’t give me a clear picture of the total estimated plan? Allied has it down to a button push, taking full responsibility and telling you how much you pay them for that peace of mind, clearly and with a basis. If the premium is only 15% more than Kerry’s–who raises my labor, if not anxiety level extensively–then who exactly would prefer a freight forwarder to a mover in Taiwan?
I was hoping to do one freight shipment for no more than 70,000 + customs duties. Am I missing something that would make that possible? Of course, I’m going to go back and push Evergreen and Asia now that I’ve got my shipment almost fully packed, so maybe they’ll be more experienced than Kerry. Or perhaps they’ll be so experienced dealing with disorganized individuals that, like Schenker, they leave the whole business to Allied, leaving experienced packers unable to enjoy the savings of a freight forwarder.
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Thanks for posting all this. The information is sure to be useful for others in the future.
Oh, right, I forgot: Allied said they can only deliver once I have the Z visa, that they store for me in Taipei for a month, then ship. The storage obviously raises the cost, so it’s not just them tacking on fees. They explained that for a household move, there are restrictions on who can receive the shipment (for example, not a Chinese citizen), and how often you can move in this status. So it looks like Allied just knows the system better and that there’s apparently some other status for individuals moving house that freight forwarders just don’t need to know. If anyone here knows more about this stuff, it would be good to know that Allied is indeed doing things the best way available.
Many companies that do moving do so for multi-national’s employees, so they mostly don’t care what it costs, as long as the expat that moves his personal stuff is happy and it’s included in his pay-package. For 110,000NT$ I guess you could get a whole 20’ container to yourself, trucking, custom clearance included.
Another important detail: Allied’s services include wrapping and packing, then unpacking with cleanup. I don’t need or want these services, and I don’t need the 30-day pre-shipment storage services they include in the price. You would think that the freight forwarder, who includes none of this labor or storage, would be able to offer a much more competitive price.
I moved from Taiwan to China however it was some years ago so some information may be out of date. Customs issues will also vary depending on where you are travelling to, Shanghai usually being the easiest and then downgrading the less popular a destination you are travelling to. Anyhow, some quick notes from my move;
~ Books, I brought several boxes, maybe 150 books, was a pain to clear customs as they were initially looking for the titles, authors and ISBN’s of every book
~ Electronics, again a pain. Custom tax on everything based on a % of a standard price list they have. e.g. a speaker, doesn’t matter if it’s the most expensive speaker in the world or a night market special, there’s a set price you pay. I got screwed as I had a cheap ass 5.1 computer speaker set, worth maybe 2000NT, paid about that again in tax as there were 6 speakers. Could have let them keep the speakers but then they would have to open the carton they were in and my packing list wasn’t exactly extensive…Computer hard drives, best remove and take in carry on luggage else wipe all info and ensure you have a licensed OS. Personally I recommend selling any desktop here and buying there as there is tax on MB, VGA card, HD etc etc etc.
~ Need to have Z visa and residence all sorted out before going to customs so there will be storage required somewhere, suggest this is best arranged in Taiwan as a) it’s generally safer and b) if for any reason the visa fails to be granted at least your stuff is here and not in a China limbo.
~ Anything highly valuable or personal, better handcarry as things do get damaged and sometimes go missing
I used the freight forwarder option as it was cheapest, I think I shipped around 10 CBM and the total cost was less than 30,000 NT, however unless money is very very tight I wouldn’t do it this way again. Everything I had to pack myself and prepare the shipping list, freight forwarder arranged a truck to pick up, however this is a freight pickup so technically you are supposed to put your stuff on the truck yourself, a tip to the driver means he will help. Shipment is placed in a split container so if anyone else’s shipment in the container has an issue then everything could be quarantined until it’s sorted. Freight forwarder subcontracted customs clearance to a local company in China which turned into a farce, they couldn’t deal with the personal shipment and it was question after question delivered through 3 way communication. Eventually I had to take 2 days off work and go to customs personally to provide assurances and sign stuff and pay the tax bill due. Delivery to my new home was again by freight service so had to tip the driver to help unload. Shipment was in a mess after the hold in customs, must have been beside a delivery of coal it was so black dirty, luckily nothing stolen or damaged and none of the cartons appeared to have even been opened.
Moving back to Taiwan from China I took the same company and approach. When you are leaving China be careful in planning, there is only a short window after your visa expires in which you can ship personal goods. Leaving China was fine, Taiwan has no tax on personal goods however when the shipment arrived many of the cartons had been opened and resealed with a note from Taiwan customs. There was damage to several items on the return, some due to non industrial packing, some due to the Taiwan delivery driver who, for instance, thought it OK to put a 50" LED TV screen side down on top of a stack of cartons and hand trolley across uneven ground as “the company only sent 1 person so there was nothing else he could do…”. End all the Taiwan freight forwarder paid a small amount of compensation but it was all a hassle.
If Allied or some other company is giving you door to door service with a fixed price at the outset plus insurance to cover damage then they are well worth even a large premium over doing it yourself, unless time is very tight and you have a lot of personal free time on your hands.
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[quote=“SuperS54”]I moved from Taiwan to China however it was some years ago so some information may be out of date. Customs issues will also vary depending on where you are travelling to, Shanghai usually being the easiest and then downgrading the less popular a destination you are travelling to. Anyhow, some quick notes from my move;
~ Books, I brought several boxes, maybe 150 books, was a pain to clear customs as they were initially looking for the titles, authors and ISBN’s of every book
~ Electronics, again a pain. Custom tax on everything based on a % of a standard price list they have. e.g. a speaker, doesn’t matter if it’s the most expensive speaker in the world or a night market special, there’s a set price you pay. I got screwed as I had a cheap ass 5.1 computer speaker set, worth maybe 2000NT, paid about that again in tax as there were 6 speakers. Could have let them keep the speakers but then they would have to open the carton they were in and my packing list wasn’t exactly extensive…Computer hard drives, best remove and take in carry on luggage else wipe all info and ensure you have a licensed OS. Personally I recommend selling any desktop here and buying there as there is tax on MB, VGA card, HD etc etc etc.
~ Need to have Z visa and residence all sorted out before going to customs so there will be storage required somewhere, suggest this is best arranged in Taiwan as a) it’s generally safer and b) if for any reason the visa fails to be granted at least your stuff is here and not in a China limbo.
~ Anything highly valuable or personal, better handcarry as things do get damaged and sometimes go missing[/quote]
I’m trying to get customs’ fee schedule from Allied, who seems more prepared to do this than Kerry. Your advice is in line with what I’ve been led to expect, though Allied says one box of books isn’t a problem. Perhaps they’re referring to one box being decently fast to process in the way you mention above. Kerry rejects all books.
One thing I’d like to get straight: the need to have the Z visa in hand in order to receive your own stuff is what Allied said, and they store in Taiwan for up to one month included in the basic price, then you pay extra if you need longer. But Kerry says they can simply deliver right away to my new company’s local contact, a Chinese citizen. Allied, however, says it can’t be a Chinese citizen, but must be a foreigner who hasn’t registered a house move in the recent past. I infer from this that China designates some shipments as household moves and others as business moves. It would be nice to know formally what’s going on. I mean, if Kerry can save me more than 15,000 and also handle everything except one box of books, maybe they’d be worth it. But maybe not because it seems like Allied is totally prepared to handle any packing errors I might make, whereas I’m losing confidence in Kerry–they could get blindsided by some customs weirdness, and then I’ve got a major headache exactly at a time when I don’t need one. But it might get aggravating if the wait for my Z visa gets extended, and then Allied just has to keep holding my shipment back.
Oh, and I’m dumping my two sets of medium-priced computer speakers as we speak.
[quote=“JimmyTheSaint”][quote=“SuperS54”]I moved from Taiwan to China however it was some years ago so some information may be out of date. Customs issues will also vary depending on where you are travelling to, Shanghai usually being the easiest and then downgrading the less popular a destination you are travelling to. Anyhow, some quick notes from my move;
~ Books, I brought several boxes, maybe 150 books, was a pain to clear customs as they were initially looking for the titles, authors and ISBN’s of every book
~ Electronics, again a pain. Custom tax on everything based on a % of a standard price list they have. e.g. a speaker, doesn’t matter if it’s the most expensive speaker in the world or a night market special, there’s a set price you pay. I got screwed as I had a cheap ass 5.1 computer speaker set, worth maybe 2000NT, paid about that again in tax as there were 6 speakers. Could have let them keep the speakers but then they would have to open the carton they were in and my packing list wasn’t exactly extensive…Computer hard drives, best remove and take in carry on luggage else wipe all info and ensure you have a licensed OS. Personally I recommend selling any desktop here and buying there as there is tax on MB, VGA card, HD etc etc etc.
~ Need to have Z visa and residence all sorted out before going to customs so there will be storage required somewhere, suggest this is best arranged in Taiwan as a) it’s generally safer and b) if for any reason the visa fails to be granted at least your stuff is here and not in a China limbo.
~ Anything highly valuable or personal, better handcarry as things do get damaged and sometimes go missing[/quote]
I’m trying to get customs’ fee schedule from Allied, who seems more prepared to do this than Kerry. Your advice is in line with what I’ve been led to expect, though Allied says one box of books isn’t a problem. Perhaps they’re referring to one box being decently fast to process in the way you mention above. Kerry rejects all books.
One thing I’d like to get straight: the need to have the Z visa in hand in order to receive your own stuff is what Allied said, and they store in Taiwan for up to one month included in the basic price, then you pay extra if you need longer. But Kerry says they can simply deliver right away to my new company’s local contact, a Chinese citizen. Allied, however, says it can’t be a Chinese citizen, but must be a foreigner who hasn’t registered a house move in the recent past. I infer from this that China designates some shipments as household moves and others as business moves. It would be nice to know formally what’s going on. I mean, if Kerry can save me more than 15,000 and also handle everything except one box of books, maybe they’d be worth it. But maybe not because it seems like Allied is totally prepared to handle any packing errors I might make, whereas I’m losing confidence in Kerry–they could get blindsided by some customs weirdness, and then I’ve got a major headache exactly at a time when I don’t need one. But it might get aggravating if the wait for my Z visa gets extended, and then Allied just has to keep holding my shipment back.
Oh, and I’m dumping my two sets of medium-priced computer speakers as we speak.[/quote]
OK, somehow I posted half a reply before finishing the whole post, you can check the rest above. A lot of the China side headaches will depend on the local relationship Allied or Kerry have China side, and again where you are moving to. If they have a good relationship then in reality anything goes and a shipment can be cleared very quickly, otherwise, as in my case everything can be made to drag on and you will have to pay for storage while stuck in customs. I’d be tempted to go with Allied if you want a hassle free move.
Go ahead and dump the speakers and while you’re doing it look at the other stuff you’re packing. In hindsight I would/should have just dumped most of what I shipped and used the post office. There is no point in shipping most electronics due to the customs charges and the voltage/frequency difference, unless it’s something special then sell it and buy new over there. Don’t bother with furniture, dump and buy new or rent furnished. Books, if I was to do it again I would sell and probably buy eBooks instead. After all that you’re really left with clothes and not much else, send them by post, no customs hassles and no wait for Z visa. The 60~70,000 you save will go a long way towards buying new stuff over there.
Trust me, I’ve done the radical slash and burn and sell off. I do feel on the border of being able to use the post office, but I have one item that I believe must go freight. Also, my employer’s covering the move. It’s just that I have to put all the money for it up front, then wait for reimbursement. I also have incentive in this particular case to impress my employer with my frugal moving budget, though it’s not necessary. So if I sell stuff that I immediately need to re-purchase on the other side, I’m basically subsidizing my employer. My concern with the post office, as I mentioned, is that stuff will arrive piece by piece, not as one big shipment, so I’ll have that annoyance and anxiety. I did query them about their cheapest rate per box, but that takes up to 45 days–possibly worse than the Z visa method. So allowing a little more per box would save me at most 30,000 in my rough estimate, as I’m down to close to 3 cubic meters, so Allied will have to revise down from my initial estimate of 7 cbm. Then there’s the convenience of not using the post office: a small army will do all the loading labor in 30 minutes or less. Will the post office do a pickup? If so, it’s still a pain, plus I like the idea that Allied will quickly mop up any packing errors on the spot, such as an unstable box, boxing of an item I thought could go loose, or re-packing for the sake of a better customs strategy–I mean, who knows. I think I just can’t bring myself over the threshold of finding the post office to be a better practical option, particularly since the company will eventually foot the bill.
OK, if the company is footing the bill and there isn’t a set budget then go with whatever is best for you. Probably too late but I wouldn’t worry so much with the CBM as a lot of the charges are fixed, some of the highest being customs fees, if I remember correctly Taiwan’s is something like 250~300USD to process the shipment! When I spoke to the post office they would come and collect if the shipment was over a certain number of boxes, your’s will easily meet the minimum.
After dumping even more electronics that would not be worth paying the import duties rather than buying new, I’m down to 3 cubic meters (cbm). Allied reduced their quote of 95,000 for 7 cbm down to 86,000 for 3 cbm. It sucks because they have a minimum sized rigid container. And because I prefer to do all packing myself so that my stuff is organized the way I want, and I do all measurements and weighing, Allied is basically reduced to nothing but a freight forwarder for me. I get no value out of their extra capacity and labor services, and the Z visa delay will make me wait 30-45 days to get my stuff. I’ve now got the full rate schedule for the post office, and I currently estimate that their 30-45 day service will cost me under 30,000. That’s a sickeningly big difference, even if my employer is picking up the tab. The post office’s air service (15 days) is double that at 60,000. I could see sticking my employer with the 26,000 difference, but 56,000 for an equally long wait to get my stuff looks just too dumb. And I do have some incentive in this particular case to present my employer a smaller bill. The catch is that I still have one item too large for the post office, so Kerry would have to take that, eating into the 56,000 savings. If the one freight package isn’t too much, it looks like this post office/Kerry combination is the way to go. And the post office picks up for free if your shipping fees are over 2000.
After extensive discussions with people in both the Taipei Railway Station and Technology Building MRT post offices to make sure I thoroughly understood each of the four possible shipping services to China, I had the local branch pick up half my load. After spending 10 minutes filling out paperwork for each and every box–three hours of writing–I went back to the post office to pay and ship. That’s when they told me that there’s no insurance when shipping to China, by the Chinese government’s rule. This after the previous two post offices went over every facet of shipping to China with me (I showed them the destination address in Chinese) including insurance limitations. My local post office double-checked and said what I had been told both times was incorrect. They’re returning all the stuff to my place as we speak.
At least that simplifies the whole situation: I have no choice but to use Allied since the freight forwarders that will do business with an individual have refused to take about half my stuff anyway. So I’ll be paying for all of Allied’s unused capacity, but perhaps a couple of things I was going to give away I may now keep. I do have one very expensive item that I have to ship, so at least that will now be properly insured. I also have a few items that are clumsy to put into their own packages, and now they can go as is. But mostly it will be a waste of my employer’s money because packing everything myself is really no big deal.
THE END
In an era when processing salmon in Alaska is apparently more expensive than catching them in Alaska, freezing them, shipping them to China for processing, and then shipping them back to Alaska for consumption, you’d think it’d be a bit easier and cheaper for an individual to move their stuff from one country to another.
Good luck with the move.
postscript: I went to UPS. They said they’re primarily business-to-business in Taiwan, and said the same of DHL. Nevertheless, they will handle personal effects quite exhaustively if you do the proper paperwork. They quoted me a discount price of 104,000 wtf. This is 4-day air freight, which is lovely I suppose if you want to pay that much extra. They weren’t prepared for a sea freight quote, but said they’d work on it (as if I have the time to spare). But they said it would only be to the port and then I’d have to arrange my own customs broker and overland mover, presumably from Shanghai. That’s practically impossible, quite frankly. They said to expect no better from DHL, and they said Allied looked like a superior deal, and still a very good deal because of the door-to-door service even if you underuse their capacity and services. Basically, they’re your overland mover and your customs broker while storing your stuff in Taiwan pre-move so that it doesn’t sit around in China’s customs for a month or longer at risk of God-knows-what.
No question, I felt good about Allied from the start. It was just the price due to their over-provision. But now I guess they’re fine all the way around (we’ll see).