I’ve been searching for a company that will ship a cardboard box of about 20 kg of clothes and stuff to Taiwan (from Toronto). I keep coming up with freight companies that ship giant palettes of cargo, but I can’t find one that’s good for just sending a box. Any recommendations?
What about Canada Post? Not cheap, though.
Yeah, Canada Post is really a last resort. I think they will cost 600 dollars or some enormous fee. I’m hoping to discover some Taiwanese shipping company that does personal items.
Its only about 50 pounds, assuming you are flying there too - you could bring it with you and pay the extra fee to the airline - for that amount of weight that seems wrong $600 is madness - I know my parents used to ship me boxes like that and they used Canada post - I would say $100 from Western Canada
Thanks for the tip! I’m flying Korean Air with a stopover in Seoul. We’re allowed two carry on and two checked pieces, plus an additional charge for more checked items. I will call them up as their website only says the fee varies based on country of origin.
Canada Post rate for a 20kg box was around $600, and they only offered rapid service (within 7 days). UPS was cheaper but still $450 for the box and also only rapid service. When I shipped to Japan I used some large shipping company organized by the JET program - huge box for about $150.
The price of sending stuff by mail varies. They’re probably trying to gouge you for money by only quoting the price of immediate delivery (a week or two). Ask again about the price of third class/freight, which usually takes two months to go where you send it.
Also, you can receive your own mail in Taipei, rather than needing an exact address ahead of time. Ship it to yourself at this address:
Your Name
Post Restante
G.P.O.
Taipei, Taiwan
You will be able to receive it at the main post office near Taipei Main Station (south side of the street, 500 metres west of TMS). I shipped two boxes to myself from the Philippines (on holiday in August) and received them in October.
Also, Canadian embassies and consular offices will receive mail in your name, but only letters and not packages. They do that for tourists travelling overseas.
Unfortunately, in the U.S., the Post Office has cancelled that last option, so heavy stuff is a LOT more expensive to ship now. Hopefully Canada hasn’t followed suit.
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Just curious if anyone has tried to ship boxes from Canada (Vancouver) to Taiwan recently? I remember using Canada Post years ago and being somewhat horrified by the price. Has anyone found a better option?
EDIT:
Here’s a PDF with Canada Post rates:
canadapost.ca/tools/pg/price … r-e-03.pdf
Taiwan is rate zone 404.
For example, 1kg costs $34.70 CAD, 10kg $100, up to 30kg at $202.75. That’s for surface mail, 4-6 weeks.
There are Philippine shippers here who supposedly make good deals. I’m not sure if they do third-party countries i.e. Canada to Taiwan but you could ask.
Hi Folks:
Now I am looking for a shipper who could send a box from Vancouver to Taiwan - 9kg box approx 46cm x 46cm x 61cm
@ZiggurCat mentioned Philippine shippers, and those dimensions are a standard “Large Balikbayan Box” size. But Balikbayan Box freight forwarders ship exclusively to the Philippines. Can anyone recommend something similar in Vancouver that ships to Taiwan?
Btw, just for comparison - according to the CanadaPost link above, that kind of shipment would cost at least CAD 210 to as much as CAD 510. A Balikbayan Box shipper like Starbox Express (https://www.starboxexpresscargo.com/pricing-boxes) charges CAD 80 to Manila unlimited weight (but it would go by ship)
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Follow-up a few years later: did you ever find anything for this?
I don’t understand how I can get free shipping for an Amazon package and yet have to spend CAD$200 for a 5kg package that I ship myself. I don’t care at all about how long the package takes to get from Vancouver to Taipei; I just want it to be affordable.
Cause they’re losing money to prevent competition.
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No, we ended up using DHL. Our supplier uses them all the time, so sorting out all the paperwork involved was effortless for them if we used DHL. We looked into doing a local pick up from their warehouse, but it seemed to be more effort than it was worth for us at the time. One of my partners usually goes home to Vancouver for year end holidays, so we also plan shipments so he can pick them up and check them in – he has a lot of check-in luggage since he would fly with his family then, and these items are small.
Yeah, I think the solution (for now) is to set up an Amazon US Prime account and then find the items there and ship to Taiwan for free. I have done this for Amazon UK and Germany in the past - set up a free trial Prime account to deliver to those countries and then cancelled them when I didn’t need them anymore (note: prices are not necessarily the same value across different Amazons, so you need to check if all this trouble is worth it)
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Thanks! The problem for me is that a lot of the stuff I want (mostly groceries) is stuff Amazon won’t ship to Taiwan: basically a box of pulses and jars and chili peppers that I’d buy in Canada. Twenty years ago this was relatively affordable if I were just willing to wait a month or two (and I am), but now it seems this sort of service no longer exists.
What normally happens is I go to Canada with two near-empty bags, and come back with two full bags. But I’d prefer to go there with a bag + bicycle, and ship a box back while I’m there rather than need that second bag just for shopping that should theoretically be easy to ship.