I am using the UBox - it literally arrived an hour ago. I know another member on the forum used upakweship but bought her own "lift van" from a moving company. It was bigger than the normal UCrate so held some furniture but was similar in that it was a wooden crate. and upakweship shipped it over for her. Did they say this outsourcing is really new? Are you very far from a terminal?
I am struggling with what to bring. Sometimes I look at my 50 cu ft pile of things and think "I don't reallllllly need half of this" and sometimes I think "oh it is such a tiny pile!" A lot of the things I am bringing are certainly more sentimental in value rather than $$. I have no idea if later I will regret bringing so much or not enough.
Hi,
I think I might be the forum member Joiya was talking about in ref to the lift van (Hi Joiya, I hope you're well!!). I haven't checked the forum in a few weeks but saw this today & wanted to pop in and tell others about my experience.
I moved from FL to Surrey in July. I'd read about UPakWeShip from this and other forums, and pretty quickly realized that attempting a move with a full-service moving company (ie Mayflower or Allied or some other US-based mover with international ties) would mean that I'd have to be much more brutal in paring down what I wanted to take, so my decision to go with UPak was based on being able to take the majority of my "must haves". I lived about 2.5 hrs from the nearest terminal, and through working with Mark (who posted upthread), decided to find something called a "lift van" in order to be able to accommodate an armoire that was just slightly too big for the standard UCrate sizes quoted on the website. I was told that the dimensions of what they could ship were somewhat flexible, as long as the crate was built to a certain standard and would fit on a pallet.
Lift Vans are essentially wooden crates that are made to fit on standard sized pallets. You can buy them new, or do what my dad did and find a local moving company that would sell you a used one. We got mine for $75, and incidentally several moving blankets for less than $5 (used but still fit for purpose).
My family packed all my things ourselves (after watching many of the "how to pack..." videos on YouTube for advice). We stapled plastic sheeting to the inside of the lift van, to protect against water damage, and after packing the crate we sealed the door shut with wood screws as well as caulk (again to protect against water damage). Actually all of the panels were reinforced with screws - the van had been used several times, and it was an easy enough thing to do for peace of mind. We made sure that everything inside the van was packed with little to no wiggle room.
UPak's customer service was outstanding - callbacks were made quickly and I was kept informed of the crate's location every step of the way. My crate arrived in England well within the timeframe quoted. The only small complaint I would have about the process is with the European side of the move; an affiliated company handles the European side, and they weren't as quick to answer questions as the US side had always been. I often had to send an email multiple times to get an answer to something time-sensitive, which was frustrating. Let me stress that Mark's staff were not at all at fault for this - they were fantastic, and really made their side of the process stress-free.
My crate was delivered to my home and was unpacked on the sidewalk, as I checked off each box against the master list that the movers gave me (a photocopy of what I'd provided to UPak). NOTHING had shifted inside the crate, and actually the crew's leader asked me if I needed a job, since it had been packed so well
They brought everything upstairs, and actually would have helped me unpack it all, but I needed everything left in boxes since we were having new carpets put in a few weeks afterwards. They also offered to take any of the packing material away (to save me from having to recycle it), but in my case it wasn't possible since I needed everything left in the boxes for a few more weeks. (I'd highly recommend allowing movers to do this if possible, though, as it took us nearly 6 weeks to get rid of all the packaging, once we did unpack, since recycling service is only every 2 weeks)
When I finally did unpack, I was thrilled to find that not a single thing was damaged. I'd say about 80% of what I brought was breakable (ie glass or furniture) so I was actually really amazed. I"m so glad I opted for the crate - it saved me thousands since I didn't have to re-buy silly things like tupperware, mixing bowls or mirrors, and having my own things here has made me feel much more at home. It was definitely worth the expense and I'd recommend UPak in a heartbeat.
Incidentally, for anyone going through this process, the other thing I did that made my move much simpler was to buy a business-class roundtrip ticket on BA - it was cheaper than a one-way, and was actually cheaper than a coach class ticket after factoring in baggage allowance. I was able to move all my clothes in duffel bags/suitcases, and save the room in my crate for breakable things. Normally I'd never fly business class, so it was a happy surprise to learn it was a better deal.
