[Canada Filter] Boxes Across Canada
August 21, 2015 3:12 PM   Subscribe

I'm seeking recommendations on how to move my worldly goods (not furniture, but maybe my bike) from Toronto to Vancouver. Specific questions below the fold.

I catch a flight from Toronto to Vancouver in ten days, and will need to ship something like 20 big boxes of books, clothing, and other odds and sods.

I've read bad reviews of PODS online and don't have a driveway so would prefer not to use that option.

1) Is Greyhound the best way to do this, given that I don't have a car?
2) Is shipping my $500 commuter bike (which was hard to find, but I'm not married to) rather than taking it on the plane a terrible idea? Logistically, it will be difficult and expensive for me to get my bike to the airport.
3) How do you insure your worldly goods?
4) What other options are out there? How does one hire some kind of contractor, for instance?


Stipulations: It doesn't have to be moved quickly, and I need some service that will come to my apartment to pick everything up sometime next week.


I have seen this previous askme, but it is eight years old now.
posted by monkeymonkey to Travel & Transportation around Canada (3 answers total)
 
Oh hey, we just did this. As in, our flight from Toronto to Vancouver leaves tomorrow evening.

1. We shipped the boxes via Greyhound, and as far as I know everything made it (memail me Sunday if you want an update on that + how intact things were). We had 14 boxes (some xerox box-sized, some a little larger), most fairly heavy (so many books) and it came out to $370. We asked a friend with a car to drive us+our shit to the package terminal (note, not the Greyhound station on Bay) so I'm not sure how to arrange picking them up. We'll also have a ride at the other end to get them.

That said, my husband who did the drop off said that the staff there were...maybe not the most go-getter of employees? They had to holler a few times to get someone to appear, and he's not sure that they did a good job of weighing the boxes (as in, they were half on the countertop and so might come through as lighter) So be aware of that, I guess. Not that it matters if the boxes get where they are going.

Pay for 2 suitcases to take with you on the plane, as well.

2. No clue on the bike, sorry. We disposed of ours.

3. Didn't bother. To be honest I didn't think of it. Anything valuable is coming with us on the plane.
posted by quaking fajita at 3:48 PM on August 21, 2015


So a friend of mine recent did something I'd never have thought of: he shipped rail on a palette. There was some local company that I think dropped off the palette. He put his boxes in it, they shrink wrapped it, and shipped it across the country at a very reasonable rate.
posted by synecdoche at 5:00 PM on August 21, 2015


If you've got household or tenant insurance, you may be covered okay that way. If you know where you'll be living, you can likely set it up in advance and get coverage that way.

I think it's worth it to ship the bike. You'd have to do the same dismantling and boxing it to take it on the plane anyway. If you don't know how to take your bike apartment box it for shipping, bike shops do and can.

And yes, I vote greyhound + friend with a car/truck/zipvan

Also, purge more. :)

Also
posted by Heart_on_Sleeve at 8:32 PM on August 23, 2015


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