We are setting up a small Import/Export business. It is not possible for us to ship product overseas to US in the big 20/40 foot containers. Who are the most cost-effective shippers on small packages?

I shipped about $15,000.00 USD worth of products from Hong Kong to the U.S. via Air in boxes measuring 1.5ft T, 5ft L, and 2ft H.

Very expensive - shipping on invoice bounced from 20%-37%+ on me. Most of the time its a trick of optimizing your shipping, etc. etc. - but be careful. My first shot at importing products from overseas failed in part because of higher shipping costs + fees.

I used UPS - but it wasn't really my choice, it was my dealers. UPS is pretty decent though.

I also used EMS once as well...but never paid too much attention too the costs as it was similar to UPS.

*Keep in mind you'll get nailed with the customs duty fees about 3-6 months after your shipment gets through*

Goodluck!

Sam Burnette

Thanks for the information!

Why can't you ship the 20'/40' TEU?

We're going to begin shipping products over in the 20's pretty soon and its saving us huge amounts of money in shipping.

Sam Burnette

**Also**

Make sure you plan plenty ahead - My Asian dealers always had unexpected holidays that they would take and in addition to that, there were constant glitches in the international shipping.

If you plan on a shipment getting to you in a week, plan with two (or more) weeks in mind. Just in case. Our very first shipment ended up 1500 miles south of us and it took several days to have UPS re-route the shipment. Several other similar incidents happened in the six months or so that we were involved heavily in international shipping.

Again, goodluck!

Sam Burnette

Great tips! Hope we can make the first shipment happen in my coming visit in China. Thank you!

Robert

Robert,

PM sent with my IM info.

I'm also purchasing from China and would like to throw some ideas off you and such.

Thanks.

Sam Burnette