Cross Border Moving Options

The movement of household goods to/from the United States and Canada can be a challenge, This post reviews some of the options a client can explore that would meet their needs.

Cross border moving can be tricky. A Canadian driver is not alowed to inter state in the United States (i.e move household goods within the United States) and an American driver cannot move someone domesticly within Canada. This means that they cannot pick up further customers when they are delivering/loading unless they have a customer that is also moving cross border as well. Since van line tariff’s operate under a “full load” basis this means the driver has to wait longer and/or have many empty miles to fill out his truck. This leads to a much longer transit time for the customer in most cases.

There are options for a customer. Below are a few unique service offerings that Taylor Moving and Storage has created as part of our cross border program.

Taylor Self Haul Service: Taylor has it’s own US Department of Transportation (DOT) license. This means that we are allowed to use our own Taylor trucks and crews to move a family cross border. Depending on the move location and size, we are able to pack/load/deliver the move ourselves without brokering out to a van line. This gives us total control of the quality and greatly reduces the transit time. Ideal for moves 700 miles or less.

Coss Border Van Line Service: Taylor is a member of Allied Van Lines. As such, we have contributed 5 drivers to this network. These drivers are all cross border licensed. For cross moves over 700 miles, our drivers can usually be positioned to assist our customers directly. If transit time is not an issue and cost containment is a concern, this is probably the best option for these longer haul moves.

International Model: For larger shipments (10,000lbs or more) travelling over a 1000 miles, this model may be a fit. In these cases we arrange to have the household goods internationally wrapped using a type of extremely thick and durable bubble wrap. After the goods are prepared, we will load the household goods onto a common freight truck. This truck directly takes the goods to destination where our partner agent will unload, unwrap the bubble wrap and set up the furniture to our customers satisfaction. This service can be a bit more expensive but greatly reduces the transit time (sometimes up to 12 days). If a family needs temporary housing at destination, the savings in hotels/meals etc can far outweigh the extra cost of this service.

Small Shipment Program: Small shipments (less than 5000lbs) going over a 1000 miles do have a long transit time using a traditional van line model. In some cases, it can be up to 24 days to receive your goods. In these cases our small shipment program may be an option. Taylor will do the same international wrap service and then bring these goods back to our warehouse. We put the goods into a big wooden box ( lift van) and send it via common freight with our destination agent delivering and unwrapping the goods on our behalf. The key benefit of this service is the greatly reduced transit time which is usually 4 to 8 days door to door,reducing the transit time from a traditional van line service by up to 18 days. Again, although more expensive, it may be cheaper than having the hotel/meal costs asociated with the longer van line transit.

If you are a corporate buyer of hosuehold goods services or an individual person relocating to/from the United States we would be delighted to discuss these options and put together the right system that meets your needs.