UPACK

[jennleah72 0]

So, Ive got my interview date in two weeks, moving at the end of Feb. Looking to book with UPACK, but they dont have relocubes in Edmonton :(

So, apparently I can rent an area of space on a truck? Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks

Jenn

[Danu 19]

so far my experiance is limited to the fact its rented and we load it friday. I can give you my review on the load at least by the weekend. The booking and such was really easy and they were super friendly and helpful. They have lots of good reviews as well, and the best part is that even though i have 6 ft of space reserved if i use less i pay less, if i use more, i just pay for the extra feet used.

[trailmix 77]

Exactly, but there is a minimum charge for the truck anyway, not sure how it's calculated for each load but for instance, our quote was (all of their prices are in USD by the way):

Price (based on 8 linear feet in a 28' trailer): $2681.00

Adjustment price per Foot: +/- $247.00

Absolute Minimum Charge: $1940.00

Anyway, we used the relocube going to Florida and the truck coming back. The only thing to consider really is the parking space at start and destination. They are going to leave that entire truck trailer there, normally at least overnight - but if you have a good amount of parking space, it should be no problem. Plus that the ramp is really long too, according the the website it is 14 feet - so allow for parking space of 42 feet.

We hired 2 guys to load it for us and they were good. We could not get the bulkhead cover to connect properly though, so we just let Upack know and the driver did that when he picked it up (we weren't there when he picked it up).

So all in all it was not bad. My Sister also used the truck to go to the States once. Her experience wasn't great, the bulkhead fell down and apparently they had tires loaded at the front of the truck and there was grease on their stuff - however, Upack reimbursed them for the trouble with no problem at all.

One other thing, with the relocube, everything we own pretty much was either dented or scratched, even though we wrapped everything, relocubes are a tight squeeze - so in fact the truck actually worked better in terms of - no new scratches - well a few, but not like we had with the relocube.

Edited January 7, 2010 by trailmix

[Danu 19]

The basic fee is calculated for 5ft of truck space. I chose terminal to terminal delivery so the trip from here (ontario) to california is:

Price (based on 6 linear feet in a 28' trailer): $1776.00

Adjustment price per Foot: +/- $158.00

Absolute Minimum Charge: $1618.00

US Customs Administration Fee $16.15

I've heard of a few people getting their stuff dirty as well trail, thinking about going to grab myself a couple of tarps just incase. I've also rented some furniture blankets from uhaul ($5 for 6 blankets..not bad). The great thing about those prices is the gas and taxes are included in them, so theres no additions to that. They do have different rates for the truck based on different days of the week as well, so if you can, try to schedule around their little timing chart, for some of the quotes a day made almost $200 difference.

Edited January 7, 2010 by Danu

[Colleens 40]

I have have done the Upack trailer route, but my stuff is all sitting in one in storage right now while I await my interview. My quote was about $2100 for 12' and then $76 for each additional foot. The storage is a bit of a killer at $395 a month, but it is a lot cheaper than paying my mortgage and bills per month!!

[lgg 2]

Oh cool... if you guys have any reviews and such regarding these guys, that'd be awesome. I'm going to be reserving a single cube from them, they quoted me almost 900$ but frankly? that's the best I could find and it is what it is, right?

This way they come right to my place, I pack it up and they deliver it to the US and it gets unpacked. It doesn't sound too bad. If anyone else has any other suggestions or whatever regarding this or perhaps another method, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks everyone.

LGG

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

I dunno Froggie... Having your hubby fly up, renting a U-Haul trailer and driving down sounds like a better option for you, in my opinion. Cheaper at least. You'd only have to pay for the truck itself and gas... You can return a U-Haul truck at your destination.

Might be worth looking into if you don't have TOO much stuff to ship.

[Danu 19]

Really depends. I went this route because it was cheeper than renting a uhaul. The cost of the truck alone was more expensive and then there is the gas on top of that. I guess its really just dependant on how much stuff you have. If you have a vehicle that can tow that you are bringing with you, thats probably the cheepest way, renting a trailer.

[trailmix 77]

Yes, plus with a Uhaul, if you are taking your vehicle, there is no Road Trip! more like Convoy! Not as much fun

Danu made a good point about looking for a cheaper day - they have that little calendar on their website (beside where you enter the dates for your quote) - if you click on that calendar it is colour coded to tell you which days have lower/higher rates.

Yeah lgg, the relocube is cool, but as I mentioned, just be sure to double ensure everything that can be scratched is really wrapped very well. For instance, with our end tables, we wrapped them in a padded cloth and taped them all up, they seemed to do ok, only one real scuff, but our dryer had a big dent in the top (it was on the bottom of the cube of course). Just visualize all your stuff being shaken around in there for X number of days and you get the idea

As for the packing/unpacking, again, we had someone do this for us, but the relocube was handy dandy, takes very little space (you will wonder how you got so much stuff in there). We stored our relocube at their depot in Orlando for 6 months at $100 a month.

Oh and just be careful when you open the relocube, our stuff was ready to jump out.

[lgg 2]

not an option, my friend. Just way too busy with work and stuff and the drive is like 9 hours each way. With the flight, renting, gas, driving and such. It actually works out to be the exact same price.

Plus it just strikes me as SUCH a hassle to plan all that out. I'd rather just one hassle it on my end and let that be that.

He can have the cube show up at his doorstep and work it from that end til I get there...

I dunno Froggie... Having your hubby fly up, renting a U-Haul trailer and driving down sounds like a better option for you, in my opinion. Cheaper at least. You'd only have to pay for the truck itself and gas... You can return a U-Haul truck at your destination.

Might be worth looking into if you don't have TOO much stuff to ship.

[Colleens 40]

Upack usually gives you 3 days to load and 3 days to unload. I was lucky since I was needing it delivered during the Thanksgiving Holiday, and since it was a US company....I got it for 5 days to load. I think you can ask them and they can give you recommendations for movers as well if you are unable to pack it yourself. And movers are generally worth the price as they know how to pack your stuff for the most efficient use of space and are generally pretty fast. I used movers for my previous move and they had a whole 3 bedroom house packed into the truck in less than 2 hours!!

If you are worried about your stuff moving around head to Canadian Tire and buy a bunch of the tie down straps ( you need 2 straps to go across the truck) so I would reccomend about 16 (I think I had 10, but wished I had bought a few more). The trailer that I had had rails on the sides every 2' that you can hook the straps into.

I am still waiting for my interview so I don't have my stuff yet, so I can't comment on the condition of the recieved goods....yet!

[Danu 19]

Ok, so my review of the UPACK for you!

We loaded up the truck on the 8th and handed in the paperwork, they gave us the bill of lading and everything was awesome. A note for the trucks is there are no dolly's for moving, nor blankets, so you may want to rent one from uhaul. We rented out 12 blankets on a one way down here, was $10 for all 12, so not bad. The bulkhead took a bit of fiddling with to figure out but wasnt too bad once we got it.

We picked up the truck today (the 11th). As we did the reservation on credit card the charge was already ready for us, all I had to do was sign for the truck and unload. The stuff shifted a teeny but but not too bad. My bed posts got a bit scratched but I blame myself for the way i wrapped them because the headboard and footboard were both unscathed. Very happy with their service and the truck was on time, they said 5 business days and they were true to their word. If we have to move a distance again I would definately consider using them again!