ABF upack terminal to terminal

[thermophile 0]

so both Calgary and Albuquerque have ABF terminals. I just got the quote for moving all our stuff $860 terminal to terminal or $1570 door to door. needless to say the terminal options looks good, I was just wondering what people did logistically to get all your stuff from your house to the terminal? did you rent a uhaul type truck for the intown stuff? drive back and forth with pickup loads? We don't have a truck but probably could borrow a truck from friends in each town. Just trying to think this through to make it as minimally painful as possible (not shooting for painless that's just delusional). We aren't taking much big stuff-furnature and shelving is Ikea so will be disassembling. Even though I move all the time, I don't have much experience moving lots of stuff (as in more than can fit in my car). advise/experiences?

[kimmbo 0]

Our plan is to use U-Pack when we move next year, also with the terminal to terminal option.. We are going to rent a U-Haul load it, take it to the terminal and load it again there...Once it reaches us in Las Vegas again we will grab a U-Haul and load it up..

I also have quite a few things from IKEA (I will sooo miss IKEA, none in Vegas!) that we will disassemble...

when you do move please post a review of your U-Pack experience..

good luck with your move!

[misa 2]

I opted for door to door but I did for a short time consider terminal to terminal which was 1/2 the price. If I had gone through with it, I was going to rent a uhaul to get the stuff to the terminal and then one to get the stuff out.

The only advice I have to give with moving a lot of stuff is PURGE PURGE PURGE and then spend the time to organise the items in boxes and label them! I always intend to do that but then never leave myself enough time to pack so I end up throwing stuff in boxes randomly and it's a nightmare when I unpack.

You may want to see this thread for moving tips!

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75168

[thermophile 0]

oh one more question. how far in advance did people reserve their cube or space? the hubby's work schedule is still a little up in the air so I don't want to do anything that might pin us to a date we can't use. We know that he'll be moving the 2nd or 3rd week of Oct. but don't know any more specifically. I'm just afraid of a huge jump in price if we wait too long to reserve it.

ok and one more. Did you give ABF a copy of your unactivated visa then fax a copy of the activate one? do we need to do anything specific to make sure that we've crossed the border before the stuff does? I'm thinking that we'll pack the cube then start driving south the next day and assume that will get us far enough ahead that we'll have time to fax the visa, but.....

[misa 2]

I reserved mine a month in advance. Gave them photocopies of my visa, passport bio page and longform birth certificate. They *should have* made me fax them a copy of my I-94 after I crossed, but they didn't and my stuff got there anyway.

Here's my quick timeline on my move: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...st&p=805325

[trailmix 77]

oh one more question. how far in advance did people reserve their cube or space? the hubby's work schedule is still a little up in the air so I don't want to do anything that might pin us to a date we can't use. We know that he'll be moving the 2nd or 3rd week of Oct. but don't know any more specifically. I'm just afraid of a huge jump in price if we wait too long to reserve it.

ok and one more. Did you give ABF a copy of your unactivated visa then fax a copy of the activate one? do we need to do anything specific to make sure that we've crossed the border before the stuff does? I'm thinking that we'll pack the cube then start driving south the next day and assume that will get us far enough ahead that we'll have time to fax the visa, but.....

My Sister used them in June to move her stuff to Nebraska. They called I think 4 days before to book - no problem. One thing though - different days have different prices, there are high and low days in each month. When you go to their site to request the quote, use the little icon to the right of the date field - a calendar will pop up which is color coded based on the high/low days.

She is a U.S. citizen - so didn't have to fax the visa etc, however the company forgot to take a copy of their documents and the truck was held up at the border, they were driving and were about 3 hours behind the truck so they met up with the driver and sorted it all out.

They did a terminal to terminal move - used a van to move the stuff to the terminal (no U-Hauls available in Calgary - which is the norm now) then a U-haul to move the stuff on the other end. U-haul is reasonable and makes it easy as you will only need to make 1 trip.

Aside from having to fill out the 3299 (you can find this form on the ABF website) - you will want to number and identify each box. For instance box 1 - kitchen goods - and keep the corresponding list and list it on the 3299 - might save you a lot of hassle.

[misa 2]

One more thing. All prices quoted are USD with Upack if you are moving from Canada to the U.S. (not sure if it is CDN if you're just moving province to province). They state the USD on the last item of the quote way at the bottom.

[thermophile 0]

I had seen that it was in USD-doesn't really matter right now does it? a few years ago that would have been quite the shock.

thanks for suggesting numbering the boxes on the 3299. it looks like the middle of the month all costs about the same to move. the price difference between a medium day and a low day is only $10. the door-to door difference is more. we'll have to see about sending all the stuff under my name since I have PR status in Canada, humm things to figure out.

one thing that i noticed when I was playing with the little calendar is in Calgary you can only choose a weekday as the move date. That isn't a huge problem since we're planning on moving on the hubby's week off, but that reduces the number of friends that we can bribe/con/badger/guilt into helping us.

[trailmix 77]

If you live in Calgary though it might be better to move on a week day - maybe you will actually be able to get a U-haul!

A couple of other things:

- the ABF office closes at 5:00

- The guy at ABF told my Sister and her Husband not to worry about roping everything off behind the bulkhead (that you will put up between your stuff and whatever else they are going to put in the truck). This wasn't good advice for 2 reasons, first of all the 'other stuff' was tires and secondly that bulkhead was down and their stuff shifted and got tire grease on it.

ABF gave them a part refund for the inconvenience of having gunk on their items - and they were fast about doing it, they also apologized and said that there shouldn't have been tires in there and that they have very strict guidelines on what travels with household goods.

[misa 2]

I had seen that it was in USD-doesn't really matter right now does it? a few years ago that would have been quite the shock.

Oh it still matters now! Emancipation posted that newstory about the Canadian dollar declining.

[trailmix 77]

I had seen that it was in USD-doesn't really matter right now does it? a few years ago that would have been quite the shock.

Oh it still matters now! Emancipation posted that newstory about the Canadian dollar declining.

Plus, if you are doing business in Canada you should be required to charge Canadian dollars...I mean reaaaallly!

[Chica Yeyé 41]

We're still going the UPACK way - circa 1,500 door to door, only 150 less for terminal to terminal (which does not cover the cost of u-haul and the pain of load/unload 4 times instead of once). We are, however, freaking out as where the FLIFKEHI we're going to park the darn trailer ------ on my way to talk to the landlady as I finish typing.....

Cheerio's, L.

[misa 2]

I had the same problem stressing out about where the cube was going to go. Lucky for me, I'm a dumbass and didn't even look at the front of my house -- it's recessed from the sidewalk and the cube fit perfectly there in front. Hope you can find a way to get that trailer in there! Are you in a house? Friendly with the neighbours?

[Chica Yeyé 41]

I had the same problem stressing out about where the cube was going to go. Lucky for me, I'm a dumbass and didn't even look at the front of my house -- it's recessed from the sidewalk and the cube fit perfectly there in front. Hope you can find a way to get that trailer in there! Are you in a house? Friendly with the neighbours?

Naaaah. We're in an apartment. Old Strathcona in Edmonton (cute as a button, cramped like my head). Can't find the landlady.... ARGHHHH

[thermophile 0]

wow that's not much of a difference. for $150 we'd do the door to door too but for $700ish I'll load and unload a couple extra times. can you have them dump the little box on the street-if there's on street parking. good luck with that