Our Life Outside the Box

The biggest drawback to the traveling adventure we’re on is that we have to move every 13 weeks.  When we decided that we were going to find our own housing for each rotation we also chose to find unfurnished places to make the remote search for housing easier. This meant that we would have to schlep our things from location to location. Moving stinks and is almost always a hassle. It’s expensive, time consuming, exhausting, and many trucking companies are both unreliable and dishonest. Thankfully, our good friend Michelle recommended another option to doing it yourself: uShip.com.

The basic idea of uShip is very similar to Priceline.com, only for moving rather than plane tickets/hotels. You enter all the details of your move including the pickup and drop-off locations, quantity & weight of items, and type of service you would like. Services range from white-glove freight shipping, to a dude with a pickup, and everything in between. After you input the details shippers submit bids for completing the move. They’ll specify a price, type of service, and days for pickup/drop-off if you put in a range of dates. As bids come in you can haggle details, request rebids, turn down the ones that are too expensive, and accept the one that meets all your needs.

Our cost for moving on uShip ended up being only slightly more expensive than the price of simply renting a small uHaul truck. When you factor in the price of gas, hassle of loading/unloading items, and the trouble of driving a large truck for a long distance we really came out ahead. Also, we didn’t have to worry about being liable for any damage to the shipping vehicle like you would with a rented truck. Most shippers provide insurance to protect your goods which is something you will not get if you move on your own.  Not having to load/unload your things if you have a lot of furniture is more or less priceless in itself, especially when you can get that type of service for far below what major companies will charge you. We didn’t have a lot of things so I offered to help our mover load and unload in exchange for knocking some cost off of the bid.

Here are some tips and important things to keep in mind when using uShip:

• Submit the details for your bid as far in advance as possible. This will give you more time to wait out better bids, investigate and contact the shippers who have submitted bids, and be much less stressful overall.
• Use time to your advantage and don’t feel pressured into taking the first few bids. A couple early bids were outrageous but by the end of the week we were seeing numbers that were 1/5 of the initial bids. Be patient!
• Know what you are getting yourself into. If the shipper says he is using a trailer then it is uncovered. This means if there is rain you could potentially run into some trouble. Our shipper went out of his way to keep our goods safe in the storm that showed up but there was still some water that got in. This was our fault for not choosing a covered trailer or truck. Understand the service you’re accepting and if it’s unclear, ask questions.
• Contact all shippers when your receive any bid and again immediately after accepting a bid to set details in stone and get their (cell) phone number. Early contact will give you an indication of how much they will be willing to work with you and whether or not they’re worth your time. Setting up all the details for the move right away ensures that everyone is on the same page. Confusion about when you’re moving is the last thing you want.

Moving can be a huge pain but uShip can make it a lot easier. Be smart, patient, and use due diligence to get what you want for the price you want.

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