Am moving from Oregon to Florida in a couple of months. Haven’t decided on a carrier yet. I read good comments about Western. Expensive, but I don’t want to cut corners. Too much time and $ to acquire collection. Right now I have about 900 bottles, mostly in an assortment of styrofoam boxes, i.e. 3, 4, 6, 12 bottles in the cellar. Initially, I was thinking of shipping the boxes as they are. But because I will need off-site storage in FL, and will be able to fit more cases in a confined space if the bottles are are in standard cardboard boxes, I am thinking about shipping all the bottles in standard 12 bottle cardboard boxes from ULINE rather than the styrofoam boxes. Thoughts, anyone?? Thanks!
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That will be about two pallets. Yes regular cardboard will be much more space efficient. Western can provide great boxes. Double walled cardboard. I had them move my cellar and they did a great job, great boxes, no breakage, and did all the packing.
It will be cheaper the more work you do like palletizing etc but all up to you.
If it’s not exorbitantly more expensive to ship in your existing styro over more space-efficient plain cardboard, I would just leave them as they are for shipping. A lot more protection against breakage and temperature fluctuations. Then you can do the same work on the back end you will have to do to transfer them, and repack in more efficient boxes for off-site storage.
Most important, wait until good weather. Especially given the length of the trip and the various temp. zones it will travel.
John, I’ve queried Western for their thoughts about the boxes . . . haven’t heard back yet. If their boxes are better than ULINE, perhaps I’ll buy some from them ahead of time and pack myself. Western is not cheap, so I’d like to reduce the expenses as much as I can. IF they are confident they can get the job done using cardboard boxes and shipping to FL in October, then I might go that route.
Alan, a very interesting point. That had not occurred to me. Ship in styrofoam for the reasons you mentioned, rent a 10 x10 space for the first month ($180) then repack most of the cases in cardboard and switch to a 5 x 5 space ($70).
S. Stevenson, I wish I could wait until December to ship. House goes on the market in 2 weeks, so we’ll probably be moving early October. Because of that–and the various temp zones you mentioned–I’m willing to pony up the extra cash to have a first rate mover do the job.
The Western boxes are much better than Uline, double walled and very solid. They have shipped many many tens of thousands of cases in their cardboard boxes, and you would then fit on two pallets, whereas if you are in almost all styro, getting it on two pallets might be hard.
Given that part of the route will still be fairly warm (and assuming you won’t be using a refrig’d truck), leaving in styro will give you quite a bit more protection. There’s a thread here in the past 6 months or so that measured actual temperature inside styro in some fairly warm conditions (but with the bottles starting out at cellar temp). The result was quite informative, and suggests that if your wines come directly out of a cool cellar in styro, into the truck, and then a few days travel across country, they should be fine. So unless the transport is refrigerated, I would definitely leave them in the styro you already have.
Alan, correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that Western Carriers ship in refrigerated vehicles. Perhaps I assumed that just because of their reputation and costs. But in any case, I’d be rather uncomfortable in shipping wines to Sarasota, Fl in early October in anything other than a refrigerated truck–with or without styrofoam. As I mentioned, I am just in the beginning of this process and have not selected a carrier. (Western is the only one I’ve contacted so far). If the distance wasn’t so far, I’d rent a refrigerated truck and do it myself, but 5 days of driving at the age of 66 doesn’t appeal to me. I once drove from Tuscon, AR to Northern New Jersey in 2 days, but them days are long gone.
Sorry Gary, I don’t know the shipping details. If they are indeed refrig’d, I’d be fine with cardboard and not styro, assuming they will be dropping directly to your storage facility. Even so, you could save yourself a bunch of work if it’s not that much more to ship the styro boxes you have, as opposed to buying new boxes for shipping (that you don’t then use for storage, if that’s the case), and the time/labor of repacking them all potentially at both ends. Do think about the fact that sh*t happens, and refrigeration can fail, sometimes at the worst of times. Or trucks break down, etc., etc.
Good points, Alan. Thanks. Chuck, that’s good to know. If I go the cardboard route (for shipping) I wonder if I can purchase the boxes from Western beforehand, pack myself, and save some money.
Yes, assuming you have a little lead time, they can ship you the boxes and inserts (knocked down) in advance, and since you may keep using them in storage in FL (unlike the styro shippers), you can number the boxes and know what is in which box. If they pack them, unless you pay a lot extra, they aren’t doing an inventory, just putting bottles in boxes as fast as they can.
Contact Joel Rubins at Western. Great guy and will answer all your questions.
I used these guys when I moved from Atlanta to California
They are part of the Mayflower group and will move your wine and household goods in the same refrigerated truck. My cost was a fraction of what it would have been to move the wine separately.
Hi Gary - I am going to be moving my cellar long distance in the next year (also to Florida), so I have been researching this topic too. There are several threads here - some as recent as the last week or so - and there seem to be other companies that do the same thing but are less expensive than Western. wine relocation services and cost - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Piling on from Sherri’s post, I used Xpeditr 3 years ago when I moved from Philly to Colorado. They did an excellent job.
Byron
Here’s what I found about the cost of shipping 900 bottles from Oregon to Florida (keeping the wine in their original styrofoam shipping boxes)-- so two pallets. Wines will be stored at West Palm Wines, Tampa.
Western Carriers: about $3400 (picked up at home, delivered to WPW.
Advantage Transportation (Salt Lake City): $808. But they only ship dock to dock. So for a local outfit to move the wine out of my basement cellar, palletize, shrink wrap and transport 60 miles to Northwest Distribution & Storage in Salem is about $850. And with a $70 cross dock fee the total comes to $1728. The wine would be delivered to Salem a day before it’s picked up by Advantage. Time frame: latter part of October. All refrigerated except the drive up to Salem.
I think I’ll go with the latter . . . about half the price. (Also, Advantage was recommended by WPW in Tampa).
So the next question: Should I get additional insurance–above and beyond what Advantage offers ($90 a case)? I’d appreciate any comments from wineberserkers. Thanks.
Right about now I think I would reconsider moving to Tampa 
Moving to Florida to look after Mom-in-law . . . so, not negotiable. Now, if we’re talking the lost continent of Atlantis . . .
Understand. With a little foresight, you could have married a girl from California, but love wants what it wants