Brainstorming the Boxes URGENT REQUEST

[Ground_Loop]

Forklift, pallet jack.

[edavid]

Forklift, pallet jack.

The container is going to be on a truck at the packing site.  How do you get pallets into the back end of it?  How do you stack them?

If you could overcome that, where would the forklift/pallet jack come from, and how would you get them to the packing site?

[SmallCog]

Forklift, pallet jack.

The container is going to be on a truck at the packing site.  How do you get pallets into the back end of it?  How do you stack them?

If you could overcome that, where would the forklift/pallet jack come from, and how would you get them to the packing site?

That's unfortunate if it's indeed the case.

Here in Australia a container would normally be dropped off on site, loaded, then collected again by the transport company.

It's critical when ordering a container to know which side of the truck the container will be coming off of, and tell them which end you want the door.

You typically pay per day for a container, so prioritising loading and unloading is critical.

For the melon bins (they have countless names) I mentioned you would put the bins in the container, on pallets (plastic is easier for quarantine) and load the books from the storage locker into the container. The crew doing it may need wheel barrows or trolleys to speed this process up depending upon how close the container is dropped to the storage locker.

20' container are sometimes delivered and picked up by tilt tray style tow trucks - you don't want this! For something like this you want a side lifter.

When it arrives get it dropped next to a shed or similar, and bring the bins out with a forklift or pallet jack.

I have no idea where you intend to put them once they arrive, but consider getting them unloaded at a warehouse then delivered either 1 at a time or all at once.

Not a recommendation, but an example: https://www.hoxtonindustries.com.au/packaging-solutions/container-unloading/

[thm_w]

The container is going to be on a truck at the packing site.  How do you get pallets into the back end of it?  How do you stack them?

If you could overcome that, where would the forklift/pallet jack come from, and how would you get them to the packing site?

Its normal to put pallets in a container/truck and stack them. But yeah you'd need a forklift and either a ramp or a loading dock to do it.
https://www.flexport.com/help/368-palletizing-cargo-consideration/
youtube.com/watch?v=Hd-3dra6v0c

[Drewbie]

Problem is many storage facilties will NOT allow you to dump a container anywhere on their site for loading/unloading. They want it able to be moved at any time hence having to stay on the truck.

One option further complicating things would be to load into bins at the storage locker entrance, then pallet jack to a box truck with a tail lift. The box truck (longer than 20ft to hold all the unstacked bins) then takes the bins to the container exporters facility and they're stacked into the container there.

Melon crates would be a great option as they're plastic but stackable?

[Drewbie]

Possible bonus at keeping the container at the exporter's facility is the higher security aspect of the container being loaded at an approved exporter by their staff rather than by "Dodgy Movers/Cocaine Exports Inc" at an insecure location?

[Ground_Loop]

Hire a crating company with a fork lift. They show up with a flatbed trailer loaded with crate material, tools and a fork lift.  Face it, this is a business venture that is going to require an investment.  Having done exactly this I suggest you specify screw assembly as it makes break down on the other end go a lot easier.

[TerraHertz]

Update.

I've signed the shipping agreement with the freight agent.
Also bought and paid for 500 of these boxes from ULine:
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-4898/Corrugated-Boxes-200-Test/18-x-12-x-18-Corrugated-Boxes
S-4898    18 x 12 x 18"    $1.96 ea for 500    25 / 125    40  (BUNDLE/BALE QTY.    LBS./BNDL.
That's 4 pallet loads.
These fit the manuals well, AND are a pretty good fit to the container when stacked. They are also man-liftable when full. This is crucial for multiple reasons. Both at the sending end, and receiving.
I'd have preferred tougher cardboard, but nothing was available.

I have a moving company in Sacramento lined up to do the box packing and loading boxes into the shipping container.
Presently there's a tentative date for when that happens, mid next week. But it may drift due to uncertainties with getting a booking for loading to a ship.

There was quite a runaround with trying to arrange for delivery of the pallets of box flats, to the recently hired 2nd small storage unit at the storage site where the manuals are. Several problems, related to the delivery company refusing to de-paletize even one of the pallets and stack the box flat bundles on top of 2 or 3 pallets that fit on the unit floor space, the storage site refusing to dispose of the unwanted pallet, stuff about keys to the unit and needing the ID of the (random unknown) delivery driver beforehand, and blah blah blah.

Circumvented by just having the pallets delivered to the moving company. They can take them to the site in a van on the day. With the advantage that then the boxes are right there beside the loading operation, rather than way off elsewhere in the storage site.

Currently keeping the smaller (empty) 5' x 10' storage unit, for use if there are any excess boxes of manuals that don't fit in the shipping container. (That's a possibility!)  Much cheaper to keep them in the smaller unit till another form of transport can be arranged, so the lease on the big 10' x 15' foot unit can be ended asap.  (I've been paying that lease since Nov 2021.)

This whole operation, all the organization that can be screwed up by the smallest unforseen snag, terrifies me.

I think you mean West coast of the US. 

Oops. Fixed.
As for used boxes, it would be a good idea except for Australian Customs and Quarantine inspection issues.

[Brumby]

Glad it looks like you have a plan that can work.

This whole operation, all the organization that can be screwed up by the smallest unforseen snag, terrifies me.

Yeah, that too.

[Cerebus]

Update.

I've signed the shipping agreement with the freight agent.
Also bought and paid for 500 of these boxes from ULine:

[TerraHertz]

And THEN... there were more gremlins. Eventually sorted, so it's still good.
AFTER placing the order with the box company https://www.uline.com, two things happened:
  1. My bank auto-blocked the payment, thinking it fraudulent. I fixed that, payment went through.
  2. Uline sent me an email saying "sorry we didn't have that box size in sufficient qty, we are shipping
     boxes 20 x 12 x 20" as substitutes."  This was on the US weekend, their computer system said the
     boxes were in stock, but apparently when someone checked the Reno warehouse, they weren't.
     Now the warehouse was closed, no way to find out how many there actually were.
     I paused the ship-out, waiting for word of how many correct size boxes they had.

 At that time we were still hoping for a container loading operation on Wed 19th, USA time. Getting tight...

Turned out ULine only had around 120 of the 18 x 12 x 18" boxes (that were a good fit to the container.)
In the meantime I'd worked out an arrangement of the larger boxes that was more complicated and
had some downsides, but worked. The stated box dimensions are internal, and for the container fit
you have to allow for the cardboard thickness, squish/swell guestimates, box orientations, amount of
gap packing material needed, leaving space for dessicant packs, etc.

I approved the substitution. They shipped the larger boxes.
Those are now stored at the company that will do the packing.

The US shipping company failed to arrange the container onsite for Wed 19th. Or even contact the
packing company. Supposedly 'not enough notice to secure a ship booking' and they won't provide
a container until after they actually have a ship booking.

Current status: still all go, waiting for the US shipping company to establish direct contact with the US
moving company and arrange a mutually agreed date for the packing onsite.
Which won't be this week, so I can relax and do other stuff for a while.

Incidentally, I found out that there is global tracking of shipping containers. If you have the container
ID code, you can see its movement history and forward schedule. It's cool.
Discovered this because I have a pallet load of stuff coming to Sydney from Chicago, that pallet
is in a container, and I was given its number for tracking.

   https://www.track-trace.com/container

But sorry I am not giving you the container number. And they include a check digit, so probably making
up numbers won't work.

[Drewbie]

 It's been a while.

Update?

[peter-h]

I wonder if this is of any interest
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/anybody-wants-old-data-books-(uk)/msg4133125/#msg4133125

[TerraHertz]

Quick update.

As I mentioned, the arranged shipping shedule fell through. The US shipping agent said that they had a ship slot booking cancellation. Lots of trouble getting ship bookings. So they were going to concentrate on their established customers, and they pulled out entirely. The Oz local shipping agent I was using works only with that US company, so they were out too.

The US West Coast ports really are messed up. That container with a pallet load of books of mine from Chicago, sat in Long Beach while being bumped off three ship bookings in a row. FINALLY made it onto a ship, got here and reached me OK. That ship was called the LIBRA, which is amusing since that's my star sign. And also of the 'friend of our family' in Chicago who did the packing and shipping.

Anyway, the storage unit full of manuals. Are still sitting in that storage unit. Because with no ship booking in sight, the options were to have the moving company pack them in boxes and hold the boxes in their warehouse, or simply leave them in the storage unit until shipping in general improves. (Who knows when, if ever. Things can easily get far worse, and it's my feeling that they will. So time is important.)

The 'pack to boxes and truck to warehouse' operation cost quotes was nearly US$8000. And then the storage cost was US $620/month. Or was it $520? I forget. But the current storage unit is $300/month. I've prepaid it for a few months and will probably have to extend that.

I also don't like the idea of having them stored in the moving company warehouse. Quite apart from the monthly cost, I suspect it might be difficult to ever extract them, even if a container + ship booking could be arranged.

Also considering the near $8K packing quote - for this I could fly to the USA, hire a small old van, buy a 20' seaworthy container and park it somewhere near the storage site, then do the packing into boxes and piling boxes in the container, myself.
I like this idea a lot. Many plusses. It would take a week, maybe two. I could live in the van... (I don't mind roughing it.)

Once they are actually packed in a shipping container, there are a lot more options.
For eg perhaps have the container trucked over to the East Coast, and onto a ship there.
And some nice potentials. Like riding in the truck from West to East coast so getting a 'free' US road trip. And more... my son is living in Panama City, Panama atm.

The big obstacle involves the 'topic forbidden here' ie we (people with something in common we are not allowed to mention) are not permitted to leave Australia [because stupid, fraudulent reasons.] But there's been an unexpected positive development with that, as of yesterday. Still many things need to be checked out, and plans I don't wish to advertise beforehand. Plenty of points of potential failure.

This project requires two things: money and patience. I have both atm.