There are many reasons why you might want to send a box abroad to your loved ones that are living in a different country than yours, such as Christmas, anniversaries, or just to surprise them with the items that they miss the most from home. In the last few years, it has become easier for you to be able to send something in a different part of the world. However, you need to take few things into consideration before you send a box if you do not want it to arrive at the consignee broken or to get lost somewhere without any solution to find it and take it back home. Read below all the things you need to do in order to avoid any bad experience that will make you go and deliver your box by yourself from that moment on.
Do your research
Before you decide to send a box to someone living abroad, you need to do your research and know all the specific regulations and restrictions of the country because there might be some items that you are not allowed to send, and even this might seem irrelevant to you, you need to conform to the laws of that country and respect them. every country has its own page where you can find all the information you need about the prohibited items that you cannot send. If you want to avoid any major problem with your shipment, you need to fill in the declaration correctly.
What are the costs?
Most of the people think that shipping a box abroad is going to be a fortune and they have to rob a bank to afford the shipping costs. However, depending on the country that you want to send your box, the costs are different, so shipping to New Zeeland or shipping to the USA definitely mean a different amount of money for the shipping costs. So, you need to understand how much you have to pay in order to not have a surprise when you are asked for more money than you were expecting. So, do your research and find a company that is the most suitable for your budget.
Pack it properly
This is a step that you need to be extremely careful about if you want the box to arrive safely without having anything broken inside to the person you are sending it to. Depending on what are the items that you are planning to send, you need to consider how you are going to pack them. For example, if the box is going to be filled with clothes there is no need to worry that something might break if you do not pack them with bubble wraps, however, if you are sending something that is made of glass you definitely have to wrap it with a lot of bubble wraps and specify to the courier that the box contains fragile items. Also, you can find a shipping company that also offers packing services to make sure that your box will reach the destination in perfect shape.
Don’t send perishable food
Maybe the friend or family member that you are sending the box to is missing the food from home, but it is the worse idea to send foods that can go bad quickly. Shipping abroad takes some time and you have no idea how soon the food is going to reach the destination, that is why you should not even consider that it might get there in time before the food goes bad. Also, the temperature conditions where the box is being kept until it gets to the consignee are not necessarily sub-zero temperatures and this can make the food perish in just a few hours. Moreover, imagine how the other items inside the box will smell and look after being for such a long time next to food that went bad.
Check the consignee’s details twice
You need to pay a lot of attention when you are filling the contact details of the person that you are sending the box to. A small spelling mistake can cause a chaos that is going to cost you a lot of money and time and the box will surely not reach its correct destination. So, make sure you pay a lot of attention when you are writing down the address of the consignee and check it twice after you finish writing it. Moreover, the contact details such as the name and the phone number should also be correctly and visible written so that in case something happens such as he or she is not home when the box reaches the destination, the courier will be able to get in contact with the consignee.
Follow the box
After you have finished all the important steps before the shipping and the box is already on its way to the destination, you should follow it with the unique shipping number so that you can know where it is and how soon it is going to get to the consignee.
Choose the right time for shipping
You surely do not want to choose the busiest time of the year when everybody is sending something to their family members or friends that are living abroad and that can cause many delays to the delivery and because of the large number of packages there can be many situations when they are lost. That time is usually around the most important holidays such as Christmas or New Year’s Eve. So, it is better to send your box a bit earlier or after such events have ended if you want it to reach the destination in time without any problems that can make you lose a lot of time and money.
Return to sender
Whatever you do, it is better to be cautious than to regret afterward. You need to take into consideration that something can happen and your box will not be delivered to the destination for various reasons. So, if you do not want your box to get lost somewhere in the middle, you need to write down a return address so that the shipping company to know where to return the box.
