SAE RELOCATION

The Difference Between Moving and Shipping

2019年1月8日
admin

You are probably wondering, “There’s a difference? Doesn’t moving and shipping both consist the of transportation of items from one place to another?” Yes, this is true there are a lot of things common between moving and shipping but there also is a thin line along every step of the way that you only see once you start to move or ship your items. 

Moving Box

Personal vs. Commercial 
Moving and shipping services are separated for a reason and a big part of that usually has to do with whether the the goods in question are personal or commercial goods. Why the need for the distinction? Moving is reserved for personal items and shipping is reserved for commercial items because of the way majority countries including China, handle their customs duties. 

If you are moving a family from another country to China or from China to another country, it would make sense that the items that you move with you will be counted as tax-free(duty-free) items so that you do not have to be double taxed on items that you use for personal use. Now of course there are limits for what you can move with you and still fall under the duty-free category, that depends on each country. 

Shipping Containers

If you are a business transporting commercial items from one country to another, you are transporting those items with the assumption that you are doing so to sell later as a profit. A tax or duty will have to be imposed on those imported items to ensure that the local government can control the flow of goods and to protect economical stability with respect to it’s trade. 

SAE Asia Moving Truck

Convenience
Convenience is a major factor in the difference between moving and shipping. Moving services are considerably more convenient than it’s shipping counterpart especially if there is a high volume of items to be moved. If you plan to move your family or even yourself, packing, transporting and organizing the whole process can take a lot of your time and energy. Much more than most people think it will. 

Shipping services should only be considered if it is for commercial(like mentioned above) or if the number of items that you need to move are small(one box). Even if you have a few boxes to “ship” it still may be helpful to let a moving company handle that shipment because of the standards they have in place when it comes to transporting personal items versus a shipping company. 

Cost
Many people will look for shipping services rather than moving services because they assume that shipping services are cheaper than moving services and may or may not be true. This is dependent on the requirements of the individual and that can only be evaluated on a case by case bassis. As mentioned earlier, shipping services can cheaper because it does not include any of the packing services which can greatly reduce the number of breakages that could happen to your items during transit. So if you are to ship your items, it still makes sense to use a moving company for that shipment as they are more accustomed to dealing with those types of items. 

Now that you you know the difference between moving and shipping, happy moving or shipping!