Chile Forum

Okay, I suspect there's an obvious answer to this but for the life of me I can't find it. Every time I search for the info I get lots of info on packing stuff inside a container, but what I need to know is, when the truck arrives with the container how do you get the boxes etc inside the container, seeing as the container is about 5ft off the ground?

Clearly some kind of ramp or device is needed, but the loading companies I've spoken to only provide dollies and basic tools, not ramps.

When you shipped your stuff in a container, how did it work? We are packing it ourselves using laborers to help with the grunt work.

Typically they lift them off the truck and set them on to the ground. You load it. They come pick up the container and put it back on the truck.

Is it still on the truck?

sort of related story. We had a rather interesting problem a few years ago. Client had a moving company pack an antique safe in N. America in to the back of a container. Weight was somewhere around 5+ tons as I recall (they don't make them like that any more). Container arrives in Chile. There is no heads-up to the moving company on this end about what is in there. Which is likly good, as customs would have gone ape shit about it had they seen it fully described on the packing list. There was nothing in it.

So, for like 4 weeks, us and the moving company are hunting all over Chile looking for something that can fit inside a container and reach to the back, but lift 5 tons and move it in to the house without bringing the house down around it. Meanwhile, the container is sitting in the street blocking the road. They finally found a small crane / forklift that could reach inside, lift it, get it through the door, and park it in its final resting place (don't think that thing is ever leaving the country or that house again). Moral of that story is, really think through the full move.

They haven't delivered it yet but I've been told by the shipping company that it'll be 5ft off the ground... speaking to the trucker himself this week, so maybe he'll be able to enlighten me!

That story is a good 'un. Unfortunately I am rubbish at thinking things through. I once carried a bicycle with one flat tyre all the way to the bike shop to get a new one. Only after did someone else suggest that it might have been easier to go and get the wheel and take it to the bike instead!!! Duh.

We've loaded containers 3 ways,
They drop it on the ground and you just walk the stuff in. Easy.
They leave it on the truck, you go to Home Depot and buy lumber, make a ramp, pray the ramp doesn't collapse... A pain
Use some pituto and borrow a loading dock. Have all your stuff at said loading dock. The owners of the loading dock have their workers help you as they want to use their dock again someday soon. Easiest.

Option 4 - hire more grunts!

Have two permanently in the container, have two (or more) on the ground lifting things up into the container for the guys inside to stack/organise.

Potential problem - average height of Chileans being around 5 foot tall means lifting things to head height!
Potential benefit - avoid rooting around with making a dodgy ramp and having someone fall off...

If you can find a seprate truck with a hydralic lift gate, your belongings can be lifted up 5ft. to match the elevation of your container that is sitting on it's trailer.
A pallet jack made in communist china is now inexpensive, a few hundred dollars U.S. As I understand it, unpainted/untreated wood is not allowed in Chile, they don't want our bugs. When you are done with the pallet jack you can probaubly sell it.
Now that your container is full and on it's way being tossed about by the motion of the ocean your next challenge will be to unload it. If a truck with a liftgate is
not available, I would hunt for a loading dock of simular 5ft. verticle place to back the container and trailer up to for the unloading process. Good luck and remember to use your knees when lifitng. We will be facing the same challenge soon. Please let us know if you have any other and maybe better ideas!

Just recalled another interesting loading / unloading container story.

Few years ago a client was importing a rather large and expensive vehicle (new off the lot) from the States inside a container. We get call from the moving company that was taking it from the port to the house, asking us if there was a loading ramp available at the destination to unload the vehicle. When I heard they were asking that question, I thought, 'that is strange, why are they not using a car carrier with a ramp'? Which then the next thought crossed my mind, 'how the hell are they getting it on to the truck in the first place'?

Few calls and some careful interrogation of the people at the moving company revealed that they were planning to just use a regular flat bed truck and a forklift to put it on the truck. Which, in theory, could be done, but not without scratching the hell out of the new vehicle (assuming they did not drop it or something), or at least you would need to be a super master of the forklift. Not likly in Chile. Way too many ways that could go really wrong. That led to a last moment scramble to find a proper car carrier (with insurance for carrying cars), with a tip down hydraulic bed. You know the kind they use to tow your car away when it is broken down or illegally parked.

Moral to that story, never assume anything when it comes to shipping in Chile.

Franziska, we used Pedro Vera Hermanos, telephone (41) 2466050. They delivered the lab equipment to UdeC, and then our home furnishing to the apartment. There´s a couple of other movers, but I´m not sure how the services or pricing. As to packing the container, pack it just like you would a U-Haul straight truck. They usually have "how to pack" brochures, and probably have in online now. Good Luck!

Eileen wrote:Franziska, we used Pedro Vera Hermanos, telephone (41) 2466050. They delivered the lab equipment to UdeC, and then our home furnishing to the apartment. There´s a couple of other movers, but I´m not sure how the services or pricing. As to packing the container, pack it just like you would a U-Haul straight truck. They usually have "how to pack" brochures, and probably have in online now. Good Luck!

Heavy stuff on the bottom, light stuff on top, fill the bottom and work up, remember it’s going to be bouncing around the Ocean for a few weeks, pack accordingly.

Some insurance companies will require you have it packed by professionals even if you are handling the move yourself.

Thanks, Eileen! I'll give my husband that info. Luckily (for me) I won't be in Chile when the container arrives, I only have to deal with it at this end.

Patagoniax, how I wish I'd seen those photos before booking. It'd be so much easier if it could be lowered to the ground. Or if we'd booked it to pick up from a warehouse/storage facility rather than residential pick-up. I thought it seemed like more hassle to pack up everything, get it taken to a warehouse, and then put in a container, than 'simply' doing it here. Simple it is not, however!

Insurance is doable even if we pack, so that's fine.

Still haven't spoken to the trucker but from what the shipping company says, it'll be 5ft off the ground and remain 5ft off the ground. So it'll have to be a ramp or some lumber. To cover that height it'll have to be about 10ft, presumably. I picture it bending like a blade of grass as people bounce up it with heavy boxes in their arms... which doesn't inspire me with confidence.

We'll figure it all out somehow.

Thanks so much all!

Franziska wrote:Thanks, Eileen! I'll give my husband that info. Luckily (for me) I won't be in Chile when the container arrives, I only have to deal with it at this end.

Patagoniax, how I wish I'd seen those photos before booking. It'd be so much easier if it could be lowered to the ground. Or if we'd booked it to pick up from a warehouse/storage facility rather than residential pick-up. I thought it seemed like more hassle to pack up everything, get it taken to a warehouse, and then put in a container, than 'simply' doing it here. Simple it is not, however!

Insurance is doable even if we pack, so that's fine.

Still haven't spoken to the trucker but from what the shipping company says, it'll be 5ft off the ground and remain 5ft off the ground. So it'll have to be a ramp or some lumber. To cover that height it'll have to be about 10ft, presumably. I picture it bending like a blade of grass as people bounce up it with heavy boxes in their arms... which doesn't inspire me with confidence.

We'll figure it all out somehow.

Thanks so much all!

Only build a 2.5-3 ft ramp then the carrier puts it on the floor of the container where it can be moved into position by someone in the container. You want one or two people packing the container not everyone walking up and placing a box wherever.

How can I build a 2.5ft ramp if the container is at 5ft? Surely the ramp has to rest on the container and so would be at 5ft? Or do you mean build a ramp up to a certain level, not necessarily resting on the container itself?

Thanks!