If you’re looking for the best way to ship large items internationally, you have come to the right place! Here at forward2Me, we help many customers send large parcels and bespoke large items all over the world, including household furniture, large appliances, large car parts, bikes, garden equipment including swings, trampolines and lawnmowers and lots of other large items, using euro pallets or containers via road freight, sea freight and air freight. 

Where items are bulky or heavy and therefore outside our standard courier shipping parameters we will, at your request, work with hauliers, freight forwarders, sea freight, pallet and container shipping companies to provide you with the most cost-effective shipping method for international postage. 

Shipping large items from the UK to the USA couldn’t be simpler!

We’ve made the whole process of shipping large parcels internationally simple and easy. In just 5 steps you could be on your way to ordering all of the large items you desire. 

• Step 1: Sign up for your free forward2Me account to receive your personal UK forwarding address.
• Step 2: Order your large items from the UK/Europe retailers as you normally would and have it sent to your personal forward2Me UK address.
• Step 3: We receive your items and we will then do our best to forward it on to you wherever you are as soon as possible once we have checked the contents to ensure they can safely and legally be shipped to your country of residence and they are packaged in the most appropriate way (on a pallet or reduced in size to save on shipping costs). This process could take up to 48 hours.
• Step 4: We will arrange for the best way to ship your large items and give you the most cost-effective quote possible so we can then ship your parcel onto you.
• Step 5: Your parcel safely arrives with you at your nominated destination.

Check out our video for a detailed description of how our process works.

Which freight and shipping companies handle the shipping of large items internationally?

Large items are usually shipped to your destination by either lorry, sea or air and we use all of the major couriers such as DHL, TNT, DPD and UPS. We work with our freight forwarding partners to obtain the best price to support us with larger sea and air freight shipments around the world.

Working with our dedicated partners, our large shipping options include:

• Custom large-item shipping by road freight, sea freight and air freight
• Standard Euro pallets
• Custom size pallets
• 20-foot containers
• 40-foot containers

Where can I ship large parcels to?

We can forward larger items to you more or less anywhere in the world, including sending large parcels to the USA, Germany and New Zealand from the UK. 

If you have any questions regarding the locations we ship to, be sure to get in touch with our Customer Services department here, send us an email to info@forward2me.com or give us a call on +44 1995 606060.

How much does it cost to ship large items?

This will vary a lot depending on exactly what it is that you’re sending, but you can head to our pricing page to get an estimate for your particular item. If you would like an accurate quote, get in touch with our customer service team who will be able to negotiate prices with freight forwarders to ensure your shipping price is the most cost-effective for you and still gives you a great overall saving even with the shipping cost added on.

Sometimes a longer transit time can help to reduce your shipping costs if you don’t mind waiting a little longer for your goods. You may also be able to avoid paying sales tax on your large items if you shop using our tax-free warehouse in Guernsey, saving 20% off the cost.

What is considered a large item?

There’s no official classification for what makes a ‘large’ item, although anything that needs to be transported on a pallet will fall under this and may incur an extra cost depending on the service and dimensions, while a parcel that weighs over 23kg, about 50lb, is considered to be a ‘heavy’ shipment.

Items over 70kg, about 150lb, are required to be transported on a pallet, which provides stability and protection to your goods.

Any items that are over 500kg, about 1,100lb, are considered oversized and will require a more specialised solution to transport.

Here are some of the common large items that we see pass through our warehouse:

• Large items of furniture from sites such as MADE.com, Loaf,M&S and John Lewis & Partners. For example, if you’re buying a mattress, you might want to look into a ‘bed in a box’ solution, as sending a bulky mattress can be expensive and some carriers might even refuse to take them.
• Office equipment such as printers, office furniture, computer monitors and so on, especially when buying in bulk.
• Bulk delivery of things like Lego and children’s character clothing to resell.
• Pallets of organic baby milk.
• Pallets of car parts and tyres.
• Bulk deliveries of dangerous goods such as perfumes.

Lots of customers also choose to combine lots of smaller items that they’ve bought with different retailers into one large package to save on shipping costs.

If it's the first time you've needed to ship a package internationally, read out guides on what is a package forwarding service and how to ship a package internationally for all the advice and information you need.