Many retailers do not offer shipping to remote areas, such as Alaska, via consumer parcel-delivery services, such as USPS, FedEx and UPS. Package forwarding is a service provided by large-cargo shipping companies, such as Carlile, to receive packages in the Lower 48 and bring them to the 907. It’s a great way for Alaskans to order things online that state “No shipping to Alaska or Hawaii.”
Definition of Package Forwarding
A company offering package forwarding provides you with an address in the Lower 48 (For Carlile, it’s in Tacoma, Washington.) where you can send items. The company then puts your retail package in one of its trucks, ships or airplanes to Alaska. Package forwarding does not provide door-to-door delivery, so you’ll have to pick up your shipment at the dockside or local office of the shipping company.
Benefits of Package Forwarding for People Living in Alaska
The fact is there are a lot of retailers that don’t ship to Alaska. There are several reasons for this. For one, the cost to ship items to Alaska can be higher than shipping within the continental United States. Some retailers charge extra for shipping to Alaska, but many others do not offer shipping to Alaska.
Another reason is some retailers don’t have the customer service personnel to deal with potential disruptions or challenges that can arise when shipping outside the dense network of highways and urban centers in the Lower 48.
Package forwarding is a great way to shop online at retailers that don’t ship to Alaska by having your consumer product(s) brought north by a company that makes regular shipments of large, industrial cargo and has room to include your small package(s).
This gives Alaskans access to retailers they wouldn’t otherwise have access to, like IKEA, Joss & Main, RockAuto and many third-party sellers on Amazon.
As an added benefit, package forwarding is often cheaper than other shipping methods, so it’s a win-win for Alaskans.
Carlile’s MyConnect Can Forward Your Packages to Alaska
At Carlile, we understand the frustration of finding something great online but then seeing “Shipping only within the continental U.S.” That’s why we offer MyConnect, our package-forwarding service that gives you a Washington mailing address so Alaskans can order from any retail store, even if it doesn’t offer shipping to Alaska.
Carlile is one of the oldest, most dependable shipping companies serving Alaska. MyConnect gives you access to the same integrated air, sea, road and rail service big oil companies use for shipping huge equipment from around the world to the North Slope, so the service is reliable and convenient for you.
It’s also affordable for a consumer because, even if you’re shipping something that is large to you, such as furniture and a refrigerator, it’s a tiny fraction of space on one of our large cargo transports.
As the experts in shipping to Alaska, we also provide excellent customer service. If there is an issue with your order, Team Carlile can take care of it.
How MyConnect Works
We want MyConnect to be as easy for you to use as possible.
Just follow these four easy steps:
- Like normal, you shop at an online retailer, adding items you want to your cart and going through the checkout process. Pause at the “Shipping address” page.
- Open another internet tab or page and go to the MyConnect page. Use the widget near the bottom to get an estimate for your item(s). Locate the shipping address for our Tacoma shipping terminal.
- Return to the retailer’s page and enter the shipping address for our Tacoma shipping terminal as your shipping address.
- Once the retailer ships your order to the Tacoma terminal, we’ll receive it for you and ship it on our network to a Carlile terminal in Alaska, where you can pick it up.
And that’s it! Pretty easy, right? Check out our Package Forwarding to Alaska FAQ for questions and answers. Or, email us at customerservice@carlile.biz and one of our representatives will be happy to help.