When deciding on whether to ship your online purchases to the Cayman Islands via air or ocean freight, there are several things to consider. The key determining factors are time, cost and convenience. Read on for some insight that may help you decide which service to use.
TIME
If time is an important factor, e-box air cargo (located at 2250 NW 114th Ave) will get your orders to Cayman the fastest, usually within 7 business days from the time the package arrives in Miami; provided you have uploaded the invoice. If getting an item in under two weeks is important to you, air freight is the way to go.
By comparison, ocean shipping (located at 8001 NW 79th Ave) is about 4 weeks lead time and potentially longer if you are consolidating your shipment.
COST
If cost is a factor, there are a few things to think about. For instance, the minimum charge for the first pound on e-box Pro is $9.95 plus $2.95 for each additional pound. By comparison, the minimum charge on ocean is $98 for 12 cubic feet, which equates to about 30lbs of volumetric weight with air shipping. What this boils down to is that you can ship the same 30lb package on e-box for the same price as ocean but receive it much faster with e-box.
If however, you have multiple 30lb packages, the incremental price of $5/c.f. to ship via consolidated ocean (i.e. all your packages must ship together) is less than shipping each package individually via air, so you may opt for ocean. Be mindful however of shipping multiple small packages via ocean because there is a $7.20 Port Authority fee for each package and when added up can erase any savings on the shipping fees.
Shipping is not a perfect science. Sometimes you will order something small and it will come in a bigger box than you would have liked. While this doesn’t happen often, it does from time to time and it can’t be helped because the packaging is determined by your vendor. Should this happen, MBE will give its customers a volumetric weight discount to help offset some of the cost. From our over ten years’ of experience, we can say that vendors are shipping more often in pouches and compact boxes in an effort to reduce waste.
When shipping large bulky items such as home accessories, exercise equipment, car parts, etc. ocean shipping will be more cost effective, provided you can wait 4 weeks to receive them.
Detailed rates and how to calculate the expected shipping cost can be found on our website mbe.ky.
CONVENIENCE
If a hassle-free experience is important to you, we recommend e-box. E-box has a user-friendly convenient web portal and mobile app allowing you to view and manage your packages in real time from when they arrive at our facility in Miami to when they clear Cayman Customs and are available for collection or delivery. You can also pre-alert orders for faster processing and upload invoices for Customs clearance. Packages are shipped automatically as they are ready from Miami, allowing for the shortest lead time.
By comparison, ocean shipping is a more manual process and the lack of customer user interface means more time and effort are needed on your end to keep track of when your orders arrive in Miami and instruct us to ship when you are ready. Cut-off times and consolidation of goods may also slow down the transport of your goods.
BOTTOM LINE
The simplest rule of thumb when deciding which service to use is:
e-box air for small-to-medium packages, ocean for large packages.
e-box air if you need it quickly, ocean if you can wait 4 weeks.
If you have any questions about our e-box air or ocean consolidation services, please contact us and a member of our team will be happy to assist. For e-box email [email protected]. For ocean email [email protected].
Mail Boxes Etc. Cayman Islands