Moving services in Southeast Asia, in both directions
Shipping into the region, out of it, or between the three countries we operate in. Asia Relocation has surveyed, packed, cleared and delivered household goods and corporate assets here since 2011, with its own crews at the origin end rather than an agent you never meet.
Most moving pages assume you are arriving. In practice the people who reach this one are split almost evenly between three situations, and they need different things. Some are shipping into the region and have not necessarily settled on a country. Some are leaving it, which is a harder job done under more time pressure and one that almost nothing published about moving addresses. And some are transferring between two of the countries we operate in, which is the case no single country page can answer on its own.
Asia Relocation has run local, international and corporate moves across Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines since 2011, with its own crews and its own crating at the origin end. The method is the same everywhere — a pre-move survey, an inventory, export packing, customs coordination, controlled delivery — but the countries are not interchangeable, and that is worth saying before anyone compares quotes. The papers a destination expects, the time clearance genuinely takes and the sensible answer to whether an item is worth shipping at all differ from one to the next.
Which is why an undecided destination is a reason to call early rather than a reason to wait. We can put one inventory against more than one country and give you a real comparison, including the part most movers leave out: what you should not ship. A sofa that is worth its freight to one destination is worth selling before another, and that conversation is cheap before the survey and expensive after the container is sealed.
If your destination is already settled, go straight to the team that will do the work — Thailand, Vietnam or the Philippines. If you want to know what a given destination will ask for before you commit to it, our customs and country guides set that out country by country.
The seven services, whichever direction you are going
Each is surveyed and priced on its own, in whichever of the three countries the work starts. Take the whole file or a single line of it — and note that every one of them runs outbound as readily as inbound, which is not true of most movers' quotes.
Local Moving
A domestic move is not the easy version of an international one. What governs it is access — what the street admits, what the building permits, how many times the goods change hands — and that varies more between our three countries than the distances do.
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International Moving
Export packing, inventory, a full or shared container, or air freight where the volume justifies it. We quote the corridor rather than a generic rate, because transit time and destination requirements differ far more by route than by shipping line.
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Office Relocation
When a company opens or closes a site in the region, the workspace and the households land on one timeline — and it is almost always the workspace that gets quoted last. We scope both together, in whichever countries are involved, under one reporting rhythm.
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Vehicle Transport
By container or roll-on/roll-off, with the export and import formalities handled at both ends. It is the line where the paperwork most often outlasts the voyage, and where the honest answer is sometimes to sell before you go.
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Pet Moving
Import rules differ sharply from one destination to the next, and it is the destination that fixes the earliest possible flight. Which country you are heading to therefore changes the lead time before it changes anything else — one more reason to settle the route early.
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Moving Insurance
Quoted beside the move, built on the declared value you set, and covering packing, transit and any storage. Read it most carefully on a route with several transfers: risk concentrates where goods change hands, not where they travel furthest.
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Storage
At origin or at destination, for the gap between a shipment that is ready and a home that is not. Quoted with the move so the cost is visible in advance — an unplanned hold at a port is expensive, a planned one is a line on a proposal.
Learn more →Four directions, and only one of them is well served online
People arrive at this page from four situations. Knowing which one you are in changes what should happen first, and it is worth settling before anyone starts listing services.
Moving into the region
The well-served case, and still the one most often mistimed. Shipments get booked against a flight rather than against an address, and goods that clear before there is anywhere to put them go straight into storage at a cost nobody planned. If the country itself is not settled, this is the moment to price one inventory against two destinations rather than after the survey.
Moving out of the region
The direction nobody writes about, and the one where files go wrong. Every task sits at the origin end against a departure date that will not move: a lease with notice to give, a deposit to recover, a vehicle to ship or sell, a pet whose veterinary calendar needed to start weeks ago. Outbound work begins earlier than inbound work, not later, and we treat it as a service rather than as the end of one.
Transferring between our countries
Two sets of obligations run at once, and the departure end sets the earliest date the arrival end can begin. Split between two unconnected suppliers, the gap between them is exactly where time and money disappear. Here it is one file, one inventory and one coordinator, with both teams inside the same company — which is the only real argument for a regional mover.
Companies with people in several countries
A mobility programme that spans the region needs one set of figures, one reporting rhythm and one person to call, not three vendors with three formats. We survey each household properly instead of applying a single allowance across a population, quote against your policy, and flag the case where a market will not meet it rather than quietly overspending.
Three countries with our own crews, and the door out
We load with our own people in three countries. Each has a different constraint that shapes what a move costs and how long it takes, and the differences are larger than the map suggests.
Thailand
A market where the constraint is vertical and maritime at once: most households live in buildings that ration their service lifts, and a meaningful share of domestic work involves a crossing to an island. Add a climate that decides packing materials rather than schedules. See what the Thai team covers.
The Philippines
Where the company started, in 2011, and the only one of the three where a domestic move regularly includes a sea leg. That single fact changes how goods are packed, how a schedule is built and where the risk sits. Our own warehouses at both ends of the country. See what the Philippine team covers.
Vietnam
The market where street access, not volume, sets the price: entrances a full-size vehicle cannot reach, buildings that restrict loading hours, and a country long enough that an internal transfer is a distance operation with an overnight leg. Surveyed on site as a rule. See what the Vietnamese team covers.
Out of the region
Not a country but a direction, and one we treat as a service in its own right. Europe, North America, Australia and the rest of Asia, with the origin work done by our crews and the destination end handled by partners we name rather than blur. What we will not do is imply that the far side is ours when it is not. Tell us when you are leaving.
One company at the origin end, and plain speech about the other
Our own crews, not a broker's
In this sector a move is routinely sold by one company and performed by another the client never meets. In our three countries the packers are ours. It is harder to build and it is the only arrangement where the company that quoted the job answers for how it was done.
One file across borders
A transfer between two of our countries is a single inventory and a single coordinator, not a handover between vendors. The gap between two suppliers is where a regional move loses its time, and closing that gap is the whole reason a regional mover is worth anything.
Surveyed, then quoted
A volume guessed over the phone is the commonest reason a moving invoice ends above its quote. We measure first and the figure holds unless what is moving changes. This also means we can tell you what is not worth shipping, which no rate card ever will.
The documents are the job
Export papers, an inventory, and a declaration that matches it line for line at both ends. Shipments are rarely delayed by the sea; they are delayed because a document disagrees with a box. That work happens before the container is sealed.
Four working languages
Our consultants work in English, French, Thai and Vietnamese. It matters at the two points where a move is quietly lost: a building manager setting out an access rule, and a customs formality where one word on a form separates a release from a hold.
We name what is not ours
Sailing schedules, customs offices, veterinary calendars and destination partners are third parties. They are identified as such in the proposal, so the dates we commit to can be told apart from the dates we are relaying to you.
From an undecided destination to an empty room
Tell us the direction
Who is moving, which way, roughly when, and what has to be usable on arrival. You do not need to have chosen a country, and you certainly do not need to know what any of the services are called. Working that out is our job, and it is easier before a survey than after one.
Pre-move survey
A consultant measures the real volume and assesses the access at the origin — the street, the entrance, the lift, the stairs. Where the destination is still open, the same inventory is priced against more than one country so the comparison is real rather than rhetorical.
Fixed-scope proposal
One quote, itemised by service and by country in scope, with the transport mode, the expected transit and the insurance option priced beside the move. Third-party dependencies are named, and so is anything we think you should not ship at all.
Packing, documents and departure
Our crew packs and labels against a written inventory, and the export documentation is built from that same inventory. The container is sealed only once the papers and the contents agree, because that agreement is what makes the far end straightforward.
Transit, clearance and delivery
Sea or air, with clearance handled at both ends and reporting at the moments that carry meaning rather than on a fixed schedule. Delivery to the room, reassembly of what we dismantled, and the packing debris taken away instead of left in your hallway.
Questions that come before a country is chosen
We know we are moving to the region but not to which country yet. Can you still quote?
How is a move out of the region different from a move into it?
What is the difference between a full container and a shared one?
Which destinations outside the region do you handle?
Who actually performs the work — you, or a local agent?
Can one company handle a transfer between two of your countries?
How far ahead should we start?
What if our dates move after the goods are collected?
Moving guides and customs regulations
Office Relocation from Vietnam to Australia 101
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Moving from Vietnam to the US and What You Need to Know
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The ultimate List of expat friendly cities in Australia
Read →Things to know before shipping your households to Australia
Read →Tell us which way you are going, and we will work backwards from the date
Arriving in the region, leaving it, or moving between two of our countries. Send us the direction, the household or the office, and the date that cannot move. We survey, quote a figure that holds, and say plainly which parts of the journey are ours and which belong to somebody else.
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