<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I did a forum search and was not able to come across the information I was looking for.</p>
<p>Berkeley's housing FAQ page states that there are certain shipping couriers who will uniquely deliver packages all the way to the front door of our particular room. </p>
<p>Does anybody know who this preferred shipping company is? </p>
<p>Does anybody have experience/advice for someone who is considering shipping a few items up to his dorm?</p>
<p>Thank you all.</p>
<p>There is a program called trunk transport. I think it is still new and only works with certain areas. You can go to the housing website ([Living</a> at Cal 2011-2012, UC Berkeley Housing](<a href=“http://www.housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/promos.html]Living”>http://www.housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/promos.html)) to find more information. </p>
<p>Other than these programs, the official work is “no, you cannot ship your belongings before move in day.”</p>
<p>If after you research you find that shipping stuff isn’t going to work for you, I moved cross-country to Berkeley so I know it can be challenging to get all your stuff over there for the first time. I flew, and put everything in luggage. I basically only took clothes to Berkeley (and I took a lot) by using the ‘space bags’ you see on TV and at places like Target, where you can use a vacuum to compress all of your stuff so you can pack more into bags.</p>
<p>Then, once you get to Berkeley, you can buy things there that aren’t as easily transportable, like pillows, school supplies, desk organizers, clothes hangers, etc. I found it all really manageable with the help of my family members. Hope this helps, if storage doesn’t work out!</p>
<p>I’ve never used this special service, however it sounds suspiciously like something that would cost a lot more than ‘regular’ couriers (kind of like ASUC linens VS Target linens or dorm-sponsored storage services) which would make it a pretty bad deal. The website talking about ‘central locations’ also suggests a CA-only service.</p>
<p>The central mailroom in each Unit will look up the individual room addresses of people when they receive packages that have a name but no particular building/room number. Thus, once you find out the general location of your dorm (Unit 1/2/3 etc. - apparently this will happen quite soon), you can plan to ship stuff to yourself, like</p>
<p>John Doe
(street address of your Unit)
Berkeley CA 94720</p>
<p>And you will get a note in your mailbox saying that you have a package. They have trolleys in the mailrooms and there are elevators, so you would only have to do a little more physical labor. I’d plan so that it arrives a little later than you do, but this could be a way to ship the items (I hope this makes sense - basically if you’re coming from far away this could make it so that you only have to wait 1-2 days for your stuff rather than 5-6 days or more)</p>
<p>I also came to Berkeley from across the country and like ringopuppers, took mostly clothes in my luggage and bought the pillows etc. after I got here. (my parents took me, so I used their luggage allowance and they could also rent a car which made life a lot easier)</p>
<p>Just don’t have anything arrive before you do - until you are checked in, you are likely to have the package just rejected.</p>
<p>Rider is correct. DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BEFORE. There is not any space in the mail rooms to hold every students’ belongings and they will return to sender if it arrives before.</p>