International Shipping Company in Saudi Arabia 0552803439 | How to Choose One for Cars, Furniture and Goods

The best international shipping company in Saudi Arabia is the one that gives you an itemised price before you pay, packs and loads with its own crew, clears customs at both ends, and follows the shipment to the consignee’s door. Home Safe is a registered Saudi establishment that ships cars, furniture, goods and yachts from every city in the Kingdom by sea, air and land to more than 160 destinations. Shipping a sedan by RoRo starts from SAR 2,800. To book: 0552803439.

In this guide41ShowHide

1. What does “the best shipping company” really mean?
2. Types of shipping companies in Saudi Arabia: which one suits your shipment?
3. Eight criteria for choosing an international shipping company
4. How do you check that a company is registered?
5. Ten questions to ask before you sign
6. International shipping methods from Saudi Arabia
7. Shipping gateways by your city
8. What do we ship?
9. International shipping prices from Saudi Arabia
10. How do you compare two quotes?
11. How do you lower the shipping cost?
12. Survey and pricing
13. Packing and loading
14. Destinations by region
15. International shipping times from Saudi Arabia
16. Required documents
17. What cannot be shipped and what ships with conditions
18. Follow-up and insurance
19. Air freight from Saudi Arabia
20. Steps to ship with Home Safe
21. Reassuring signs and warning signs
22. Common mistakes when choosing a shipping company
23. Why Home Safe?
24. Related articles and pages
25. Tags
26. Frequently asked questions about shipping companies in Saudi Arabia
27. What is the best international shipping company in Saudi Arabia?
28. How do I make sure a shipping company is reliable?
29. How much does international shipping from Saudi Arabia cost?
30. What are the international shipping methods from Saudi Arabia?
31. How long does international shipping from Saudi Arabia take?
32. What is the difference between a shipping company and an express courier?
33. Do you ship from every city in the Kingdom?
34. What documents are required for international shipping?
35. Does the price include customs at destination?
36. Is the shipment insured?
37. Can I track my shipment?
38. Should I choose the lowest price?
39. Do you ship a single item or a single carton?
40. Do you store the shipment before it leaves?
41. When should I book?

What does “the best shipping company” really mean?

“Best” changes with the shipment. Someone sending a document to London wants speed and nothing else. Someone moving a home to Cairo wants packing that protects the furniture and a price that does not change. A trader shipping a container wants a fixed sailing date and correct paperwork. So the right question is not “who is the best?” but “who is the best for this shipment of mine?”.

Lists that rank companies by name mostly compare parcel couriers for online stores: speed inside cities, cash on delivery, and store integration. These are sound criteria for a small parcel, but they do not help if your shipment is a car, a bedroom set or goods by the cubic metre. This guide explains the criteria that apply to heavy international shipping, then leaves the judgement to you.

Types of shipping companies in Saudi Arabia: which one suits your shipment?

Before you compare prices, decide which type of company you need. Asking the wrong type wastes your time and gives you a price you cannot compare.

Type of company	What it does	Suits	Does not suit
Express courier	Carries parcels by air door to door at a price per kg	Documents and parcels up to 70 kg	Furniture, cars and large volumes
International shipping company (freight forwarder)	Books space on the vessel, aircraft or truck and manages the whole shipment	Cars, furniture, goods and containers	A very urgent small parcel
Home moving company	Dismantles, packs and moves within a city or between cities	Moving within the Kingdom	Shipping abroad if it has no agent there
Customs broker	Completes customs procedures at the gateway	Someone with a ready shipment and a carrier	Someone who wants a full door service
Comparison or aggregation platform	Shows the parcel prices of several carriers	Online stores	Shipments that need a survey and packing

Home Safe is the second type, combined with packing and clearance: we survey, pack, load, book, clear and deliver. You deal with one party from your door to the consignee’s door.

Eight criteria for choosing an international shipping company

Criterion	What to look for	Why it matters
Registration	A valid commercial registration that lists shipping activity	A party you can hold to account in a dispute
Price	An itemised quote before payment	A lump sum hides what gets added later
Survey	It asks for dimensions or surveys on site	A price without a survey is a guess
Packing	Its own crew and materials suited to each item	Most damage comes from packing, not the route
Clearance	It clears in Saudi Arabia and has an agent at destination	Shipments are delayed in customs more than at sea
Methods	Sea, air and land, and it suggests the most suitable	A company with one method sells it for every shipment
Follow-up	A bill of lading number and an update at each stage	You know where your shipment is without asking
Insurance	It explains liability limits and offers cover	Carrier compensation alone does not cover a valuable item

How do you check that a company is registered?

Checking takes minutes and protects you from the most common shipping problem: an unregistered middleman who takes the payment and then disappears, or hands the shipment to someone you do not know.

• Commercial registration: ask for the number and check it through the Ministry of Commerce enquiry service. Look at the status of the registration and the activity listed in it.
• Address: an office or warehouse you can visit, not a mobile number only.
• Contract or collection receipt: a document in the establishment’s name and stamp that states what was collected and where it is going.
• Payment: to an account in the establishment’s name, not an individual’s.
• Bill of lading: handed to you after loading, with your name and the consignee’s name on it.

Ten questions to ask before you sign

1. What exactly does the price include, and what does it not include?
2. Who packs: your crew or a third party? Is packing inside the price?
3. Which gateway does the shipment leave from, and when is the departure?
4. What is the expected time to the consignee’s door, not just to the port?
5. Who clears customs at destination, and do they have a name and a number?
6. Is delivery to the door, or to the port or warehouse?
7. What charges will the consignee pay there?
8. What is your liability if something is damaged, and what does insurance cost?
9. How do I follow the shipment, and who do I speak to if it is late?
10. What happens if the volume or weight at loading exceeds the quote?

A serious company answers all ten without hesitation and writes the answers in the quote. Dodging a single one of them is reason enough to look elsewhere.

International shipping methods from Saudi Arabia

Method	Suits	Approximate time	Price starts from
Sea freight	Cars, furniture, containers and heavy goods	2 to 7 weeks	SAR 4,600 for a 20ft container
Air freight	Urgent, light and valuable items	3 to 7 days	SAR 14 per kg
Land freight	The Gulf states, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon	2 to 10 days	SAR 32 for a parcel up to 5 kg
Express shipping	Documents and small parcels	1 to 5 days	SAR 83 for documents

The general rule: the larger the volume and the less pressing the time, the more sea saves you. The lighter the weight or the tighter the time, the better air suits. Land is the natural choice for everything going to neighbouring countries. For a detailed comparison, see the shipping methods comparison page.

Shipping gateways by your city

City	Sea gateway	Air gateway	Nearest land gateway
Jeddah, Makkah and Taif	Jeddah Islamic Port	King Abdulaziz Airport	Al Haditha and Halat Ammar to the north
Riyadh and Qassim	Dammam or Jeddah, depending on destination	King Khalid Airport	Al Batha, Salwa and Khafji
Dammam, Khobar and Jubail	King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam	King Fahd Airport	King Fahd Causeway, Salwa, Al Batha and Khafji
Madinah and Tabuk	Jeddah or Duba port	Madinah or Jeddah airport	Halat Ammar and Al Haditha
Abha, Jazan and Najran	Jeddah or Jazan port	Jeddah airport	Depends on destination

You do not need to bring the shipment to the gateway. We collect it from your location and load it to the gateway that best suits the destination. Gateway details are on the ports and gateways page, and the cities we serve on the cities page.

What do we ship?

Type of shipment	How it ships	Page
Cars	RoRo or in a container, and by land on a carrier to the Gulf and Jordan	Car shipping
Furniture and belongings	Part load or full container, or a closed truck by land	Furniture shipping
Commercial goods	By the cubic metre, the container or the pallet	Commercial shipping
Parcels and cartons	By air or land, door to door	Parcel shipping
Yachts and boats	On a cradle on the vessel’s deck or on a low-bed trailer	Yacht shipping
Heavy equipment	RoRo, open container or low-bed trailer	Heavy equipment shipping

International shipping prices from Saudi Arabia

There is no single price for international shipping. But these figures give you a starting point against which to compare any quote you receive. All are starting prices, and yours is set once the volume and destination are known.

Service	Price starts from
Sedan by RoRo	SAR 2,800
20ft container to Red Sea and Eastern Mediterranean ports	SAR 4,600
40ft container to the same destinations	SAR 5,200
Furniture part load by sea to Europe	SAR 5,500
Furniture part load by sea to the USA	SAR 2,750
Belongings by land to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon	SAR 1,650
A bedroom set to Egypt	SAR 1,650
Cubic metre by land to the Gulf states	SAR 550
A carton by land to the Gulf or to Egypt	SAR 140
A parcel up to 5 kg by land to the Gulf	SAR 32
Air freight per kg	SAR 14
Documents by express up to 1 kg	SAR 83

What moves the price:

• Volume and weight: sea charges by the cubic metre, and air by chargeable weight. Work out your volume with the CBM calculator.
• Destination: the distance to the port, the number of lines serving it, and how far the city is from it.
• Method: a full container costs more in total and less per cubic metre than a part load, if it is full.
• Packing: wooden crates and special packing for delicate items.
• Service level: door to door, or to the port only.
• Season: summer and the end of the school year raise demand and prices.

Each factor is explained on the pricing factors page.

How do you compare two quotes?

Two quotes with different figures may in fact be equal, and the cheaper one may turn out to be the dearer. Put both quotes in one table and ask about each item:

Item	Ask	If it is not stated
Collection from your location	Is it in the price, and from which floor?	It is added on loading day
Packing	Which materials, and for which items?	Light packing or an extra invoice
Origin port charges and clearance	Are they in the price?	They are requested before shipping
Freight	Per cubic metre, per container or per kg?	You cannot compare
Destination port charges	Who pays them and what is the estimate?	The consignee is surprised by them
Delivery to the door	To which city and which floor?	The shipment waits at the port
Insurance	In the price or optional?	Limited compensation only

How do you lower the shipping cost?

• Choose sea or land if you have time: the gap between them and air is wide for volume.
• Ship a part load if your volume is small: do not pay for a container you cannot fill.
• Dismantle what can be dismantled: a dismantled bed and table take half the volume.
• Do not ship what costs less there than its freight: old furniture and cheap appliances.
• Book early: booking before the season fixes the price and the space.
• Combine your shipments: one shipment costs less than two small ones.
• Prepare your paperwork before loading: storage charges at the port cost more than any saving.

Survey and pricing

We start by finding out what you will ship. For parcels and cartons, the weight and dimensions are enough. For furniture, you send photos or a video of the rooms on WhatsApp, or our representative visits you for large shipments. For a car, its make, model year and destination are enough.

After the survey you receive an itemised price: collection, packing, transport to the gateway, clearance, freight, and what is paid at destination and by whom. What is in the quote is what you pay, as long as the volume has not changed. To request a price, use the request a quote page.

Packing and loading

Packing decides the condition of your shipment on arrival. An international shipment is loaded and unloaded several times, and at sea it is exposed to vibration and humidity for weeks.

• Wooden furniture: blankets, then corrugated cardboard, and corner protection.
• Glass, marble and mirrors: wooden crates with padding inside.
• Electrical appliances: the original carton if available, or foam and reinforced cardboard.
• Cartons: five-ply, numbered, with contents recorded on the packing list.
• The car: secured with straps and chocks inside the container, or driven onto the RoRo vessel on its wheels.
• Loading: heavy items at the bottom, gaps filled, and the load lashed so it cannot move.

Packing methods are in the packing guide, and securing inside the container on the packing and lashing page.

Destinations by region

Region	Most suitable method	Examples
The Gulf states	Land	UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar
The Levant	Land	Jordan, Syria, Lebanon
Egypt and North Africa	Truck on a ferry to Egypt, and sea to the Maghreb	Egypt, Morocco
Turkey and Europe	Sea for volume, air for urgent items	Turkey, Europe
Asia	Sea and air	Malaysia
The Americas and Australia	Sea for volume, air for urgent items	On request

The full list is on the destinations page.

International shipping times from Saudi Arabia

Destination	Land	Sea	Air
The Gulf states	2 to 6 days	—	1 to 3 days
Jordan, Syria and Lebanon	5 to 10 days	—	2 to 4 days
Egypt	7 to 12 days by ferry	1 to 2 weeks	2 to 4 days
Turkey	—	2 to 3 weeks	3 to 5 days
Europe	—	4 to 6 weeks	3 to 6 days
USA and Canada	—	5 to 7 weeks	4 to 7 days

These are approximate times from loading to arrival; clearance and inland delivery are added to them. What usually lengthens them: a missing document, a customs inspection, or port congestion in season. Details are on the transit times page.

Required documents

Type of shipment	What you prepare	What we prepare
Personal belongings and furniture	A copy of the passport or Iqama, and the consignee’s address and number	The packing list and the bill of lading
A car	The registration, the owner’s ID, and an authorisation if the shipper is not the owner	Export procedures and the bill of lading
Commercial goods	The commercial invoice and the commercial registration	The packing list, certificate of origin and customs declaration
Parcels and documents	A description of the contents and their value, and the consignee’s address	The air waybill

Some countries ask the consignee for additional papers. We tell you about them before loading. The full list is on the shipping documents page, and the procedures are explained on the customs clearance page.

What cannot be shipped and what ships with conditions

Item	Rule
Drugs, weapons, ammunition and explosives	Prohibited by every method
Flammable materials and compressed gases	Prohibited by air, and conditional by sea
Cash, gold and jewellery	Not shipped with belongings
Medicines	With a prescription and in a personal quantity
Perfumes and lithium batteries	Conditional by air; shipped by sea and land
Food	Dry and sealed only, subject to the destination’s rules
Counterfeit goods	Prohibited and confiscated

Each country has its own list. Check the prohibited items page and ask us about any item you are unsure of before packing it.

Follow-up and insurance

After loading you receive the bill of lading and its number. We update you at departure, at arrival, when clearance is complete, and before delivery. If the shipment is late, you hear the reason from us before you ask.

• Tracking: with the bill of lading or container number. Details are on the track your shipment page.
• Record: photos of every item before packing and after loading.
• Carrier’s liability: limited by weight or volume, and does not reach the value of a valuable item.
• Insurance: optional, calculated as a percentage of the declared value. Details are on the cargo insurance page.
• On receipt: the consignee inspects the shipment and notes any remark before signing.

Air freight from Saudi Arabia

Air freight is the choice when time matters more than cost: the belongings of a student travelling next week, spare parts that work depends on, or commercial samples. It leaves from Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam airports and starts from SAR 14 per kg.

• Calculation: on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight. Work it out with the volumetric weight calculator.
• Time: 3 to 7 days to most destinations, including clearance.
• What suits it: suitcases, cartons, appliances, documents and light valuable goods.
• What does not suit it: large furniture and cars, which cost several times more by air than by sea.
• Service: to the airport, or to the consignee’s door.

Details are on the air freight page and in the article air freight office in Jeddah.

Steps to ship with Home Safe

1. Contact: on 0552803439, and tell us what you are shipping and where to.
2. Survey: by photos or a visit, to set the volume and the method.
3. Itemised price: with its items and what is paid at destination.
4. Booking: we fix the collection date and the departure date.
5. Packing and loading: at your location, with a packing list and photos.
6. Clearance and departure: we complete export procedures and send you the bill of lading.
7. Arrival and delivery: clearance at destination, then delivery according to the service you chose.

Reassuring signs and warning signs

Situation	Reassuring sign	Warning sign
When you ask for a price	Asks about dimensions, destination and contents	Gives a figure at once with no questions
When you ask about the items	Writes them in the quote	“All inclusive” with no breakdown
When you pay	An account in the establishment’s name and a receipt	A transfer to a personal account
When you ask about customs	Explains what the consignee pays	“No customs for you” with nothing to back it
When you ask about the time	Gives a range and says what may lengthen it	Promises a fixed day for a sea shipment
After loading	A bill of lading and a tracking number	“We will tell you when it arrives”

Common mistakes when choosing a shipping company

• Choosing the lowest figure without knowing what it covers.
• Dealing with a middleman with no registration and no address.
• Paying in full up front with no contract or receipt.
• Packing the shipment yourself, then claiming from the carrier for damage caused by the packing.
• Not asking about charges at destination.
• Declaring a value below the real one, which forfeits the right to compensation.
• Leaving the booking to the week of travel in season.

Why Home Safe?

Learn about the establishment on the about us page, and about our services on the services page. To book: 0552803439 by phone or WhatsApp, 7 am to 11 pm.

Related articles and pages

• International shipping companies in Jeddah
• International shipping company in Riyadh
• International shipping company in Dammam
• Car shipping from Saudi Arabia
• Shipping from Saudi Arabia to the Gulf states
• Door-to-door shipping

Tags

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Frequently asked questions about shipping companies in Saudi Arabia

What is the best international shipping company in Saudi Arabia?

The one that suits your shipment: it gives you an itemised price before you pay, packs and loads with its own crew, clears customs at both ends, and follows the shipment to the consignee’s door. Home Safe works this way for cars, furniture and goods.

How do I make sure a shipping company is reliable?

Ask for the commercial registration number and check it, ask for a contract that states the items and the transit time, and ask who clears customs at destination. Do not deal with anyone who refuses to write down what they say.

How much does international shipping from Saudi Arabia cost?

It depends on the method, destination and size: a sedan by RoRo starts from SAR 2,800, a 20ft container from SAR 4,600, air freight from SAR 14 per kg, and a parcel by land to the Gulf from SAR 32.

What are the international shipping methods from Saudi Arabia?

Four: sea for large volumes and cars, air for urgent items, land for the Gulf and the Levant, and express for documents and small parcels.

How long does international shipping from Saudi Arabia take?

Express takes 1 to 5 days, air 3 to 7 days, land 2 to 6 days to the Gulf and 5 to 10 days to the Levant, and sea from two to seven weeks depending on the destination.

What is the difference between a shipping company and an express courier?

An express courier carries small parcels at a fixed price per kg. An international shipping company moves cars, furniture and containers, surveys, packs and clears customs, and prices each shipment on its own.

Do you ship from every city in the Kingdom?

Yes, from Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah, Riyadh, Dammam, Khobar, Abha, Tabuk and the other cities. We collect from your location and load to the most suitable gateway.

What documents are required for international shipping?

For belongings: a copy of the passport or Iqama and a packing list. For a car: the registration and the owner’s ID. For goods: a commercial invoice, packing list and certificate of origin. We issue the bill of lading.

Does the price include customs at destination?

Usually not. Duties and taxes at destination are set by its customs and paid there. We tell you what is in our price and what is not before you pay.

Is the shipment insured?

The carrier’s liability is limited. For a valuable shipment there is optional insurance calculated as a percentage of its declared value, and every item is photographed before loading.

Can I track my shipment?

Yes, with the bill of lading or container number, and we update you at each stage: loading, departure, arrival, clearance and delivery.

Should I choose the lowest price?

Not always. Compare what each quote covers: packing, port charges, clearance and delivery to the door. The cheapest quote may leave out items you pay for later.

Do you ship a single item or a single carton?

Yes. A parcel or a carton goes by air or land, and a large item goes as a part load in a shared container, so you pay for its volume only.

Do you store the shipment before it leaves?

Yes, in a closed warehouse until the loading date or until your paperwork is ready.

When should I book?

One to two weeks ahead for sea and land freight, and two to three days ahead for air. In summer and at the end of the school year, book earlier.