How to Ship to Haiti, Step by Step
Yes, you can ship to Haiti — families do it every week, from Miami to Montreal to Paris. The process only feels confusing because nobody explains the whole road at once. Here it is, in the order it actually happens: you choose a company near you, you agree a price in writing, you pack and hand over your goods, the company carries them to a port in Haiti, and your family clears and collects them there.
Each step below tells you what to do, what to ask, and what can go wrong if you skip it. If you are sending one specific thing, the focused guides go deeper: the barrel cost guide for barrels, the car guide for vehicles, and the parcel guide for small packages. This page is the map for all of them.
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The short, plain guide to sending barrels, boxes, cars and parcels home — what to ask, what to get in writing, and how people get burned, so you do not.
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Step 1 — Start from the city you ship from
Shipping to Haiti is local before it is international. The company that matters is the one near you, because you will hand your goods to a real person at a real warehouse or door pickup. Start with your corridor: South Florida — Miami & Fort Lauderdale if you are in Florida, New York & New Jersey in the north-east, or whichever corridor page matches your city. Each corridor lists the companies that actually work from there and what each one ships.
Decide what you are sending before you call: barrels, boxes, a vehicle, a container, parcels, furniture. Not every company takes everything. JP's Logistics & More in Miami, for example, ships barrels and boxes and publishes its prices; MD Shipping serves New York, Connecticut and New Jersey with barrels, boxes and household goods. Matching the company to the load is the first decision, and it is yours to make with the directory open in front of you.
Step 2 — Agree the price and the plan, in writing
Ask each company the same questions and compare the written answers: What is the total? What does it include — pickup, the sea or air trip, clearing help, delivery in Haiti? What is still payable in Haiti, and roughly how much? When does the next shipment leave, and when should my family expect it? Who does my family call in Haiti?
Then get the agreement where you can keep it: a receipt, a text thread, an email. A verbal price from a friendly voice is the most expensive kind of price there is, because it changes. Our guide to questions to ask before you pay gives you the full list, and how to choose a company you can trust shows you how to weigh the answers.
Do not hand over goods — and especially do not send a deposit to a personal payment app — before you have the company's real name, its address or warehouse, and the total in writing. That is the moment almost every loss story begins.
Step 3 — Pack it like it will be opened and stacked
Your shipment will be stacked, moved, and possibly opened by customs. Pack for that reality: strong barrels and boxes, heavy things low, fragile things wrapped and in the middle, nothing loose that can crush or leak onto everything else. The full method is in how to pack a barrel for Haiti, step by step.
Make a list of what is inside as you pack, and photograph it. The list serves three masters: your memory when the company asks what you are shipping, customs if the shipment is checked, and your family when they collect and count. Write the receiver's name and phone number on the shipment itself, not only on a label that can come off. And check the list of what you cannot ship to Haiti before you seal anything — one forbidden item can hold up everything around it.
Step 4 — Get your family in Haiti ready
Shipping ends on the Haiti side, and that half belongs to your receiver. Before your goods leave, tell your family: which port or office they will go to, who will contact them, what papers or identification to bring, and what money to have ready for customs charges and any balance. Customs charges are built from documented charges — a 5% verification fee, a 10% TCA turnover tax and a 2% CFGDCT contribution, with more on vehicles — explained in the customs charges guide. The port and customs have the final word on the amount.
Stay reachable while the shipment travels. If the company needs a decision or a document, a sender who cannot be found is a shipment that waits. When your family collects, ask them to count and check the goods before leaving the warehouse, and to tell you the same day if anything is missing — problems reported immediately are the ones that get fixed. Start your own shipment the calm way: pick your corridor above, shortlist two companies, and work this page top to bottom. The frequently asked questions page answers the small questions that come up along the way.