Worldwide relocation · Door to door from the GTA

Door-to-Door International Movers in Toronto

We are an international moving company in Toronto, moving families, professionals and retirees from the GTA to 25 countries and beyond. The crews that pack your home, the trucks that carry the container and the Toronto warehouse it is loaded in all work as one team.

A dedicated container or a custom-built lift van, arranged door to door: packed at your home, cleared at destination by an IAM partner agent, and delivered anywhere in the world with a port.

Get a free survey & quote +1 (365) 829-5000
  • IAM Core Member — International Association of Movers, now the International Mobility Alliance
  • IAM Trusted Moving Specialist
  • IAMX Validated — verified IAM Mobility Exchange profile

Why these marks matter: IAM, the International Association of Movers (now the International Mobility Alliance), is the global body that vets professional international movers. Our Core Membership, IAMTrusted status and validated IAMX profile mean every partner agent who touches your move abroad is accountable to the same network we are.

Volume calculator & quote

Build your inventory, get your quote

Pick your rooms and items and the calculator totals your volume on the spot. Add the route and your contact, and a move coordinator prices it as soon as possible.

Prefer to talk? +1 (365) 829-5000

Steamship lines

Your move sails with the world's major lines

Household containers, lift vans and groupage book onto the same steamship lines our commercial freight uses — whichever carrier fits your destination and dates.

  • MSC logo
  • Maersk logo
  • CMA CGM logo
  • COSCO Shipping logo
  • Hapag-Lloyd logo
  • ONE — Ocean Network Express logo
  • Evergreen logo
  • OOCL logo
  • ZIM logo

Logos belong to their owners.

Relocation & moving, worldwide

Every kind of move abroad, arranged end to end

International relocation is more than freight. Our international moving services put one coordinator on your survey, packing, customs paperwork, shipping and delivery abroad — one plan, one contact, one fixed price — whether you are leaving Canada, coming home, or moving for a posting.

  • Families emigrating

    Whole households to a new country — surveyed, packed, shipped and unpacked, timed around the school year.

  • Returning home

    Moving back to India, Israel, the UK or anywhere after years in Canada, under the customs relief your status earns.

  • Corporate & employee relocations

    Transfers and assignments for employers and relocation companies — one fixed price per move and a coordinator HR can call.

  • Retiring or buying abroad

    Downsized moves to Portugal, Spain, Italy or the coast of your choice, timed around the property closing.

  • Students, expats & partial moves

    A room's worth of belongings in a lift van or groupage — the economical way to move less than a container.

Metropolitan Logistics crew loading paper-wrapped furniture into a container at a client's home
Loading day: wrapped furniture goes straight from the house into the container.

Packing day

Packed at your home, to export standard

An ocean crossing is a rougher ride than a trip across town, and we pack for it. Movers and packers in one crew: the people who wrap your furniture are our own — the same people who load it at the warehouse.

  • Every piece wrapped, one by one

    Sofas, tables, lamps and art are paper-and-bubble wrapped individually — export wrapping, not the single moving blanket a local move gets.

  • An itemized inventory as we go

    Each piece is numbered and listed while it is packed. Customs, the insurer and the unpacking crew at destination all work from that one list.

  • Door to door, one point of contact

    The same file follows your move from your GTA home to the new address: packing, loading, rail and ocean, customs abroad, delivery and unpacking — all arranged by us.

A plywood lift van packed, sealed and labelled at the Metropolitan Logistics warehouse dock
A packed plywood lift van at our dock, marked with the client's name and destination.

Lift vans

The lift van: your shipment's own vault

Smaller moves are never loose-loaded next to strangers' goods. We build lift vans — plywood or heavy-duty cardboard export vaults — around each shipment at our North York warehouse.

  • Built around your shipment

    Sized to your goods, packed tight, screwed shut and labelled with your name, destination and piece count.

  • Cardboard lift vans for smaller loads

    When plywood is more than a consignment needs, a triple-wall cardboard vault strapped to an export pallet does the same job at a lower cost.

  • What makes groupage safe

    In a shared container your lift van travels as one sealed unit — nothing loose, nothing mixed with anyone else's move.

Two Metropolitan Logistics crew members closing a custom wooden crate around a wrapped piece
A crate being closed around a wrapped piece — built to its measurements, not off a shelf.

Custom crating

Crates built by hand around the things that can't break

TVs, marble, mirrors, glass, antiques — anything that would not survive in a carton gets a crate built for it on the warehouse floor.

  • Felt-lined TV and art crates

    Slatted pine crates padded with felt, marked front, back and this-side-up — and handled that way.

  • Antiques and odd shapes

    The crate is built around the piece. An antique cabinet gets its own box, blocked and braced so it cannot shift at sea.

  • Crated once, opened at your new home

    Crates ride inside your container or lift van, and the delivery crew opens them and takes the wood away.

A car loaded inside a shipping container with household goods stowed on a timber deck built above it
A client's car braced in the container, belongings on a timber deck above it — one shipment, one customs entry.

Dedicated containers

A container of your own — the car can come too

Two-bedroom homes and larger usually fill a dedicated 20′ or 40′ container, loaded at our warehouse or right at your door.

  • Loaded, braced and photographed

    Your shipment is stacked, blocked with lumber and photographed before the doors close under a numbered bolt seal.

  • Your vehicle rides inside

    The car is strapped to the floor and a timber deck is built above it, so household goods travel over the vehicle in the same box, on the same entry.

  • On our trucks to the rail

    Our own drivers carry the container to the terminal — the same drayage work we run for commercial exporters.

How an overseas move works

Seven steps from your door in the GTA to your door abroad

  1. 01

    Survey

    In-home or video survey fixes the volume; you receive a fixed door-to-door quote, not an estimate.

  2. 02

    Customs prep

    Document list for your destination — ToR1, EU residence relief, CBP Form 3299, Australia's B534 — checked before anything ships.

  3. 03

    Packing day

    Our crew packs to export standard, crates fragile items and builds the itemized inventory.

  4. 04

    Loading at our warehouse

    Your shipment is loaded into a dedicated container or a lift van at our North York facility and photographed before sealing.

  5. 05

    Rail & ocean

    Container drayed on our truck to the terminal, railed to the port, and sailed to the destination — or trucked across the border for U.S. moves.

  6. 06

    Clearance abroad

    Our IAM partner agent files the customs entry under your relief and collects the container.

  7. 07

    Delivery & unpacking

    Delivered to your new home, unpacked, packing material removed. Storage at either end if dates do not line up.

  8. Dedicated container or groupage?

    Two bedrooms and up usually fills a 20′ container. Smaller moves travel in their own lift van, share a container with others bound for the same country and cost less.

    We'll recommend the right one

From the warehouse floor

Scroll through a few of our moves

Real shipments, photographed by the crews that packed them — there is not a stock photo on this page.

Where we move you

Destination guides from Toronto — 25 countries and regions

Each guide covers timelines, costs, the customs relief you can claim and what to leave behind — written from the moves we actually run.

Also moving families to

South Africa · Netherlands · Poland · Greece · Singapore & Hong Kong · South Korea · Kuwait & Bahrain · Caribbean

Anywhere with a port and an IAM agent — which is everywhere. Ask for a quote.

Movers, forwarders and relocation companiesWe act as origin and destination agent in Toronto: surveys, export packing, container loading at our warehouse, customs coordination and delivery across the GTA.Agent services

What's included

A door-to-door move, itemized

  • Home or video survey and a fixed door-to-door quote
  • Export-grade packing materials and professional packing crew
  • Custom crating for art, mirrors, TVs, pianos and antiques
  • Lift vans built around groupage shipments at our warehouse
  • Itemized inventory for customs and insurance
  • Loading and securing in our Toronto warehouse
  • Drayage, rail and ocean freight to the destination port
  • Customs clearance by an IAM partner agent at destination
  • Delivery to your new home, unpacking and debris removal
  • Optional: storage at either end, vehicle shipping, transit insurance

IAM member — your move is protected

We are a Core Member of the International Association of Movers with IAMTrusted status and Receivable Protection Program coverage. The agent unpacking your home abroad is vetted, accountable and paid — which is what keeps a move from stalling at the destination port.

IAM Core Member — International Association of Movers, now the International Mobility AllianceIAM Trusted Moving SpecialistIAMX Validated — verified IAM Mobility Exchange profile

Loaded in our warehouse, not a stranger's

Most international movers in Toronto hand your shipment to a consolidator. Ours is received, loaded and photographed at our Toronto facility by the crew that packed it — and you are welcome to see it there before it sails.

The same lanes as our commercial exports

We ship commercial containers through Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver every week. The rail, port and carrier relationships behind your household move are the ones our exporters rely on — which keeps the freight cost honest.

FAQ

International moving: frequently asked questions

How much does an international move from Toronto cost?
It depends on volume, destination and access at both ends. A one-bedroom apartment to the UK shipped as groupage sits at the low end; a four-bedroom house to Australia in a 40′ container at the high end. Every quote is door to door, fixed after the survey, and itemizes packing, ocean freight, destination customs and delivery.
How long does an overseas move take?
From packing day to delivery: 1–3 weeks to the U.S. by road, 4–7 weeks to the UK, 5–9 weeks to Europe, 8–12 weeks to Australia or the Gulf, 10–14 weeks to New Zealand for a dedicated container. Groupage (shared container) shipments add two to four weeks while the consolidation fills.
What is a lift van?
A lift van is an export vault — plywood or heavy triple-wall cardboard — that we build around a smaller shipment at our North York warehouse. It keeps your goods sealed together as one unit while they share a container with other consignments, which is what makes groupage safe. The name comes from the way the packed vault is lifted into the container.
Do you pack everything, or can I pack myself?
Our crews pack for ocean transit as standard, which is what insurers and destination customs expect. You can pack non-fragile items yourself — books, clothing, linens — and we will inventory and load them; fragile and high-value items should be professionally packed and crated.
Sea or air freight for an overseas move?
Sea freight is the standard for household moves, at a fraction of the cost of air. Air makes sense only for a small survival box you need in the first two weeks. Most families ship everything by sea and carry essentials in luggage.
Can you ship my car or motorcycle along with my belongings?
Yes. A vehicle can ride inside your dedicated container: it is blocked, braced and strapped to the floor, and a timber deck is built above it so household goods travel over the car in the same box, on the same customs entry. A motorcycle is simpler still — crated at our warehouse and shipped as its own singly handled LCL unit; see motorcycle shipping. Destination rules for importing vehicles vary widely, so tell us about the vehicle up front.
Will I pay customs duty at destination?
Most countries exempt used household goods from duty and tax when you are moving your residence and apply correctly — the UK's ToR1, the EU transfer-of-residence relief, Australia's unaccompanied personal effects rules, CBP Form 3299 in the U.S. Each destination guide explains the rule for that country; we give you the document list at the survey and our partner agent files the entry.
How does insurance work?
We offer all-risk marine transit insurance based on the declared value of your goods. Full coverage requires professional export packing, which is why our crews pack at your home; you receive a valued inventory before the container ships. Our IAM Receivable Protection Program membership additionally protects the payments between us and our partner agents.
Who delivers my goods on the other side?
A vetted destination partner from the IAM network, the same global association we are audited members of. They handle port clearance, delivery and unpacking, and we manage them on your behalf. One contract, one point of contact: us.
What if my home abroad isn't ready?
Your goods can wait in our Toronto warehouse before sailing, or in our destination partner's storage after arrival: international moving and storage run under the same roof here. Storage is quoted per week, and many clients land first, find housing, then call the shipment forward.
How much does it cost to ship household goods overseas from Canada?
Shipping household goods overseas is priced by volume, destination and access at both ends: a few boxes in a lift van sit at the low end, a full household in a 40′ container at the high end. After a free home or video survey the price is fixed, door to door, with packing, ocean freight, destination customs and delivery itemized — and each destination guide above covers the cost picture for that country.
Are you an overseas moving company or a freight forwarder?
Both, under one roof. As an overseas moving company we pack, crate and move households door to door with IAM partner agents at destination. As an ocean freight forwarder we book FCL and LCL space with the major steamship lines for commercial cargo — and your household move rides the same carrier relationships our freight does.
Do you serve cities outside Toronto?
Yes. Our own crews survey, pack and load across the GTA and Southern Ontario — Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Oakville, Hamilton, Kitchener–Waterloo and the surrounding region. Everything ships through our North York warehouse regardless of where in the region the packing happens.
Do you move to the United States, or within Canada?
Moves to the U.S. are a core lane — packed and loaded by us in the GTA, crossed and delivered by our IAM partner carriers; see the U.S. guide. For domestic long-distance moves we can recommend a partner.
I am a moving company or relocation firm — can you act as our agent in Toronto?
Yes. We provide origin and destination agent services across the GTA and Southern Ontario for international movers, forwarders and relocation management companies: surveys, export packing, container loading at our warehouse, customs coordination, delivery and unpacking. See the agent services page for the scope and how to request a tariff.

Free quote, no obligation

Tell us where you're going

Build your inventory, and a move coordinator prices the move and answers your customs and timing questions.

Prefer to talk? +1 (365) 829-5000