Use a smaller box.
That’s it, the whole shebang. Last week we saved a customer $65.00 by cutting four inches off one end of his box. Here’s some data from earlier today, when we were deciding if we should cut down the long dimension on a 52” x 8” x 32” bike box.
As you can clearly see in this case, cutting 2 inches off the box to go from 52” long to 50” saved the customer $50. There are marginal savings in additional length reduction, but getting under your shipper’s “oversize” limit is the key. There’s no need to go crazy – you don’t want to sacrifice padding and the safety of your frame for a few bucks – but getting your box down to a reasonable size is always a good move.
The large majority of frames will fit into an 8” x 32” by 36” box. Remember: unless we request them, don’t send any extraneous parts! That’s pretty much the short guide to shipping a frame cheaply.