Yup..7 years ago, I had to move about 30,000 78'd from Toronto to Oshawa... about 40-50 miles. Recommend:
Those are excellent suggestions. Unfortunately, the records are in Los Angeles and I am in Fort Worth, Texas and the cost of flying out there and bringing the records back myself would make the whole endeavor very expensive. My employer is allowing me to use the company's corporate discount on the shipping and the price I have been quoted on that is about in the same ballpark as the cost of a one way Penske truck rental alone - and that doesn't include what I would have to pay for airfare, hotels, gas for the truck plus having to make a three day drive.
I thought about using milk crates as that is how I have transported records locally in my pickup truck. But I am not sure if the freight company would be willing to accept a pallet of milk crates. At any rate, I don't know anyone in LA who is likely to have that many milk crates - and even if I were able to find that many here, I would end up having to figure out a way to ship them to LA for that purpose. I checked to see if there was a place online where I could order them in bulk at a good price and have them delivered to LA - but I was unable to find any. I can, however, at http://www.packagingprice.com purchase 200# Test 32 ECT corrugated boxes in bulk for as little as 38 cents each for the 10"x10"x10" size and 50 cents each for the 11"x11"x11" size. Clearly packing the records in cardboard boxes is going to be my most economical option. Since I understand that particular strength of cardboard is certified to be able to hold up to 65 lbs, I am not worried so much about the boxes being strong enough to hold the records. The shipping company's staff will be responsible for palletizing the boxes - and they already told me that they would use a second or third pallet instead of overloading the boxes on the bottom with too many layers of heavy boxes on top. My biggest worry is how do I need to have the person I hire pack the records so that they will not get damaged in during the 1,000 plus mile treck in an 18 wheeler across the western USA.