Shipping/Freight Forwarding Representation USA to Aus

[skeptic36]

And the saga continues....

 

Starting to think my container will be cleared from the docks shortly, not sure how it is all supposed to happen, but I know the documents for the shipment includes several ways to contact me so I figure someone is going to be in touch and tell me what to do when the time is right. Before lunch today a guy with an accent ( read, difficult to understand) rings me to say that he emailed me on the 10 dec, giving me all the details of what is required and, as Customs have told him that I have not supplied the necessary documents for clearance, they are now going to start charging storage as of tomorrow. I am in the paddock at this time, I notice he has a private number, so, worried I won't be able to get back in touch when I get back to the office I ask for his details, he says he will resend the email, I ask him to read the address to me, he reads it to me with a . in it which is not ment to be there. (Remember the email he sent on the 10 th)I know the yanks had it right because I have had messages from them to said address.

 

I spent the rest of the day trying to get all the requirements together and delivered to a Melbourne agent so the thing can be collected, didn't get all of it (which changed twice during the afternoon) done till after 5 pm, so I guess I will have my hand in my pocket again.

 

Lesson for the day, use a local agent, not an overseas one. Apparently things go much smoother that way.

 

 

[Geoff13]

And the saga continues....Starting to think my container will be cleared from the docks shortly, not sure how it is all supposed to happen, but I know the documents for the shipment includes several ways to contact me so I figure someone is going to be in touch and tell me what to do when the time is right. Before lunch today a guy with an accent ( read, difficult to understand) rings me to say that he emailed me on the 10 dec, giving me all the details of what is required and, as Customs have told him that I have not supplied the necessary documents for clearance, they are now going to start charging storage as of tomorrow. I am in the paddock at this time, I notice he has a private number, so, worried I won't be able to get back in touch when I get back to the office I ask for his details, he says he will resend the email, I ask him to read the address to me, he reads it to me with a . in it which is not ment to be there. (Remember the email he sent on the 10 th)I know the yanks had it right because I have had messages from them to said address.

I spent the rest of the day trying to get all the requirements together and delivered to a Melbourne agent so the thing can be collected, didn't get all of it (which changed twice during the afternoon) done till after 5 pm, so I guess I will have my hand in my pocket again.

 

Lesson for the day, use a local agent, not an overseas one. Apparently things go much smoother that way.

Skeptic36 I feel your pain. But and there is always a but. I work in transport. We specialise in containers. We put up to 300-500 on and off the wharf per week. At least once a week someone will ring me and ask me if I can save their a**e and pull a container off the wharf for them. If they have not dotted the i's and crossed the t's with customs there is nothing I can do. This can also link in to another current thread. With the volume of containers we move, I have contacts on the wharf and can normally not always make things happen. For this I charge an absolute premium. You are paying for my contacts, my experience, my time as well as my trucks. If people do not want to pay my price I can live with that. I do not discount nor do I get into bidding wars which are a common part of my industry. People pay my rate or they don't simple really.

 

There are three thing which are inflexible and must be done right and no amount of mates, greasing palms or anything else can change it.

 

1. Customs paperwork must be filled out correctly and on time. No paperwork or no duty paid means we cannot move the container.

 

2. The shipping line must be paid before we can get the Delivery Order. No DO means No Container.

 

3. Wharf storage must be paid before the container will be released. Storage starts 3 days after first availability which is normally the day after the vessel docks. It increases at an increasing rate. It can get very expensive very quickly.

 

In my experience, there are three things that overseas agents are not very good at.

 

1. Australian Customs paperwork. The yanks are by far the worst at it. I think this is because they believe that there is nothing past their shores, so they only do American paperwork.

 

2. Paying shipping lines fees and unique Australian Charges (and there are several).

 

3. Talking to customers. ie. the actual importer.

 

In many cases the first the Australian importer knows about their container even landing is when the wharf passes the first 3 days storage fees back to the export agent. At this point they normally panic and ring the importer and say why haven't you got your container off the wharf. So as you can see by the time people come to me they are normally in for some huge bills.

 

eg. The worst one this year was a lady who bought 3 wool looms from the USA on ebay. She used an American export agent and was going to do the import stuff herself to save about $500.00. She ended up with a $25,000.00 storage bill and that was after I got her a 30% discount by the time she got the customs clearance. But she hadn't done any AQIS paperwork. These were used wool looms and she had paid about $500.00 each for them. You can imagine the hoops that needed to be jumped through. She ended up walking away and leaving them on the wharf because it was simply not worth it. I rarely take these jobs on because that is how it normally ends up but every now and then I try to help people.

 

My advice to anyone importing any thing into Australia. 5 things:-

 

1. Get and Australian Agent.

 

2. Do not even get a price from an overseas agent. It will almost always be cheaper, but there is a reason for that.

 

3. Get an Australian Agent.

 

4. Nominate a transport company and talk to the transporter and the agent regularly. The Transport company will not be able to do anything until the container is on the water but if we know the container number and vessel we can track it for you up to a point.

 

5. Get an Australian Agent (I really cannot stress this enough.)

 

There are some very good agents around. Three have already been mentioned in this thread. Some agent specialise in different areas (Country's or parts of) make sure your agent has experience in the country you are importing from.

 

I am certainly not going to list any names here but if people are importing stuff ie containers from overseas and want some advice or recommendations pm me and I can try to help or offer advice. This is not a personal advert as the last thing I really need or want is more work, but I have a lot of contacts and a lot of names and may be able to recommend people for your situation and location. I may not be able to help in which case I will certainly tell you that as well.

 

 

[skeptic36]

Thanks Geoff, your info would have been great to have 3 months ago :-).

 

I have not tried to grease anyone's palm or do anything underhanded. This has happened because some peanut somewhere in the chain xxxxed up my email address. Now I am fixing it by paying a broker to help me jump through the hoops I need to get through to clear my container , all legitimately and above board. It's just going to cost me more money than it needed to.

 

One question, do movements still happen over the weekend or is it a five day week thing?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Regards Bill

 

 

[Geoff13]

Don't get me wrong we do not do anything underhanded but when you move the volume of containers that we do, you get to know and help a lot of people. Favours are far better than dollars in some cases. Like the day about 8 years ago when the wharfies dropped a DG container dockside and no-one else wanted to move it because the doors had sprung. Took us 10 hours to move it about 400 yards into a DG quarantine area. The yard foreman that day is now the 2nd in charge of the wharf. The crane operator is now one of the foreman. You cannot buy that sort of gratitude.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

As others have said placing the container on the ground for loading seems not to be done in the US, just use ramps, it isn't that bad.

 

I've dealt with Skyview Aviation in Tracy, CA and know they send aircraft to AU fairly often. Got them to ship an engine and later a prop for me. They will pack and send, you may chose to go there and pack the container yourself and possibly save some $$.

 

 

[skeptic36]

Don't get me wrong we do not do anything underhanded but when you move the volume of containers that we do, you get to know and help a lot of people. Favours are far better than dollars in some cases. Like the day about 8 years ago when the wharfies dropped a DG container dockside and no-one else wanted to move it because the doors had sprung. Took us 10 hours to move it about 400 yards into a DG quarantine area. The yard foreman that day is now the 2nd in charge of the wharf. The crane operator is now one of the foreman. You cannot buy that sort of gratitude.

Yeah, but does anything happen on the weekends or is it a five day week thing?

 

 

[Geoff13]

Wharves in Brissy are 24/7

 

 

[cooperplace]

Another little thing you may want to factor in, if US customs wants to have a look in your container, it can cost you an extra $1000.00 approx.Ask me how I know

unfortunately that is believable in the bizarre world of customs: if they decide they want to inspect, they bill the shipper. They call this 'cost recovery" despite the charges being outrageous. You're paying for the bureaucracy.

 

 

[skeptic36]

unfortunately that is believable in the bizarre world of customs: if they decide they want to inspect, they bill the shipper. They call this 'cost recovery" despite the charges being outrageous. You're paying for the bureaucracy.

Wouldn't it be a better system to add a percentage of the cost recovery to every container, so you can work out if what your importing is profitable or worth it instead of hitting one poor mug with the lot?