My Car's here ! ! - well - almost

dave harris · 03-13-03, 09:43 PM

Ok, so DRB chassis # 41 is now at the port of Oakland (45 miles from my house). The shipper is working through the $$ and customs and it is going fairly smoothly - - right up to today (thursday). I was suppose to get delivery to my house on Friday, but now, it appears that I've "won the customs lottery" (only damn random pick i've ever won!) and now my 20 foot sea container has become a candidate for X-RAY SCANNING !!!! The good news is that the actual scan is "free" - - wait for it, here it comes - - the bad news is, apparently, it is MY RESPONSIBILITY for the costs to have the damn thing lifted onto a truck, hauled over to the scan (whenever they schedule it) and then HAULED BACK TO THE PORT UNTIL THE PAPERWORK IS FINISHED !!!!! Lucky me! Hopefully the shipper can persuade them to get all of the paperwork done and then just have the truck continue up to my house - we're trying - - will let you know!

I've even tried to get them to open the damn thing up (1 chassis, 1 fiberglass body and 7 or 8 boxes is just not enough in a container to justify x-ray, IMHO, but then I'm not the customs people), but they said it's "easier for them" to X-ray.

no sh#!, just more $$ for ME

SORRY FOR THE RANTING, I'll be much happier next week!

[img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

Bill Musarra · 03-14-03, 07:15 AM

Dave,
Welcome to the many layers of the shipping industry. There are charges for every thing. They even charge the trucking fee when the container is removed from the stack and delivered to the warehouse for uncrating. Then the charge to uncrate it. And oh yes the storage fees that pile up while you are waiting for all these wonderful things to transpire. Fortunate for you, its being delivered to your home. I hope you have a warehouse handy to get it out of the container. Either that or your trucker better have a big hydraulic gate to get it to ground level!!!! Hope you have something to roll that big box around on. If the truck doesnot fit the warehouse floor properly you will need a trailer with ramps to make the offload as the 4 inch ground clearance ( assuming yours came with wheels and tires ) won't clear the metal ramp that they use to offload. It took us an hour to unload mine from its container.
But remember, the fun begins once you get it home.
Bill
DRB #5