My first diesel import has turned into quite a headache! (1 Viewer)

[NicaNorth]

I thought I had conducted my due dillegence until Customs found wood in my container. The wood was used to prevent the vehicles from shifting, an extra precaution my shipper took (in addition to straps) unknown to me.

Anyway. This story is a quick summary of a very long story.

Will do it again? You bet your asses I will!

(I am still waiting to export the wood and still do not have possession of these vehicles, but when I have them, you all will be the first to know)

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/01/14/man-obsessed-meet-red-tape-to-excess/

 

[gr8ful]

I assume you already know by now that it is called ISPM. It was also not over zealous, they were doing their jobs & they take raw wood very seriously.

I do intl. Supply chain professionally. Hit me upon pm if you have any interest in chatting. Maybe I can help give you some advice on future shioments to smooth the way (assuming you are interested).
Also, I've got inlaws in Maine that are Turcottes. Is that a common name up there, or is it possible they are related?
Best
Abe

 

[SteveJackson]

Lots of sticky rules and regs for importing and exporting, as noted. Better be informed if you're planning to make a business out of it. Good luck. Nice looking trucks.

 

[NicaNorth]

Hey guys. It's kind of an extreme situation. One, the shipper did not tell me they put wood in the shipment. Two, Nicaragua has the same regulations and did not bat an eye/sealed and approved the container for shipment. Lastly, I utilized logistics companies for both the export and import. That's why this is so frustrating. I did all I could do except physically be present for the vehciles being stuffed.

Definitely learned A LOT!

gr8ful, I have a huge family on the Turcotte side. Where exactly in maine? And yes, your assumption is correct. I want to do this again.

 

[NicaNorth]

Lots of sticky rules and regs for importing and exporting, as noted. Better be informed if you're planning to make a business out of it. Good luck. Nice looking trucks.

I definitely didn't go into this blind. I put a good 4 months of planning and research before even purchasing a vehicle.

It was actually interesting and fun. Well, up until the CBP found wood! Haha.

 

[duncanrm]

Cool article.. great story. Cant beleive they just didnt throw the wood in a drum and burn it.. surely this must happen a lot?? Unbeleivable bureaucracy..

 

[IanB]

Cool article.. great story. Cant beleive they just didnt throw the wood in a drum and burn it.. surely this must happen a lot?? Unbeleivable bureaucracy..

They are really strict about this kind of thing, in Canada as well. I've imported 4 vehicles from Japan now, and my exporter has all vehicles steam cleaned underneath before they are shipped over for this very reason. If the shipment is denied entry for any reason and needs to be shipped back, you're gonna have a real bad day.

They are really picky about soil, raw wood, etc.

 

[NicaNorth]

They are really strict about this kind of thing, in Canada as well. I've imported 4 vehicles from Japan now, and my exporter has all vehicles steam cleaned underneath before they are shipped over for this very reason. If the shipment is denied entry for any reason and needs to be shipped back, you're gonna have a real bad day.

They are really picky about soil, raw wood, etc.

What have you imported? LCs or something else?

 

[IanB]

What have you imported? LCs or something else?

2X HDJ81 LC's, a '96 Hilux Surf SSR-G, and a '99 MB E55t.

 

[gr8ful]

Hey Joe,
My inlaws are in/around Durham (not sure exactly how it is spelled). I've never actually looked at it on a map, but I feel like it is about 15-20 minutes North of the LL Bean Store (what is that Freeport?). It could actually be in any direction, but about 15-20minutes from there. But I always feel like we travel past LL Bean to get to their place, and then backtrack when we go there for the must shop Bean visit.

So, for the sake of people that might follow your thread & learn a bit too for their own future needs, as mentioned above, you were burned by ISPM laws. ISPM stands for International Standards of Phyto-Sanitary Measures. It is basically a bunch of standards for keeping potential invasive species from traveling the globe. Almost every country in the world adheres to it, with a few exceptions. The exceptions are really, really, really poor countries, or border sharers (US/Canada, although we both adhere to them when dealing with other countries), and Australia/New Zealand. Because of their nature as continents by themselves, Australia & New Zealand actually adhere to a more stringent set of rules, specific to them. You could sort of consider it ISPM Plus, if that makes sense.

The burn of intl. trade & being an IOR (Importer of Record) is that you had no knowledge of what they did on the shipper end, but you are 100% responsible & liable for it. The next question I have for you is (if you are willing to share), who did you engage as your freight forward, and Customs Broker (same firm, two different firms, etc...)? I ask because they didn't really provide you with very good service here. This actually does happen more often than you would think, and Customs has a bunch of rules & regulations regarding how to handle it.
1. You could have paid roughly $1,500-2,000 & had the whole container fumigate right there at port. Depending on how you think that might affect the trucks upholstery, maybe not a good option, but could be done.
2. If the wood can be easily separated & identified, you can simply pull that wood out & send it back (ultimately what you are doing right now according to the article).
3. If it is deemed impossible to determine how the risky stuff is, compared to the safe stuff, you can ship back, or destroy. (not really the case with your container, but can happen depending on what product is shipping).
4. there are a couple of other options too, but I can't think of them right now.

You should not have needed to call in favors from people in power to get this resolved, as the rules are already there. The only two reasons how this happen, that I can think of off hand is either 1. your broker isn't as experienced as they claim, and were in over their head here, or 2. your broker decided that your business wasn't worth a ton of extra effort, and so they just pushed it aside, & left you to do the heavy lifting. There might be another scenario too, but those are all that I can think of here. In either case, if these were the situations you found yourself in, you should find a different broker.

I don't want to talk about your business publically, but if you want to PM me & discuss your costs/charges, I'd be more than happy to discuss rates & such with you. I haven't imported a container out of Central America in years, so I can't speak to the freight charge very well, but we can discuss broker fees & docs turnover, port charges & such.
Best,
Abe

 

[B Point]

Ya....the broker needs to be shot with a ball of his own $hit. Arswipe!!

 

[RufusTheDufus]

I was wondering if you were on Mud when I read that article this morning in the paper.

 

[kim]

Good job on the perseverence! That would be very tough.

You must be a newlywed for your wife to call you obsessed with Land Cruisers. That doesnt sound like any Cruiser person I know.

 

[Fast Eddy]

We now ship fixtures back and forth to China in engineered cardboard crates due to the wood issue.

 

[eman375]

Wow, your persistence, fueled by your passion is going to pay off. Lots to be learned and the rules constantly change. Nice that you had acres to the political pull but it's worrisome that it had to be used. I had the same thing happen recently with an Aussie imported HJ75. While going through customs, "soil and unknown plant matter" were found on the vehicle. The solution was not nearly as extensive as yours. They "treated it" whatever that means. I'm thinking they took a power washer, sprayed it down and collected the solution for some type of disposal. Who knows? Anyway, best of luck with the new endeavor and learning how high you have to jump to get over those bureaucratic hurdles!

 

[NicaNorth]

Wow, your persistence, fueled by your passion is going to pay off. Lots to be learned and the rules constantly change. Nice that you had acres to the political pull but it's worrisome that it had to be used. I had the same thing happen recently with an Aussie imported HJ75. While going through customs, "soil and unknown plant matter" were found on the vehicle. The solution was not nearly as extensive as yours. They "treated it" whatever that means. I'm thinking they took a power washer, sprayed it down and collected the solution for some type of disposal. Who knows? Anyway, best of luck with the new endeavor and learning how high you have to jump to get over those bureaucratic hurdles!

Thank you for the positivity. I had two Emergency Action Notifications against my shipment. One was for the wood and the other was for "trace amounts of soil" on the tires. I had these steam cleaned before being stuffed in Nicaragua, but they did have to travel across a dirt road to enter the container.

I definitely learned a ton, to say the least. The most important lesson is that I need to be physically present for the next shipment! After totaling my extra expenses in Customs, I could have had quite a nice vacation week in Nicaragua

 

[kdeaton]

I just went thru a similar headache, bringing back my truck from Costa Rica. The shipping company pretty much checked out once they were paid ahead of time. And our friendly CBP friends decided to do an X-Ray inspection during the Christmas Holidays, so they snagged the container, but didn't bother to inspect it for a couple of weeks. Then they put it on the list for a physical inspection. To the tune of $1500 for both, plus another $2000 for the use of the container. Then they couldn't find out where to unload it, while I am waiting in a hotel in Staten Island, playing phone tag all day long. My favorite was when they told me to go to the warehouse. The taxi dropped us off in an industrial zone, but the guard wouldn't let us in.

Anyway, one of the worst experiences I have had in terms of professional conduct. On the bright side, we did have wood blocks chocking the wheels, and they didn't seem to mind. Thank goodness. I wouldn't have even thought of that. They did leave all tires with no air in them, tho. Unfortunately, in Costa Rica, they had long since replaced the radiator fluid with water, and removed the thermostat. So it took 6 hours to thaw out the engine, and I drove to upstate NY with a cabin temp of around 10 degrees.

Best part, the CBP yahoos didn't notice that my car was converted to CNG. I understand that would have added countless more costs to the importation. So now I have the only FJ60 that runs dual Gasoline/CNG in the U.S. At least as far as I know.

If I get the bug up my arse to get another imported Toyota (I'd love a 70 series), I'll buy it here, or drive it in from Canada or Mexico. I'm done with the shipping bit. Irony, it is a U.S. spec car I took down there 8 years ago.

 

[RufusTheDufus]

Seems like the RORO imports tend to go a little smoother than the containerized option.

 

[NicaNorth]

I just went thru a similar headache, bringing back my truck from Costa Rica. The shipping company pretty much checked out once they were paid ahead of time. And our friendly CBP friends decided to do an X-Ray inspection during the Christmas Holidays, so they snagged the container, but didn't bother to inspect it for a couple of weeks. Then they put it on the list for a physical inspection. To the tune of $1500 for both, plus another $2000 for the use of the container. Then they couldn't find out where to unload it, while I am waiting in a hotel in Staten Island, playing phone tag all day long. My favorite was when they told me to go to the warehouse. The taxi dropped us off in an industrial zone, but the guard wouldn't let us in.

Anyway, one of the worst experiences I have had in terms of professional conduct. On the bright side, we did have wood blocks chocking the wheels, and they didn't seem to mind. Thank goodness. I wouldn't have even thought of that. They did leave all tires with no air in them, tho. Unfortunately, in Costa Rica, they had long since replaced the radiator fluid with water, and removed the thermostat. So it took 6 hours to thaw out the engine, and I drove to upstate NY with a cabin temp of around 10 degrees.

Best part, the CBP yahoos didn't notice that my car was converted to CNG. I understand that would have added countless more costs to the importation. So now I have the only FJ60 that runs dual Gasoline/CNG in the U.S. At least as far as I know.

If I get the bug up my arse to get another imported Toyota (I'd love a 70 series), I'll buy it here, or drive it in from Canada or Mexico. I'm done with the shipping bit. Irony, it is a U.S. spec car I took down there 8 years ago.

I feel your pain! Nothing to do, but wait when in the hands of the CBP.

Fluids (on top of other work) were one of my main concerns with these two LCs. I knew they typically use water only in their cooling systems in that part of the world, so, to play it safe, I made sure they flushed EVERY system. I was able to source everything from oil to coolant and spec them for New England weather.

I'm waiting for the LCs to show up this Friday, finally! I'm slotted for an 8am arrival. Pictures coming soon!

 

[NicaNorth]

Seems like the RORO imports tend to go a little smoother than the containerized option.

Without a doubt! Initially, the container was a much cheaper solution, but it's a gamble to whether or not they'll examine it, and if they do, add another $500 to your costs minimum. In my case, the RORO method would have been a steal