Shipping Overseas

[Erich]

Hi All,

Although most of you have not shipped overseas, doubtless a few have and might be able to provide some insight. I have found that it will be less expensive to ship my Ulster rep by air that renting an entire container for 50+ days. My shipper has informed me that by container, the container gets tossed around, might have leaks etc. Today, he indicated that the car will be secured to something called a "cookie sheet" and Steve((Hodgson) should provide a set of instructions as to where to tie down and where not to push(like the tail). He indicated that the guys at air cargo are minimum wage(mooks) and can be heavy handed. Do any of you have advice or horror stories of which I should be aware?

Any help is much appreciated as I want to get my newborn to the US in safety.

Best, Erich

[squeak]

Hi All,

Although most of you have not shipped overseas, doubtless a few have and might be able to provide some insight. I have found that it will be less expensive to ship my Ulster rep by air that renting an entire container for 50+ days. My shipper has informed me that by container, the container gets tossed around, might have leaks etc. Today, he indicated that the car will be secured to something called a "cookie sheet" and Steve((Hodgson) should provide a set of instructions as to where to tie down and where not to push(like the tail). He indicated that the guys at air cargo are minimum wage(mooks) and can be heavy handed. Do any of you have advice or horror stories of which I should be aware?

Any help is much appreciated as I want to get my newborn to the US in safety.

Best, Erich

Eric,  I have no experience of air cargo but have used shippers Taurus roll on roll off (RORO)  and no complaints. probably the cheapest.
 I also used Auto Box Logistics in chelmsford UK recently. They do a racking system where in a 40' container there are 4 cars loaded, not all from the same sender. My austin 7 leaks oil so they placed it on the ground floor so to speak. If it had to be above they would have placed a catch sheet of plastic under. Vehicles were held inside the premises till enough freight accumulated to fill a container. In my case less than a week in storage, and I believe that it went with other palleted general goods as not enough cars needed to go to Australia at that moment. The D type jaguar waiting to be loaded sadly was not destined for my garage.
The main reason for using a container for me was the ability to FILL the car with spare parts and personal items, RORO cars must be empty.
no connection other than satisfied customer,   cheers  Russell

[Erich]

squeak, were they able to strap your car down with no damage or other issues?

[squeak]

squeak, were they able to strap your car down with no damage or other issues?

erich, my car was at the container entrance and I'm sure was strapped down, it had a large piece of timber across the container to prevent the pallets from moving backwards as well. No damage was done, they took several pictures around the car before loading and gave them to me. They indicated they may drive it into the container and so I left the battery isolater switch on with starting instructions. In the event someone may have left a light switch on (magneto model) and the battery was flat on delivery. No problem to push start at the docks on arrival and drive up onto my trailer. Was indeed a good day to be reunited at this end after our adventures.  cheers  Russell

[Stuart Giles]

Hi Erich,
           My brother and I have shipped few cars over from the USA. Have always used container shipping for this; never had a problem yet as regards damage. The shipping people wedge the vehicle in the container and strap the corners of it down to the container. Any other "odd" bits are also strapped down to the container. Here's a couple of pics (sent to us by the US based shipper) -apologies in advance for the lack of A7 content.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Tom Abernethy air freighted his early Cup Model from the USA directly to Scotland.

I will see if I can alert him to this thread,

[David.H]

Tom Abernethy air freighted his early Cup Model from the USA directly to Scotland.

I will see if I can alert him to this thread,

I used CFR Rankins to bring my 3 sevens back from American slumber. They use a multi vehicle loading system They were very good with lots of photos pre & loading, Not the cheapest, but all mine survived. Good staff in the Offices. 
The weak link every time is the handling  once a car has been de-vanned. (taken out of the container) The dock staff are pretty ruthless & will use fork lifts to shift cars that won't roll (flat tyres for example). I know of a Healey 3000 that was driven into a container in the USA, pushed out at the UK Port & then picked up....It broke it's back & was held together by the prop-shaft & not much else. £25000 of parts! Mind you the chassis must have been rotten as a pear, but the body looked lovely!!!
Apparently bought unseen/uninspected....caveat emptor in spades.
No experience of air freight (except on Rallies, where we did our own driving on & off (100 cars in an Antonov !!)

[Erich]

Thank you Ruairidh, I'll look forward to hearing what Tom has to say.

David, it always seems it is the dock staff who are the weak link. I had a shipment of canoes for our local club come from eastern Canada. They are pretty light, less than 50 pounds each. Two were nested together and arrived with forklift holes. It wasn't necessary to lift them with a forklift and certainly didn't help their water tightness to be pierced!

Erich

[David.H]

Thank you Ruairidh, I'll look forward to hearing what Tom has to say.

David, it always seems it is the dock staff who are the weak link. I had a shipment of canoes for our local club come from eastern Canada. They are pretty light, less than 50 pounds each. Two were nested together and arrived with forklift holes. It wasn't necessary to lift them with a forklift and certainly didn't help their water tightness to be pierced!

Erich

Not sure what can be done about it. At the risk of being sued their calling has a history of "pilferage" . I lost a pair of Cibie Super Oscars that were bolted to the front of a Cortina-Lotus from a locked container shipped from Sydney to London! Made it all the way through the Middle East & India, even through Australia (!) without a problem.....
Note. From a new arrival to this Forum to the thin skinned posters: this bit is a joke!
David