Hello Folks

Today I decided to contact my Customs broker in he UK (the rep I had been working with ) to follow up on some questions I had with no replies over the last 20 or so days.

I had emailed him again on the friday before and when I walked in to the office this morning, I still had no reply. Time to make a phone call.

Once I reached someone and asked about the person I had been speaking with over the last few months, I was informed that he was now on extended leave.

I inquired if the information I had sent over was in the system and if everything was oK ? It was not there and I was suggested to resend it all again.

I now have someone who is taking care of the file in the gentleman's absence, and will hopefully take care of things as they need be.

So just a word of caution to everyone.

Dont assume anything ! Check ,recheck and if you think its perfect, check it all once again.

Its the mantra I use here at work when fixing aircraft instruments, and for reasons involving Murphy's law, I try to use when doing anything major in life.

the Hilux gets left at the Halifax docks next weekend, and hopefully gets loaded on the ship later that week bound for Liverpool.(I will checking on that as well )

Fingers crossed |!!!

Paulo

I wish you a smooth start for your journey!

Surfy

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Trans-Africa over the west coast

Honestly I'd be concerned about working with a customs broker where the guy could just take off on extended leave without some organized process for handing over all the projects he's working on. Customs stuff is all about attention to detail, and they aren't doing well on that score if they dropped your whole file.

I agree with you, but thats why its better to check,because........Murphy.

In life, in general, I find emails to be a waste of time……..missed, ignored, forgotten about.
Talking registers something in our brains, it’s what sets us apart from the rest of the animal world.

The saga continues:


So after battling a late winter storm to get the truck to the docks in Halifax for the 21st of March to make the cutoff date and time, I arrive at 9.00AM and was greeted with a sour pair of gate guards who tell me that due to a late arrival of one of the ships, the docks were full and they could not accept any deliveries today!

After explaining that I have no other plans available and that I need to take the airplane back home,(not loosing my at these two was one of the hardest things I had ever done, but I quickly decided that if I didnt try my best to be a nice guy, they would have simply told me to go pound sand)they decide to make a call and see if they can work something out, after several conversations with folks about paperwork and where to park,I am finally able to leave the vehicle in the yard and make my way to the airport for my flight home.I picked up my internal organs off the floor on the way out.


Yesterday I arrive at the office,and once checking my emails, one from the shipping company !

They now advise me that the originally booked ship has decided to skip Halifax on this voyage,and now my truck will leave on the later ship due to arrive 2 days later, but will get to Liverpool only on the 10th of April .

I have changed my flight to the UK (more money spent), cancelled my AirBnB reservation (Partial refund, more money spent!) and of course I really have no idea if the truck will actually sail on that date (fingers crossed).

I have emailed the insurance company about changing the dates of the policy and they were fine with that (So far they have been excellent, Tourinsure ) and suggested we wait until the truck is actually on the ship and then they will adjust per my needs. That's excellent customer service.

I will advise the broker that the truck is now only due to arrive on the 10/11 of April and so it will hopefully be released while I am on the flight over .Again finger crossed.

I don't want to put you off, but have a plan for more delays.

The global economy is ****ed. Plague, war and famine etc. The whole Just-in-time globalised house of cards came down which means everyone is panic shipping stuff as they can. A box of ten widgets is just as much work for customs as a container load. Everyone sending one box a day instead of a container load a month means they can't keep up.

Add to this a complete failure to plan for BREXIT. The UK has a massive shortage of experienced customs brokers and a long list of burnt out ones on the sick.

EU to UK customs clearance at inland locations is currently taking anything from a day to week, it should be 4 hours.

There is plenty to see in Liverpool.

Andy

The twenty miles of stationary trucks on the motorway to Dover and the French immigration kiosk there where they only speak French would suggest you may be right. What a mess. One car every five minutes was getting through. No wonder P&O went bust, nobody is getting on the boats

Hi Guys

I cant say I planned for this, but im trying to roll with the punches, what else can we really do.

I know I am at the mercy of the shipping company at this point, so I am going to stay flexible and see what happens over the next few days.

I have cancelled my AirBnB, I wont worry about that for now, if the car leaves on the 28th, then I blast off the 11th of April, if it gets pushed back, I will reset my flight and try to have the event I was planning to attend hold the money I have paid and use it for another event later in the year vs requesting a refund that would be likely less than what I spent.

I am not going to get flustered, there are many problems around the world right now,and my crappy little trip is not a global concern to anyone. I accept that.

So perhaps no big tour and sightseeing this time around, as long as the world doesnt blow itself up, most things will still be here next time around (hopefully myself included !)

Things like this are why I would not "invest" in some mega overland rig where ive put most of my eggs in that one basket. This was a "surplus" vehicle to me,now dont get me wrong,I like my little truck, but my costs are very low into it, and for the time being I am likening it to a cheap no name brand tool vs a high end snap on version.

When it gets to the other side of the globe,I will retrieve it and do what I can for now,and return at a later date to do some more.

Chin up!

Paulo

An alternative is to start your trip as planned and adjust it to whatever circumstances develop on the ground. I've seen people buy and ride bikes locally while they waited for their sea shipment to arrive ("Oh look: today it's in Hong Kong! Guess I'll head for Iguazu!"), and I've reverted to my old backpacker ways while I waited for warranty repairs to an engine that exploded.

The question is what's more important: taking a trip, or taking exactly the trip you envisioned? I usually opt for the former, and I'd definitely have made this decision before consigning my bike to a sea shipment, even prior to the pandemic chaos.

Don't know if that applies, but I hope it's helpful.

Update news:

As of early this morning,I am told that my truck is on the water heading across the Atlantic .

So now all I have to worry about is time/speed/distance ect and how smooth the unloading and collecting of the Toyota will be once it lands in the UK,hopefully on the 10/11 of April.

So what they say is true.

Dont be too rigid in your planning,....roll with the punches,...........keep a calm head !

I usually fail miserably in all three.................

I always tell folks, "its costs money to go to school" , so this is simply a new life lesson, which may one day allow me to parcel out this knowledge to someone looking for advise ,.......... and still watch it all go pear shaped !

Cheers,

Paulo

Don't be too hard re "BREXIT" - they had only 4 years to plan....

Don't get me going on this....

Having flexibility is key - even pre-pandemic (2019) our vehicle was delivered to Brisbane later than originally scheduled (10 days later if I recall correctly) because the boat changed its route to go to Melbourne and they had to transship the container via Sydney... We rented in Brisbane and explored the national parks while waiting.

When we went to Iceland last year for 5 weeks' camping we had a Bogotá-New York-Bogotá ticket, and a New York-Reykjavik-New York ticket. When boarding the flight to Reykjavik they said "you are aware that you'll not be allowed to return to the USA, because Iceland is a Schengen country?" (even though the total Covid-19 cases through the entire pandemic was less than the average day's cases in New York). Oops! Change of plans - returned home via London and Madrid, and with luck may use the return New York-Bogotá ticket this month for a brief trip home from Canada.

Plan B, C, etc., are good to have; willingness to come up with completely different tactics is also key these days.

star date: 23669922 whatever!

New update, the truck will at best arrive in the UK on the night of the 12th of April, that only gives me 2 days to actually get the truck out before the port shuts for the 4 day weekend! (15,16,17,18)

It has not actually docked anywhere yet (Germany tomorrow morning ?) so if there are delays in the next 4 stops, I'm sort of cooked!

My hard date was to be in Portugal for the 19th for an event,but what can you do, hope that everyone makes it all happen for me,

I have purchased a Eurotunnel ticket for the 15th (it says I can change it to sooner or later ?) and im quite sure I can get there in 4 or 5 days (no sightseeing ) but again nothing can be done about that.

Travel in 2022!

Cheers,

Paulo

Quick update.

It all worked out in the end.

My fab Customs Broker in the UK along with the shipping company all did the very best to get the vehicle off the boat, customs cleared and ready for me to pickup on the 14th of April.

My concern was I had not even paid the broker for the "work" prior to picking up the vehicle, when I called they told me,"dont worry about it, just pay us when you have time to get a proper internet connection" How cool is that ?

Every person I used on this saga really came through in the end, the truck was released on time, I made it through France and Spain to arrive in Portugal the 19th and ready to start the event on the 20th !

And it was am amazing event !,please do yourselves a favor and check out ocaminhonmaislongo.com

Its an impressive amount of work and organisation that goes into it, and it was all well over the top as far as I am concerned.

Cant wait to get back t my truck and the next leg of the adventure..........

Paulo

Glad that everything went fine!

The website doesnt exists, tell me the browser, probably you can write too the full link :-)

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast