Submitted by Trevor Dawber
As per usual, some whom I contacted didn’t respond, for reasons unknown. There are more out there as well, but, as I found, when you say “Shipping” you will get land-based companies too, so be sure to include the words “ocean” or “sea” in your request for information.
My time frame was a little premature, also. I started sending out inquiries in October and November for a late April or early May sailing. To be honest that was too soon. January or February would have been early enough.
The following entities were contacted; I had excellent initial response from Sefco; K-line; Wilenius Wilhelmsen, and Samericaxplorer. The rest were not what I wanted or didn’t acknowledge further e-mails.
www.sefco-export.com; info@sefco-export.com. Initial response very good but, as I found in the end, they gave me misinformation; but I completed the contract with them.
www.wilhelmsen.com. TrevorVonKaenel@Wilhelmsen.com. They work in conjunction with www.2wglobal.com (routes); pricingamericas@2wglobal.com (main office) and LuisRamalho@2wglobal.com (South America office). Initially a good response but eventually stopped being responsive.
www.kline.com conner.Meehan@us.kline.com (sales rep in US) kam-roro-sales@us.kline.com. Again, initially good response but eventually faded out and heard no more from them.
www.samericaxplorer.net; Gaston Etchart was my contact. Initial response was excellent but unlike the good reports I’d read on forums, for me this guy didn’t deliver; I never received a quote for any of my routes and after my last e-mail inquiry heard nothing more.
www.freightcalculator.com (how to calculate)
Once you have decided on a shipper (Sefco in our case), you only need a month or so as the quote is only valid for 30 days. Our booking was finally confirmed on March 26, shipping by Sefco on a K-line ship. I did have to pay a deposit (minimum USD$500) before booking was initiated, with the remaining balance payable before the vehicle is headed to the docks. If booked directly through K-line it would have been payable in Jacksonville.
Sefco is a freight forwarder and wouldn’t do anything without at least a deposit. Their cost for shipping was the best quote I got at around $3000. However when I received the bill of lading the actual cost of shipping was around $2169 (Kline costs) so their costs were $800. Plus, the aide they put me onto in Buenos Aires charged me $725, which included his costs of $150, the Buenos Aires customs broker $75, and $500 for port charges. The port charges were originally $600, which I balked at; he dropped that very quickly by saying he would speak to the port. I suspect but can’t prove that the port charges were somewhat lower. I did try to contact the port prior to his visit for the THC charges etc but no replies. I am again convinced the port charges should have been lower!!!
I now believe the best way to do this is to book through K-line (or the shipping company and their own agents). You can take the custom forms yourself to Buenos Aires Customs office (cannot do it from Zarate); in fact I think you can e-mail copies as that is all they need, but our man in Buenos Aires was vague about where the offices were. (I’m sure one could be easily found.) The port of Zarate, although large is easy to find and the guys on the gates are very helpful; the main customs gate is the first gate you come to on reaching the port. If the customs broker has done his job a customs officer meets you at the gate and escorts you to the port Aduana office, where you hand in the original temporary permit and hand over the keys. No customs inspection is done. That’s it — done. All you have to do then is hope it gets loaded and arrives where you were told they are sending it!!!
I was fed quite a lot of duff initially by Sefco and the USA customs which I have recently found out is not true. Sefco informed me I had to file an ISF+2 form conveying a power of attorney to import via ocean shipping, presumably because we are British citizens; they even give you web references on the USA customs site about this. I made inquiries to this site but never had any replies. This problem took 3 weeks to settle, and delayed confirming a shipping date.
(Where we are staying at present in Boston one of our hosts is a shipping customs officer in the Boston area and she told us as long as the vehicle is fully titled you can do everything yourself — no POA, no ISF+2 form, etc. We were again taken for a ride. If we’d known it would be this much hassle we would have shipped into South America and driven up!
The RV arrived in Jacksonville in good order, and was released to us without problems. We paid a total of $445 at the port, for various handling fees. We used Pride International Customs Broker Jamie Lee Cox, who was unhelpful and next to useless; they were arranged for by Sefco. The only part of this we really did appreciate was $60 for the escort who accompanies you through the gate and shepherds you around to go through the various parts of picking up your vehicle. He was great! If hiring a broker really is mandatory, pick carefully.