Loco Shipping

[monkeyhero97]

Hi there all
I have just bought a locomotive from South Africa, mainly due to price. The loco was a lot cheaper than anything I could have imagined in europe, and not only that it was well built. We had worked shipping out, a friend was going to send it from his company and get coporate rates, only we did something wrong payment wise and DHL will not handle my crate . So I am wondering, do any of you have any experince with quick, easy and cheap courrier services? DHL express as opposed to air freight is a whopping 4 times for expensive, or in other the whole saving I made on the loco
Cheers
Marc

[heronsgate]

Some years ago a good friend of ours in Ontario Canada passed away. He was building a five inch gauge'Brit' On a visit a year after his demise we purchased said locomotive, partly built with a whole host of other bits, including unmachined castings etc for the tender. We placed in in the care of UPS at Barrie on the Tuesday, we flew home to the UK on the Wednesday and the three packing cases arrived at my garden gate around mid day on the Friday. Okay it did cost a fair bit but their service was great and the care taken was second to none. I would certainly use them again despite the cost. Oh and returning it all by sea would have cost almost the same and taken about three months at the quickest.

[Rob]

I worked for DHL for a few years, so I find it odd that they won't sort out whatever went wrong with your payment, perhaps you should get your friend to speak to their sales rep?

Things may have changed since I worked for them, but Express is air freight. The alternative being road freight, which is considerably cheaper. Road freight would then be shipped by boat. 

It might be worth looking at a freight forwarder, as they're often able to get better rates than if you go directly to a courier, as they may pass on some of their contract discount to the customer. 

[monkeyhero97]

Hi there
The problem is this : my third party/ friend is SA has been amazing and organised the sale, package. He works for a company which regulary ships iteam across the globe so he was going to get the Air Freight Shipping, reserve for companies. But of course I did not know this. So, when they asked for a commercial invoice, we had nothing so DHL quick rightly refused to take it. DHL Express could get my loco here in the same time ( I have a deadline for it being at mine on the 9th Oct) but at a price of 18,000 Rand, or almost the same price as I paid for my loco, thus eliminating the saving and more importantly something I cannot afford. The quote I had before was of course the coprate rate on, of 5000 ZAR
Marc

[arron]

Hello

With my business I send machine parts to various counties, I now usually use TNT, never had any problems.

I have an account with them but sometimes find their 'TNT Direct' website gives a cheaper price than I get quoted via my account.

Your deadline is tight, just be careful that you don't pay extra to get it here and then have it held in customs. My experience with trying to rush shipments is that it seems to invite delays.


May we ask what the loco is?

[ejparrott]

It's his Simplex

[Rob]

I'll mention my disclaimer again, as it has been a few years, but air freight isn't just reserved for companies.

It's more likely that the lack of an invoice is an issue for customs. The shipment falls under the WPX shipment type, which must have an invoice to accompany it. It should be no bother to make up an invoice of what is supplied and it's value for customs purposes, and i'm fairly sure they'll take it. We used to write up proforma invoices for non-commercial international shipments for customs purposes all the time!

Of course, if non EU international shipments came in without an invoice, we'd refuse them too, I think that's the most likely scenario for what has happened here.

[weary]

Check with your original shipper (DHL?) for clarification.
If what they require is a pro-forma invoice for customs clearance purposes you (or your sender) can create this yourself.

A pro-forma invoice is basically a legal declaration of value.

There are lots of examples on-line - just search * pro-forma invoice example * or similar wording. Some word-processing programs have them 'built-in' to the program as one of the 'forms'. Your vendor should be able to give you a sales invoice in the unlikely event that the carrier says this is required, but pro-forma should do the job for this shipment.

Any local airfreight or international shipping (shipping = carriage in this case) company at point of despatch should be able to give you a quote and estimated delivery time.

Can someone responsible for shipping in your friend's company not simply create a commercial invoice for you? 'Selling you the goods' as a purely paper transaction. You would be due any taxes and duties upon arrival of course.

Regards,

Phil

[monkeyhero97]

Just FYI to all. I have manage to contact a freight forwarder in Geneva, who has given me a quote which I have accepted. It should be with me next week for a price of 600£ including all custom taxes
Marc