Who should I go with. There car is coming from The UK. I want a fair
price, but want if in one undamaged piece. Any red flags to look for.
I have done it a couple of times the other way: 1953 coupe from
USA to Finland / Sweden -even picked one Hawk from UK myself.
hhat I have learned is to avoid so called Ro-Ro vessels which
are mainly used for new car transportation ( also for newer used
cars) It is safer to have your car loaded into either a 20 foot
container or to ship in a shared 40 feet container with 1-2 other
cars. The company handling the loading of the container should have
experience how to load old cars - otherwise some things may not
go as planned. Same goes with unloading...
There are companies that do more the other way - from US ports to
Sweden or UK and so on. But they tend to have reliable contacts
in the US ports as well.
I know that a company in Sweden is shipping a 4-digit figure of
old American classics from various ports to Sweden. ( I used them once
a couple of years ago to have my former 1953 coupe shipped from
N.Y.)to Sweden/Finland. If you want I can send you the contact
information. ( They have a network covering also UK and they ship
also cars from Europe to various US destinations.)
Pekka from Helsinki
midlant@earthlink.net - 08 Sep 2006 00:30 GMT
Some container brokers / shippers will pack the container with other
goods, like small packages. This can result in a discount for you or a
hidden added profit for the shipper, depending upon if you know it's
done.
One guy ebejn got a doublre-drcker bus over here for free, by packing
the bys with small packages, I hear.
Will you be there to meet it?
Karl
> I have done it a couple of times the other way: 1953 coupe from
> USA to Finland / Sweden -even picked one Hawk from UK myself.
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Pekka from Helsinki
> Who should I go with. There car is coming from The UK. I want a fair
> price, but want if in one undamaged piece. Any red flags to look for.
20 years ago I bought three cars, the remains of a wrecked late '64 Avanti,
the NOS R-3 and R-4 engines and a bunch of spares from a man in Birmingham,
England. He packed everything in two ocean containers and arranged a
shipping agent on his end. I found an international freight forwarder at
the Port of Baltimore who arranged the receipt of everything including going
through customs (he told them the stuff was US origin and they signed off
without even looking). Except for an aggravating decision by the ocean
carrier, everything went smooth as silk- no damage or shortages. This was
in spite being loaded at Cork, Ireland, trucked to Waterford, loaded on a
small container ship which took them to Hamburg, Germany where they were
re-loaded on a larger container ship which crossed the North Atlantic in the
winter (rough). The ship was supposed to bring the containers to Baltimore
where my freight forwarder would hold them for me to unload at his facility
about 35 miles from me. The ship decided it didn't have enough cargo for
Baltimore so they dropped the containers at Norfolk and hired truckers to
bring them to Baltimore. The truckers wouldn't leave the containers so the
freight forwarder had to unload them into his warehouse. I was in South
America while this was going on. However, everything was fine.
So, you might try to line up an international freight forwarder at the port
you intend to use. Let them deal with the shipment. It might cost you a
little more, but that is what they do and they know how to do it. For one,
marine insurance is MUCH different from land or air shipments and it
requires special expertise to handle.
Go for it.
Paul Johnson