Hi all

I had a nightmare getting my car into Russia. First the shipping company decided to deliver the car a week late, then the car was stuck in customs for a further week, so that was 2 weeks gone from my visa which the PVU refused to extend - welcome to Russia. I had to pay over 800 USD local charges when bringing the car into Russia and only 300 USD of this was avoidable.

This was partly the fault of Customs and partly that of the shipping company in Bangkok (Seaswift). To begin with, Seaswift did not bother to check what details were needed on the Bill of Lading. Consequently they omitted to put the engine or chassis numbers, or the contents of the car. The consequence of this was that Customs charged USD200 to 'inspect' the car to check the engine and chassis numbers corresponded to those on my registration documents. A further insult (this may not be totally the fault of Seaswift) came when I was charged USD 100 customs duty for the contents of the car because I'd failed to declare them at Vladivostok airport. I am reliably informed that no other foreign overland travellers have had this problem, so suspect this issue may be Vladivostok Customs making the rules up as they go along. An indication of the calibre of these people came when one of them looked at my immigration card. Russia and Belarus use the same immigration cards, and the names Russia and Belarus appear side by side at the top of the cards. This customs woman thought I was using the wrong immigration card because it said 'Belarus' at the top!

Nevertheless, Seaswift's errors with the BL cost me more money than anything else, and if I was still in Thailand - or if they were in the UK - I would have sued them.

So for your own sakes - if you're shipping a vehicle to Vladivostok
1) ensure the engine or chassis numbers and the contents of the vehicle are on the Bill of Lading
2) declare the contents of the vehicle upon arrival at Vladivostok airport.

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