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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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
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.