Shipping to Canada

[bobofthenorth]

We used to buy some used fertilizer application equipment from a bandit in Choteau, Montana.  It started out simple - ag equipment pretty well walked through the crossing but after 9-11 it all changed.  One time I got a call from my driver.  He was in the little office at Sweetgrass and they were working him over hard.  He said "you better talk to this guy" and put the Border Services dude on.  The first words out of his mouth were "Is this unit stolen?"  Its hard to know what to say - other than the obvious - at that moment.  It took about a week to sort that one out.  Eventually it turned out that our used equipment salesman had transposed two digits in the serial number.  I guess maybe you could come up with a scenario where you would use a high floatation truck as an instrument of terror but I'm having trouble thinking how that would work.

[Seangie]

One of the companies I work for uses a shipping broker.  Its not expensive and they answer all the questions and fill out all the forms you need for shipments crossing the border.  Its worth it to get a broker if you are shipping something thats costing you a few pennies to get it there.

-Sean

Wandering the country in a 1984 Eagle 10S. 
www.herdofturtles.org

[Oonrahnjay]

If you think those items are fun. Try heavy equipment.
Just moving over the boarder is a problem.
Much less if it is being sold from one country to the other
I'm not even going to get into shipping from one country to the other to make the port and go over seas
Man I remember the old days.
You can not touch it like that now 

      Yep, Orville.  You and I had a pretty similar experience.  Back when I was a useful, productive, appreciated citizen (before I got to be fodder for dem Gummint Death Panels), I was in charge of logistics for moving everything (cars, test equipment, spare parts, tools, etc.) for Cold Weather Testing for Land Rover at Timmins, Ontario.  Of course, of things that scale, you have to have a broker/agent but still is was an administrative nightmare.  I'd spend three weeks getting lists of things made, then we'd ship and I'd go to Timmins and it would take two hours to get the power turned on in the shop, get the water bill set up, get a long-range radio company to install radios in the cars, and get a fuel account set up at the truck stop across the street.
      But it was always the little things.  We'd get six cars in three shipping containers and I'd just show up at the truck terminal, give the papers to the Customs guy from Customs Canada, and unload.  But woe upon us if they decided to put a new tune in an engine ECM and ship that to us by Fed-Ex -- papers would have to get passed back and forth 6-8 times, not counting the Fed-Ex stuff for when Customs Canada told them to ship it back and we had to stop it and reroute it to get it redelivered.
      And all this was before 911, too.

[eagle19952]

be thankful that the Railroad wasn't involved....

[Oonrahnjay]

be thankful that the Railroad wasn't involved....

     For me it was, but the last 500 miles was by truck so we were pretty much isolated from it.  Thank goodness.

[4104SoFl]

I guess it's the old saying "If it was easy everyone would do it"

[yvan]

Just to console everyone shipping into the USA is just s much a pain, I import and export products, lets just say my customs broker is on my Christmas card list and gets her car washed for free whenever she wants, a good customs broker is like a good bus mechanic, you cherish and respect them.

[luvrbus]

LOL I should have hired someone I guess but when you are giving away the parts for free it makes no sense

[Nineforever]

I use Manitoulin Transport excellent for cross border shipping going either way  very fast    example : Yellowknife N,T to Detroit MI  70 lbs 5 days 290.00 they look after all the paperwork excellent to deal with .

[Paso One]

I guess it's the old saying "If it was easy everyone would do it"

Orville  These people intentionally make it difficult it's "job security "

Our business had at least 10 cross border shipments per week and we used a broker as it was a business expense.

But the skill level requires only the ability to work the confusion created

[bobofthenorth]

What Paul said - its not rocket surgery.  Its just a matter of putting the right words and numbers in the right boxes on the right form.  But the dude at the border desk knows that (a) he knows more about the paperwork than you do and (b) the broker knows WAY more than he does.  So if something goes crosswise with the form you fill out its going to come back to the border dude's desk and you'll be long gone.  If something goes crosswise with the broker's work it can go back to the broker.  Which choice would you prefer if you were standing behind the counter?  I've found if you cross at some little backwoods place where they're bored out of their minds 99% of the time they'll help you fill out the forms just because it gives them something to do.  Sweetgrass or Pembina - not so much.

[Oonrahnjay]

I use Manitoulin Transport excellent for cross border shipping going either way  very fast    example : Yellowknife N,T to Detroit MI  70 lbs 5 days 290.00 they look after all the paperwork excellent to deal with .   

     Yep.  They hauled the containers with cars in them from the railroad to Timmins for us.  Picked up the containers on the container-flatbed, their guy checked with Customs Canada, the driver showed up with forms in his hand, we gave the Customs guy his paperwork and mine -- and Customs Guy would shake his head OK and we'd get to work unloading.  They know what they're doing.

[Iceni John]

Too bad that a case of good Scotch whisky is not part of NAFTA's border-crossing technique.   When I worked for an international removals (that's Brit-speak for Moving & Storage) company we discovered that when one of our trucks full of some diplomat's or military officer's household and personal effects was en route to somewhere behind the then Iron Curtain, having a case of good Scotch whisky in the back of the truck next to its roll-up door definitely speeded up the otherwise-interminable process of getting through Eastern European borders.   If one or two bottles of Scotch lubricated each border's bureaucracy, then so be it.   Sometimes even a TIR placard didn't help, but whisky usually worked.   Even so, it still sometimes took a day or two to get through some borders.   At least you don't have to use Cyrillic script on your documentation to get into Canada, eh?

John   

[eagle19952]

ahhh Whiskey...the international currency...

During the early heydey of the pipeline, line haulers carried whiskey and traded it for tires, the tiremen traded it for money....the oil companies absorbed it.