Terms and conditions of vehicle’s transportation from USA

After the purchase of Your vehicle from the UStook place, the process of its delivery to the desirable destination begins.

For simplification of this process understanding, it could be divided into several stages:

• Vehicle’s transportation from the seller (from the purchase place) on the US
• Consolidation in port, parking.
• Loading it in the container.
• Transportation by sea.
• Transportation from the arrival port to the final destination.
• Unloading and customs registration.

1) Vehicle’s transportation from the seller (from the purchase place) on the US territory.

Transportation of medium size and big freights is very developed in the US. On land a purchased vehicle is being transported to its final destination by transportation companies, that use rack cars (trucks), or by individual carriers.
The carrier company, which helps the customer purchase and deliver the vehicle, signs the transportation contract and pays for the vehicle’s transportation from the seller to the port or wearhouse, where will be taking place consolidation and loading in a container.
At the moment, when the carrier’s driver is picking up vehicle from the auction or the seller, the Bill of Lading is being written and signed, where all the vehicle’s significant defects are specified, along with any damage (if there is any), mileage etc. This document is signed by both parties.

2) Consolidation in port, parking.

The most convenient and worry free method of vehicle’s delivery from the USto Europeand other countries is the sea transportation. The carriers, who pick up the purchased vehicle from the seller or from the auction, deliver it to the consolidation platforms near port.

Consolidation – concentration of vehicles, which suppose to be compacted and loaded to one container. So consolidation is performed on such closed, protected wearhouses. There are special parking areas/lots, boxes for car safety from various factors of influence, the equipment for loading cars to the container that can be found on such consolidation wear houses.

By the customer’s request on these parking wearhouses employees can take pictures of vehicles. This is made for the reason of tracking the vehicle’s current state and condition before loading it to the container and its transportation by sea.

3) Car loading in the container.

Transportation of freights in containers is a trusted and favorable transportation method. It is possible to transport not only cars in these containers, but any other vehicles and equipment: motorcycles, water scooters, small boats, snowmobiles, etc.

As a rule, for cars transportations 40 feet containers are used, that can fit three average size sedans. If it is big jeeps or really expensive cars, then cars are loaded on two, or in an individual container of the smaller size (20 feet), but it would cost more.

For car loading to the container, there is a special carrier that is coming on the platform with empty container. In the process of loading itself several people and a fork lift are involved.

By the rules of this transportation method, all the liquids should be merged out from the vehicle and all the plugs of accumulators should be turned off.

For a damaged car safety it is often met that the wheels are removed, and also on the regions of hood and roof special rugs are sticked, antennas and spoilers are taken off, etc. (all the part will be placed inside the car). Cars, that can actually run, are driven inside the container. The damaged cars and those without wheels are placed in by the fork lift. Inside the container cars are attached to the floor by wooden boards and high quality beams.

The car that is loaded on the very top of the container is attached by winches on special fastenings in the container’s ceiling. Besides that, winch fastens to the nave of the car, which is put on the wooden beams and then secures by four winches, every single one of each can hold up to one ton.

The car at the very bottom is attached by the wooden pads that are fastened to the floor.

This technique is checked by years and is used everywhere.

Big cars don’t fit in the container in two floors therefore one of them remains on the floor, and other platform is inclined over it, on which the other car is fastened.

After a full load of the container it is transported to the port, where it is overloaded on the cargoship, which delivers it to the destination.

During the loading of vehicles into containers, export documents are prepared for the USAcustoms. The main document is the consignment (Bill of Lading), in which the sender and the consignee are specified, and also the freight is described in details (for cars it is the VIN code, its weight, etc.). Besides that the container’s number, booking and other information is specified in it as well.

4) Container’s transportation by sea.

Shipping by sea plays an important role in international transportation system.

Sea vessels sail from the USAweekly, and sail from big ports several times per week.

In the sea transportation domain there is a document called Booking, where the following information is specified: container’s number, exact time of its delivery to the port of destination and other data that is used for control of delivery.

Before loading on the ship all containers pass so-called distribution in the port terminal. It means that a special computer is distributing containers to their specific place on the ship of each container, depending on its weight. This distribution, set by computer, cannot be changed under any circumstances, because for safe transportation the sea vessel needs to have an ideal balance.

Container carriers depart from the East cost of the US. Average duration of the sea transportation takes 1,5-3 weeks. Many of them go to the German sea port called Bremerhaven. It is capable to accept ocean vessels, what is very convenient for further distribution of freights, if Bremerhavenis not their final destination. For example, sea ports like Kotka (Finland), Klaipeda(Lithuania) and Riga(Latvia) aren’t capable to accept large-size vessels, but at the same time they accept lots of medium-size and small-size carriers.

5) Car transportation on land to the final destination.

From the last port of arrival to its final destination the car can be delivered several ways:

• on a car truck;
• on the container carrier;
• by rail;
• by its own self.

Car truck is the cheapest method of car’s delivery. It represents a vehicle that consists of the tractor and the trailer. A regular car truck can fit up to 8 cars, and some of the models can even fit up to 10 cars. For car’s transportation it is unloaded from a container and is loaded to the trailer.

Delivery by the container carrier is done without car’s unloading from it. Container carrier is similar to a car truck, but it only tows the other type of trailer, on which the container is entirely loaded at the port.

Delivery by rail is usually done only for long or very long distances.

Delivery of a car that can run by itself is another method of car’s transportation, but if the other methods, listed above, are available, it is often inexpedient to use it.

6) Unloading and customs registration.

The process of cars unloading from a container that was delivered by the container carrier to the final destination country borders is performed by special Temporary Storage Warehouse workers. This warehouse represents a platform by the customs registration office.  If delivery was done, using the car truck method, the unloading is performed by the driver or, by customer’s request, the vehicles could be taken to the borders of the nearest populated locality without taking the cars of the car truck. It is the best way to deliver damaged cars and the cars that cannot run by themselves.

The unloaded vehicles are undergoing the customs check according to the documents presented by the customer/owner or by an authorized representative. It is often met that the authorized representative is the company that is providing services of vehicles purchasing from the US.

After the information and vehicle’s document are checked, the vehicle is listed in the database along with registration of all customs duties payments, the owner/representative gets the final document, that proves customs clearance and that gives the right to the vehicle to enter the country’s territory.