Dealing with all the hurdles of getting your vehicle through the Port of Vancouver
If you've every been to college or university, been a sports fan, or just about a fan of anything, I’m sure everyone’s played a drinking game or two with some ridiculous rules:
Take a shot every time Disney cranks out a new Marvel movie.
Take a shot every time someone memes , "Is that a Supra?"
Take a shot every time a Mustang owner wraps their car around a tree.
Take a shot every time Justin Trudeau sings the praises of the Carbon Tax.
Take a shot every time the Maple Leafs fail to make the playoffs.
You have to truly appreciate how BAD AI generated art can be on occasion
Let’s play a new game. Except this time, I won’t recommend alcohol; I’ll recommend Pepto-Bismol. And let's take a shot every time you’re delayed or slapped with an extra charge for importing your vehicle.
Consider this a Project 2.0 update.
Trust me, this is probably the most health-conscious version of a drinking game you’ll ever play. It might even save you from an ulcer or two.
Project 2.0: Getting your cars through customs
The good news is that the Toyota Crown has landed in Vancouver. The nightmare is that the Toyota Crown has landed in Vancouver and now has to navigate all the various and sundry difficulties of getting a car across the border. In this article, we’ll talk about exactly what you have to worry about in physically getting that car out of the port, onto a transport, and eventually on the road to wherever the hell you are in Canada.
So first things first—you have to deal with shipping from Japan. With any luck, you’ll have a competent freight shipping company associated with your auction representative in Japan.
These can change over time. Initially, when I was working with Japan Motor to get Project 1.0 (the RX7) over to Canada, they were working with Armacup, a well-known car shipper. Armacup surprised me in the worst way possible. When tracking my car from Japan to the Port of Nova Scotia, I noticed they did not stop in the Port of Nova Scotia and were somehow in Boston on the same day my car was scheduled to be in Halifax. I had to call Japan and found out they had handed off my car to a trans-shipper who then not only shipped my car from Boston to Halifax but also charged me an additional $150. More on this misadventure in my recap of Project 1.0 in a later article. Take a sip of Pepto if you're feeling antsy here
Moving on to Project 2.0, things have changed. As much as I would like it, Nova Scotia is no longer a port you can ship to. This means that for people in Ontario and Eastern provinces, you’re now looking at an extra $1,000. Shipping from Nova Scotia to Toronto was around $1,400 (circa 2022); shipping from Vancouver to Toronto is around $2,500 (2024) .
This time, we didn’t go with Armacup. Japan Motor shipped with Nissan (not the car company, the international shipping company). Their RORO (roll-on, roll-off) shipping got my car to the Port of Vancouver in about a month. That’s good, but there are more problems with that as well.
I’ll point out here that shipping companies won't actually inform you that your vehicle has arrived at its destination. This is where you may want to get a firm grip on that Pepto-Bismol for the gut-wrenching anxiety that’s sure to come next. However, you can sometimes track them with various apps and international ship tracking websites.
Several websites and platforms allow you to track the movement of ocean cargo ships. Here are some of the most popular ones:
MarineTraffic: This is one of the most widely used platforms for tracking marine vessels. It provides real-time data on the movements of ships, their destinations, and other details.
FleetMon: Offers live tracking of ships worldwide. You can access various vessel information and even historical data on ship movements.
VesselFinder: Provides real-time tracking of ships with detailed vessel information, including destinations, speed, and course.
Ship Finder: This is another platform that offers real-time tracking of ships globally. It has a user-friendly interface and provides detailed information on vessels.
MyShipTracking: This site provides real-time positions of ships worldwide and detailed vessel information, including past tracks and port calls.
MarineTraffic24: Provides real-time ship tracking and port arrivals and departures. It also offers additional features like weather conditions and vessel photos.
The people who will be reaching out to you are Canadian Border Services via email (GHY Free Trade) (Davidson & Sons) . But, there’s actually no way to contact Border Services directly. Moving at the speed of bureaucracy, they have their own processing times and delays. You may think you can call Border Services for answers (1-800-461-9999), but you’ll discover they have no real contact phone numbers for specific ports—even when you call their central number, which you’d assume would have the contact information! Sit back and grab another Pepto; it’s going to be a rough 48 hours.
First, you may be surprised to find that there are in fact two terminals in Vancouver which might receive your car for RORO shipping: Richmond and Annacis. Both of these ports are managed by Wallenius Wilhelmsen: Global Shipping & Logistic Solutions (often abbreviated to WWS). Wallenius Wilhelmsen (WW) is like the proverbial 'big fish' of car shipping at the Port of Vancouver, especially at the Annacis Auto Terminal. WW has teamed up with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority for the Annacis Auto Terminal Optimization Project: expanding rail yards, installing electric vehicle charging stations, and building a brand new vehicle processing facility (Port Vancouver) (Port Vancouver). Pretty much every Asian-made vehicle imported to Canada makes its grand debut through the Port of Vancouver, with Wallenius Wilhelmsen rolling them on and off. (BC Marine Terminals). There is also the Richmond terminal as well; also managed by WWS. More often than not, your shipping form won’t actually say which of these two ports have received the vehicle. This creates a problem when you’re trying to arrange pickup for your vehicle. Vehicle transportation companies (the ones who will be putting your cars on some type of car carrier) need to know which port they’re picking the car up from and when. Sip, sip, sip...
This is where things get even trickier. You have a couple of moving pieces to keep your eye on:
CBSA: The Canadian Border Services Agency will eventually process your car and send you an email (assuming your information is the contact info provided on the bill of lading and other importation documentation).
Your Customs Broker: They will negotiate and fill out all the paperwork to get your car out of customs and need to get this information from the CBSA (GHY Free Trade) (Davidson & Sons) (BorderBrokers).
WWS: They will hold your car for 10 days (counting weekends) without charge, and then charge you $85 per day starting from the 11th day (Davidson & Sons).
Your Vehicle Shipping Company: They need to pick up your car once it has cleared customs.
All in all, it might not seem like a difficult process until you realize all the dancing that’s going on in the background, and those 10 days disappear fast! Case in point: Project 2.0, the Toyota Crown. Glug, glug, glug,...
Take a shot of Pepto every time _______.
The Toyota Crown landed in Vancouver in early June 2024. WWS's website mentions it will take typically between 24 to 48 hours to process the car (kiss two days goodbye—take one shot of Pepto). Then CBSA needs to send you an email which will subsequently have to be sent to your customs broker. The broker then requires time to clear your car with customs and pay the associated fees - which, of course, they need from you. Factor in time for your e-transfer and another Pepto shot. Also, assume there’s a weekend in the middle of all this, and no one’s checking emails or working on a weekend for you. Minus two more days; plus one more Pepto.
Then, once all this is said and done and you know which port your car is at, you can reach out to your vehicle transportation company, send them all the relevant documentation, and tell them which port they can pick the car up from. If it’s a slow week, great, they have room on their car transports. If not, you’re waiting until they have an open spot… which I am… which will be beyond the 10 free days of storage. At this point, you might as well just down the rest of the bottle. Oh and they will pick up your vehicle.... That is, if they’re willing to ship an uncertified car. Feel free to crack open a new bottle if you have one.
"Wait a second," I hear you say, "what do you mean uncertified? Your car was certified for RORO shipping."
"Correct."
"It just arrived in Canada, so it certainly cannot be certified to Ministry of Transport standards."
Again, "Correct."
And this is where you might encounter one of the biggest problems. Is your vehicle transportation company willing to move your vehicle without said certification? This is something you may encounter with a standard towing service as well.
Do we have any Pepto left?
In Project 1.0, I was working with a different shipping company: Hansen's Forwarding. It was coming from Japan, and there didn’t seem to be any issues with them moving it from Nova Scotia to Toronto. They knew it was RORO certified, and we had no problems with it.
Speaking with them again this year, but with a different agent, they mentioned that it needed to be certified and that I would have to contact a vehicle towing service in Vancouver to take it to a garage in Vancouver for certification (Clearit) (Davidson & Sons). Only then would they be able to transport it across Canada.
I said that was not really an option, and they recommended a different shipping company: TFX International. Reaching out to TFX, they said it was no problem! So now I’ll be shipping all my cars with TFX. If you have already started on another bottle, I won’t blame you
And that will get my car out of Vancouver. Just wait till it gets to Toronto!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to Shopper's Drug Mart. I seem to be all out of Pepto-Bismol**. ~ the Dream
**And no, Pepto-Bismol has not been offering me any endorsements for this article, though I’m entirely open to the prospect! :)
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