[AusNOG] Sensitive Freight Shipping

[John Edwards]

"Uni student with a suitcase" is not really an apples-for-apples
comparison for "40 years experience as the benchmark for international
shipping".

Shipping internationally may require knowledge of laws, tariffs,
taxes, insurance, politics and commercial environments in at least two
jurisdictions. Who even knows what terms like Carnet or Cabotage mean,
without running to wikipedia. Do you know if a router vendor in a
destination country is lobbying against "grey market" imports?

Even when you painstakingly research all the laws and prepare all of
the paperwork, you're still at the mercy of a customs agent who might
be having a bad day at the front of a long queue, or who voted for the
guy who got prime-time screening by insisting that
routers-in-suitcases are a threat to a country's way of life. There
will not be anyone at the passenger airport terminal who is qualified
to approve the importation of a piece of high-tech kit. Best case
scenario in that event is that your equipment is seized and you need
to find a freight-forwarder who will vouch for you (hope you bought
your student a flexible return ticket).

International freight companies de-risk this operation, and keep you
from appearing on episodes of "border security".

Plan B - tell them it's old desktop computer parts for a relative of a friend ;)

John


On 15 January 2015 at 11:11, Mark Newton <newton at atdot.dotat.org> wrote:
>
> On Jan 14, 2015, at 6:27 PM, Damian Guppy <the.damo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> FedEx like to promote how they have a 'sensitive freight' division and cite them sending a whale or something internationally to prove their credentials.
>
>
> Fedex is too expensive. I used them to send an ASR1006 to Japan years ago; The Fedex price was more expensive than a return airfare with the ASR in checked baggage.
>
> If you’re a freight company billing so expensively that it’s cheaper to hire a uni student for a few days to courier your equipment, you’re doing it wrong.
>
>   -  mark
>
>
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