How do you ship a car to Russia?...

How do you ship a car to Russia?... With a lot of help from people who know more about this stuff than you do, and a dash of stress.

It's me, Cassie, typing up this blog post. Officially my first post for the epic TwoMagadan trip. Some might say it's about time I contributed something to this blog and the trip. I shrug in their general direction. I have been quietly doing my little bit towards this trip behind the scenes. I think my realm of capabilities are in dealing with the paperwork side of things. So, I'll be doing the paperwork and coordination of the visas and organising the shipment of the car whilst Graeme concentrates on getting the car up to spec (that's been a mammoth task), navigation system and paper maps sorted and of course the technology we'll be taking with us.

The reason for this post is to let you all know some things about shipping a car to Vladivostok, Russia. First thing you need to do is contact Bill Nicoll at SilverWind - silverwind@pacific.net.au. He's the man to know when it comes to all of this. If he doesn't have the answer he knows someone who does. SilverWind is basically THE international shipping company in Vladivostok - that we've managed to find anyway. There is also  another shipping company, FESCO, but from what we can gather from our research they're best for local Russian national shipping only.

Something else to keep in mind about shipping is that rules, regulations, costs and timetables are constantly changing. We're currently in the process of setting a shipping date in concrete, but there's always the chance of unforeseeable problems such as strikes, port congestion, problems with the ship, customs etc. Hopefully our shipping experience will be a boring one - ie: no problems!

We learnt today that recently a regulation was changed around the shipping of "hazardous materials". Well, the battery in a car is considered hazardous so that was always going to have to be disconnected. Annoying but fine, whatever. Today we learnt that fuel in a car stowed on the vehicle deck of a ship is considered fine so long as the fuel tank has a maximum of 25% in it. But...and this is the illogical, irritating, money grab by whoever is responsible...if your car is in a container, like ours will be, the fuel in that is considered a "hazardous material" so you've got two choices: completely drain the fuel tank(s) or pay the US$150 hazardous materials surcharge and notify every port between Sydney and Busan, Korea that there's fuel in the car. I have a problem with that for a number of reasons: 1) the car is a diesel which means if the tanks are emptied the car needs to be re-primed - doable but a laborious task. Also runs the risk of damage to the car when someone goes to start it. Which brings me to number 2) how the heck are the port staff/customs meant to start the car to unload it from the container for us if we drain the fuel? der!; 3) the car is also full of a crap load of oil, as all vehicles are, which is no more susceptible to spontaneous combustion than diesel is. But, the oil in the car is not a problem; 4) what about all those vehicles in cargo that aren't in a container and are exempt from this unreasonable rule - go figure; and lastly, 5) what on earth do they think the ship runs on!?!? Arrrgghh brain explosion!

That's my information rant done. On another related topic, my Russian letter of invitation is on it's way from Moscow and should arrive any day now. In a couple of weeks I shall be joining the ranks of those who have a Russian visa!