Hey all – sincere apologies for the radio silence. Had tons going on in my personal life in past couple of months and haven't had a chance to post. As
@Narrow Road Adventures mentioned, I received my camper on Dec 23rd. The camper far exceeds my expectations on quality, and am very very happy with it! I'll try to put down as many details as possible for anyone else embarking on this journey.
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1. Finalizing payment / getting it shipped.
I'll start off with where I left off – back in October after getting photos and videos of the completed trailer, I was asked to wire the remainder of the funds. Unfortunately, due to their policy, the refused to add the VIN to the trailer until funds were received, and I made a personal rule that I would need to see the VIN on the trailer before sending money. This was one of those things they didn't budge on, but given how great the communication was until then, I took a leap of faith and wired the money. There was a small hiccup in wiring the money where the full name of the company didn't paste over correctly in my bank's website due to a character limit. It was missing the "LTD" part of the name which required some back and forth with my bank and theirs to get the funds cleared which added another 2-3 weeks to the whole process putting the shipment into the window of holidays which caused even further delays down the road. After the funds were cleared, they sent videos and photos of the VIN on the trailer and I confirmed again that it decodes properly in the NHSTA database. Shortly after it was off to the port, and I was sent pictures of it being already loaded into the container. Unfortunately, they loaded it in hitch first, making it incredibility difficult to take out once it arrived. I would ask them to put it in the other way if I were to do it again.
2. Importing / receiving it
I'll write out the step by step here since it's something I was looking for everywhere online beforehand and never found a single source of truth for the information. I hope that it will help anyone googling for this information like I was. I will preface all of this in saying that the whole process was a lot harder and more stressful than I had anticipated, and that it's not for the faint of heart. I strongly recommend working with
@Runmorun if you're interested in getting one of these and save yourself a bunch of headaches.
File the ISF + Purchase Customs Bond
As soon as I received information from the seller's freight forwarder about the container stuffing location, vessel, etc, I filed the ISF through eezyimport.com. You have to file the ISF at least 24 hours before the vessel leaves the origin port. Fortunately, I had plenty of time to do this and believe I got it sent and approved with over 48 hours on the clock before the vessel left.
Getting the paperwork
About a week after the vessel left the port I received documents in the mail from the seller which included multiple copies of the Bill of Lading (known as BL or BOL), and Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin (known as MSO or MCO). You will need to the BL to file the Entry Summary with the CBP as well as the original copy is needed to release the container from the shipping company at port. The MSO will be needed partially for the entry summary but especially to register and title the trailer in your state.
File the Entry Summary
As soon as I got the paper work I filed the Entry Summary through eezyimport.com. As part of filing it, I needed to sent the broker I would be paired with through the website a power of attorney (or POA), a scan of the BL, a packing list, an original invoice from the seller, and the HTS code of the goods. Shortly after sending it all over I got paired with a broker and got the entry summary approved by the CBP at which point I needed to pay the tariffs (25% of the price listed on the invoice) as well as the eezyimport broker fees. After getting everything paid the waiting game continued. The vessel kept getting delayed at various ports and essentially the ETA moved from Nov 20th the Dec 20th (although at some point the ETA was as far out as Jan 12th!)
Plan the drayage of the container
At this point it's a good idea to start looking for a trucking company to drayage the container and off-load the trailer from the container. I had originally hoped I could work with the port to unload the trailer at port myself, but unfortunately it is not possible to do at the Seattle port (you may be able to organize it at smaller ports but you will still need a TWIC or someone with a TWIC to enter the port to do this – it is also my understanding it will cost the same or more as going the trucking company route to do this). Your port should have a directory of trucking/logistics companies that offer dray + transload services. Make sure to find one that also has a warehouse with a ramp since they will need to roll it off the container (called a roll-off transload) and then you or a final destination trucking company will then need to pick it up from the warehouse ramp. I found a company in Seattle I was planning on working with that would be able to do everything described and I was quoted around $1700 which seems about the standard rate for something like this.
Once the vessel arrives
About a day before the vessel arrived I got notified through the broker that CBP has flagged my container for an intensive exam. It is my understanding that this is the first time one of these trailers got flagged for this kind of exam, so of course entering uncharted territory I got a bit nervous. When the CBP flags your container, they use their own logistics company to grab the container and unload it so luckily I hadn't yet paid the trucking company I was about to work with and had to tell them about the change of plans. When the vessel arrived, I got notified by the delivery agent listed on the BL about it's arrival and got send an invoice of various fees I had to pay for the container to be released (which was about $230). This is where I made a mistake due to lack of information but apparently I was supposed to send an original endorsed BL to the delivery agent for the container to be released by the shipping company. To endorse the BL, usually a company puts their stamp and signature on the back. As an individual importer, you have to write out your name and sign next to it. The container had already been at port for a couple of days when I realized this and had to overnight the BL to the delivery agent which cost me $80. It takes another 24-48 hours after the the delivery agent receives the endorsed BL for the container to be released – this ended up taking a few days past my last free day (LFD) at port, and a accrued about $250 in storage fees from the port. I had to pay those fees before the container was able to be released to the CBP's logistics company.
CBP Inspection
After the container was successfully picked up and dropped off at the CBP exam station, there was about a week of silence where I didn't hear anything from the either CBP or the broker. At around day 8 I got a notification that the trailer was not admissible due to the VIN not being properly registered and that I had 30 days to export or destroy it. This, of course, gave me a small heart attack and it was quite a shock, especially since I checked and rechecked every requirement of importing these and made sure every little thing was being followed correctly. I started calling around the CBP office in hopes of starting an appeals process right away but as I was doing that I got another email from CBP essentially apologizing and saying they made a mistake and didn't see the VIN initially. They had now spotted the VIN and confirmed it decodes cleanly and said it is released! I got a follow up from the broker and the logistics company with an invoice that I had to pay before I could pick it up. The total was around $2300 which included the dray+transload of the container, return of the empty container, storage fees, and inspection fees.
Pick up + registration
Luckily I was able to organize with the logistics company for me to pick up the trailer myself. My broker generated a Delivery Order (or DO) for me which you need for pick up of the container or goods by either you or your trucking company. I arrived at the warehouse and they let me in to the exam area. The trailer was already waiting by the ramp inside the warehouse. I was able to drive up to the trailer, get it hooked up, and drove away without any issues. I drove straight to a licensing agency (our version of the DMV in WA – which is usually a private company working for the state) to get it titled and registered. I was really anticipating this to be the hardest part. At the agency, they took my certified MSO, Entry Summary, Invoice, and Form HS-7. I paid the 10% sales tax based on the invoice price and they gave my registration and plates right away. I should be getting the title in the coming weeks. They had to call the state to add the manufacturer into the system but everything else was a standard process. YMMV based on which state you're in but for me it took a total of 30 min, and it should be 10 min for the next person since these trailers are now in the system.
I'll go over the trailer and my first impressions in another post, in the meantime, if anyone wants to see anything specific in regards to the trailer, please let me know and I'll include photos and info in the next post.
