Shipping Personal Vehicle to East Africa

Shipping a personal vehicle to Africa is not for the faint of heart. We were warned not to even think about shipping our car to East Africa.  The reasons included risk of the ship being hi-jacked by Somali pirates and all the corruption at the ports.  Well, I knew that if the Somalis managed to get hold of Zain’s car, that he would go directly to Mogadishu and simply get it back from the pirates or whomever they might have sold it!   

Turns out there was a significant backlog of shipments from Oman to East Africa.  Our car, which was in a shipping container by itself for obvious protection against bumps, scrapes and temptation for thieves of any description or orientation, left Toronto mid-February on a train to Montreal where it was shipped possibly to Antwerp.  From there, it arrived in Salalha, Oman where it sat in a backlog to East Africa. 

I recommend installing a GPS to track the exact global position of the vehicle (we didn’t) because no one else will be able to tell you where your car is at any given time.  I recall that the ship finally arrived in Dar Es Salam April 10.  It seems that it took nine days for it to be unloaded because our car didn’t start getting cleared by customs until about April 20.  Part of the problem was that the Bill of Lading said “cargo” which the port people thought meant the whole container.  Therefore, the “cargo” got piled with all the other containers rather than being unloaded as intended.  The shipping agent back home should have identified the “container contents”  to be unloaded in Dar Es Salam. 

The Clearing Agent in Dar Es Salam, whom we had to pay another sum of USD in advance, finally got the container moved and unloaded.  The bonded driver started out with the car on Friday, May 2.  However, the Clearing agent failed to give the bonded driver our original Purchase Invoice from Canada to prove at the Rwanda border that we didn’t steal the car before heading out to Africa. 

That’s when the driver called Zain at 8:30 Sunday a.m. in a panic asking in some kind of broken English for the Purchase Invoice.  Obviously, the Clearing Agent at the port cleverly gives out only the owner’s cell number to drivers for after hour emergencies.  Zain managed to call the General Manager of the company in Dubai because Sunday was a work day in the UAE.  He told Zain that all the documents would be with the agent in Dar Es Salam but we’d have to wait until Monday a.m.  In the meantime, the driver called back to say he was leaving the car and going back home to Dar Es Salam.  Zain was quite irate at this point because, if a man ever loved a car, Zain loves his 2002 Mercedes C320.  Picture it parked by the side of the road at a remote border crossing in the jungle.

In very simple English, Zain ordered the driver to stay put and get a hotel room.  By now, Zain had called the second Clearing Agent in Kigali who rose to the occasion.  Through all of this, the driver had not been given enough money for gas and Zain had to give the Clearing Agent in Kigali money for about another half tank of gas.  The Clearing Agent in Kigali proceeded to the border crossing to resolve the issues which included taking a copy of the Purchase Invoice which had been sent to us by email from Dar Es Salam.  It turned out that the original Purchase Invoice was sitting in a completely different Clearing Agent’s office in Kigali.  When we changed Clearing Agent way back when to save a few hundred dollars, the original Clearing Agent was supposed to courier all the documents to the Clearing Agent in Dar Es Salam.  They didn’t.

Once the car was in Kigali, the next challenge was to make sense of the Customs Clearing charges particularly when we were told that “that’s the way it is”.  Fortunately, Zain found a professional firm that would take care of everything including a proper invoice, American style, for a good sum less than the “that’s the way it is” scheme.  Even still, the Clearing Agent in Kigali said they needed proof that the shipper in Canada had been paid.  It seems that they didn’t understand the original wire receipt from our bank showing the details.  Finally, after going directly to Customs with the issue, the well informed Customs people told Zain that it was quite enough proof. At least because we have a two-year Residence Permit, there was no Customs duty on the car nor the pots and pans, books, and boots that we had packed as personal items.

It’s May 6 and Zain is proudly driving us around in his lovely car.  “Izzy” which is Zain’s short version of Ezekial, the name of our grounds person, also proudly washes it by hand early every morning.   We pick up a lot of red clay due to road construction near our house.  We have an International Traveller licence plate, third party local insurance and international auto insurance which I purchased before leaving Canada.  Insurance for the car here is almost half of what it would be at home.  We still need to get a certificate from the Motor Vehicle Licence place which probably involves a quick check to ensure that the car is roadworthy.  All is good that ends well.

Zain driving out through gate of our new house in the freshly washed car.

"Izzy" watching with pride!