68Pony,
My last car that I shipped was from Sth. Africa.
I used a RoRo ship to get it across. It was the only 2nd hand car on the vessel. The rest were all brand new Merc's, BMW's, and Fiat's, plus a few bus chassis'.
I didn't bother insuring, as the car already had plenty of character on the shell. The fact that it was also surrounded by new cars and the people that loaded and unloaded them obviously had 1/2 a brain set me at ease.
I did insure the Mustang from L.A. though as Americans are just... well... they are just.
I have shipped around 5/600 containers in my line of work, and only had a few problems. I did get moisture/humidity damage in a couple one time in Malaysia due to a monsoon in the area and shipping from the southern to northern hemisphere over an extended period.
The only vehicle damage was with a XY GT that was shipped from Pretoria Sth. Africa. It was transhipped through KL before arriving in Perth. Somewhere along the way it was swapped into another container and not tied down properly. It was a rough trip and proceeded to rub up and down the container wall on the driver’s side as well as use the front bumper as a battering ram to hammer the 2 spare 4v 351's that were crated up in front of it. The car has since been repaired at the cost of the shipper being at fault.
When I ship, I pay extra to have the containers top loaded so they are last on, 1st off depending on location. This is usually classed as being the riskiest part of shipping due to the degree of body roll of the ship and the fact that it may get washed off during a major storm. With all the companies I have worked with I have never heard of anyone losing a container. I think the riskiest part of shipping is the container forklift drivers. The majority are great but I have seen some bloody rough ones as well. Adds a whole new meaning to the terms 'touch parking'. This I feel is where most damage is done.
J1
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