Colombia Expat Forum

fecherklyn
Joined 2015
Posts: 1370

4 years ago

Freight problems with Colombia

4 years ago

Getting freight OUT of Colombia.

As many of you already know we are leaving Colombia and this decision was made in full appreciation we would have to face in some bureaucracy. However, the following issue was unexpected.

We reasoned the transportation of our personal effects back to Europe would be “no problem”. We were NOT moving much in the way of furniture and household goods as we have determined to pursue a minimalist lifestyle in our new home and purchase whatever was required whether it be in rented or owned residence. That left our clothing, essential paperwork and a few items of nostalgic value. Nothing more we thought that a couple of suitcases each and a couple of crates for the excess clothing and less urgent paperwork could not handle. No big deal!

However, we now know getting freight OUT of Colombia is much more difficult than getting Freight INTO Colombia, especially if the removal is OUTSIDE the USA. Accordingly,, this post mostly concerns the Non-USA forum members.

If you are looking at how to freight those items that exceed you airline baggage allowance you only have two options (unless anybody has another proposal), air freight, or shipping freight.

Here we faced the first problem – In Europe there is a multitude of freight agents, small and large, cheap and expensive. Here in Colombia, the “market” is very small. I found three agencies in the Medellin area but two had apparently “disappeared”. The only agent we could find has been to see us and we are awaiting their proposal. The following limitations were explained by this agency.

Shipping freight: Our two or three excess to baggage crates would only amount to one, or two cubic metres and shipping freight starts at around 20 cubic metres. Thus we would need to “share” with other customers, something they warned was a big risk as if anything illegal was found in “our” shared consignment, then we would share co-responsibility even if it had nothing to do with us.

Much the same problem exists with air-freight although the minimum freight consignments were five cubic metres even though we would only be using part of it.

Our agent has warned us the cost would be “high”. We nervously await .

As is so often the case, there are expats from the USA in Colombia, and those (far fewer) from Europe. The “facilities” available to USA expats are far better/wider than those available to European expats.

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