A TALE OF A TRUNK, BUREAUCRACY AND SILENCE

The problem of staying within airline baggage allowance is one thing when you are going on holiday for 2 weeks but what do you do if you are moving abroad for months? Even at 23kg per person this is barely enough for clothes and other essentials. The solution is to send other belongings separately. This was our answer and to this end we invested in a good quality trunk (not unlike the one I had for going away to school). Purchasing this was the easy part as this post explains.

The first question is fly or sail. Sending it by sea is cheaper but takes 4-6 weeks minimum. Air is faster meaning we could have the use of our things almost immediately – or so we thought! – and so we bit the bullet and booked DHL to fly it to Cochin.

The next issue was what to pack within the weight limit of 70kg (59kg after deducting the weight of the trunk). We had lots of books (cooking, language, reference, reading etc), kitchen equipment (our electric pressure cooker, knives etc), towels and sheets, laptop, internet radio, camera bits, sat nav, photo printer and so on, not forgetting jars of marmite and gravy granules! Each was weighed, packed and recorded in the online shipping manifest. Payment of £630 was made and the trunk was ready for its journey. It all seemed so simple but nothing could be further from the truth.
It all started well with DHL collecting the trunk on Monday 26^th June with an estimated delivery date in Cochin of Tuesday 4^th July.
As the following tracking info from DHL confirms the trunk left the UK before us and arrived in India hours before us even though it took a more circuitous route.

June 26, 2017 13:43    Location : Oxford - UK    Status   : Shipment picked up   June 26, 2017 18:15    Location : Oxford - UK    Status   : Processed at Oxford - UK   June 26, 2017 19:57    Location : Oxford - UK    Status   : Processed at Oxford - UK   June 26, 2017 19:58    Location : Oxford - UK    Status   : Departed from DHL facility in Oxford - UK   June 26, 2017 22:11    Location : East Midlands - UK    Status   : Arrived at DHL facility in East Midlands - UK   June 27, 2017 00:06    Location : East Midlands - UK    Status   : Processed at East Midlands - UK   June 27, 2017 02:51    Location : East Midlands - UK    Status   : Departed from DHL facility in East Midlands - UK   June 27, 2017 06:49    Location : Leipzig - Germany    Status   : Transferred through Leipzig - Germany   June 27, 2017 06:49    Location : Leipzig - Germany    Status   : Departed from DHL facility in Leipzig - Germany   June 27, 2017 13:50    Location : Bahrain - Bahrain    Status   : Transferred through Bahrain - Bahrain   June 27, 2017 23:42    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Arrived at DHL facility in Bangalore - India

 At this point the trunk disappeared into a black hole called Indian bureaucracy due to a simple mistake in the shipping details. To explain, the online order form asked for the recipient’s name and phone number in India. Not being sure whether he would be there to receive it Bill gave a neighbours name and number. Big Error as now DHL India and India Customs expected Vincent to provide proof of identity to clear customs, but they failed to communicate this.
It was not until a week later and two days after delivery was expected that Bill rang DHL to find out where the trunk was. There followed a series of garbled phone calls and emails that could not have been less clear. The exchange simply highlighted the problem as being the Air Way Bill (AWB ie the paperwork) and even a letter addressed to customs explaining the reason for the mistake had no effect. And so our trunk sat on in Bangalore for a further 10 daya as no way were we going there to clear it.

  June 28, 2017 04:07    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Processed for clearance at Bangalore - India
  June 28, 2017 04:07    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  June 29, 2017 09:27    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  June 30, 2017 12:01   Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 02, 2017 21:29    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 03, 2017 23:09    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 04, 2017 22:24    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 06, 2017 11:29    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 07, 2017 22:22    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 08, 2017 21:41    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 09, 2017 22:53    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay

In desperation on Monday 10th July Bill contacted the CEO of DHL in the UK for help. Now we had a highly professional team on our side who quickly established that Indian customs required an amended AWB be created with the correct information. This was arranged but even so no one in India could give any indication of what the next actions were. Again numerous email flew between Cochin, Bangalore and the UK with the levels of frustration growing daily for another 8 days.

  July 10, 2017 17:37    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 12, 2017 10:09    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 13, 2017 13:37    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 14, 2017 21:29    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 15, 2017 22:22    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 16, 2017 21:28    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 17, 2017 21:47    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 18, 2017 19:47    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Clearance delay 

Finally the bureaucratic impasse was breached and the trunk was cleared to be moved to Cochin. Yet again no communication of what was going on was given but eventually tracking showed it had been processed and was on its way to Cochin.

July 19, 2017 04:53    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Processed at Bangalore - India
  July 19, 2017 04:54    Location : Bangalore - India    Status   : Departed from DHL facility in Bangalore - India
  July 20, 2017 12:43    Location : Cochin - India    Status   : Arrived at DHL facility in Cochin - India
  July 20, 2017 16:07    Location : Cochin - India    Status   : Processed for clearance at Cochin - India
  July 20, 2017 16:08    Location : Cochin - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 21, 2017 09:40    Location : Cochin - India    Status   : Clearance delay
  July 21, 2017 19:29    Location : Cochin - India    Status   : Broker notified to arrange for clearance 

At long last on Friday 21^st July we were contacted to attend Cochin airport customs to clear the trunk’s contents. If we thought this would be quick we were very wrong. First we had to get the AWB paperwork from the ground handling staff (and pay £41 for this). This is then examined at Customs reception and a fee paid (£6). This entitles access to the customs shed - But they shut for lunch so we have to wait …. and wait as our trunk is listed to be examined last. Two hours later it is our turn. It takes 5 minutes for the customs officer to rummage through the contents before a duty of £100 is calculated to be levied. This starts a chain of going between bank, reception and customs officer to obtain all the right signatures and stamps. Finally 6 hours after we arrived we get the gate pass that permits our driver to come into the secure area to load up, as confirmed by tracking.

July 21, 2017 20:13    Location : Cochin - India    Status   : Delivered to broker as requested

So we have our trunk at a cost of around £900. It very well might have been cheaper to buy everything in Kerala if you can find the right shops.

Would we send baggage by air again – probably, but this time we would do it with our eyes open.  The real lesson is for the couriers and handling agents who need to be more aware that there are naïve inexperienced people travelling out there who need hand holding at every step of the way when transporting personal effects. This is especially the case for high bureaucracy, low communication countries such as India.

In this part of the world the best advice is to treble any timescale you may be given and to push, push and push continuously for information and/or action!