New Zealand === Parts Shipping

Does anyone know of a reasonable way to ship a box of 1931 Ford parts to New Zealand. Box will be about 30 pounds 43x29x7. I always feel bad about the shipping costs to Australia & New Zealand, has to make for costly builds.

 

With no way to track the package after it hits New Zealand I won't ship there any more. They need a better system so people don't get ripped off. Send it by boat is cheapest but most times they will want it by air. I've had packages show up after six months delivered by boat and by then you have angry people to deal with. Good luck with this.

 

UPS and Fed X etc are ridiculously expensive. We use US Post Global Air Express or Priority Mail (seems to depend what PO you use as to what it’s called) – this is the best cost/speed trade-off. We get shipments from Speedway Mtrs in 3 or 4 days. From a private individual 7 – 10 days. However as the other poster points out, a shipment cannot be traced. I usually just take the chance unless it is a really rare or valuable part, but I’ve never had anything go missing – it’s a small place – mail normally gets thru.

For a 30lb box this might be getting up in $$, but I have had brake backing plates and pads, cylinders etc sent from Texas and from memory they ran $50 per 2.

Note that the cost calculator on the US Post website is not accurate – it vastly overstates the cost.

Other options are surface mail – but takes forever (but the buyer may not want the parts quickly) or the buyer can arrange to get the parts sent somewhere in the US if he has contacts and then he arranges to get them to NZ from there.

One other consideration is the sales tax on importation (12.5% of value + shipping cost) – NZ Customs levies this on shipments over US$250 (approximately – depends on the day and the Customs officer). Depending on the value of goods you are shipping, it may be worthwhile to split it into two shipments. I’d give the buyer the choice.

Finally on behalf of all Kiwi’s and Aussies, thanks for making the effort to sell to us and ship to us. We know it’s more of a hassle, but we do appreciate it – what really pisses us, is when we find the part we need for our car and the seller won’t ship to us.

 

Worth checking out are the Pre-paid boxes that UPS/FEd-Ex/DHL do, I work in the industry and they are a pretty cost effective way of doing things, fully door to door and as long as you can fit in their box then you are sweet, often the local clearance and delivery in the dest country is worth as much regular freight as the ppd box.
I airfreight pretty regularly myself, is the guy you are selling to in Auckland ? drop me a PM I can probably work out a price from L.A. to AKl based on sending with my stuff.

 

Another option is Kiwi Shipping based in Paramount CA they ship everything from parts right up to full cars their website is www.kiwishipping.co.nz

I have had a few packages sent to me thru US postal express, took about 2weeks or less to turn up and the final streach of the delivery- inside New Zealand -was via one of our good courier companies.

We have to pay tax of 12.5% on any package sent to us with a value over $400NZD =$300USD roughly so a quick calculation of paying extra freight for 2+ packages vs 12.5% tax on the value is a good idea. Devaluing say a pair of vintage Offy rocker covers to the price of a set of budget wharehouse brand rocker covers can be a great idea the only catch is INSURANCE claims! They aint going to pay out on the value of the Offy's!

 

Well heres a tip for anyone sending via US Postal Global Air Express the courier company that delivers these packages in New Zealand is NZ Courier Post (NZ Post). If you need to track a package they will be the ones to contact. fatbone must have had the 1-2 in 1000 packages that get "lost" "delayed" "caught in Customs", hey not much different to "lost" airline luggage?

 

Please HAMBer's dont take this attitude, we are a small county with an insachable appitite for hotrods and custom cars, we are in the top 4 countrys in the world for car ownership per population at near on 1 to 1. We also have the highest ownership per population of "classic" cars in the world-infact we quite often get told by you americans that "no you(New Zealanders) have all the classic american cars over there and we have none left to sell you". Well hey! we want the parts for them too!

 

I've recently sold some stuff to guys in NZ. I'm sending everything to Kiwi Shipping and they will take it from there. Once it's in their hands I'm no longer responsible.
So far so good.

What is the reason that shipments can't be tracked once they get to NZ? Doesn't make any sense.

 

Could be the same reason shipments to USA cant be tracked once they reach the US border.
We dont live in a perfect world yet....

 

If it's just a one off thing, see if you can find someone who works for an airline, I work for one and get a 75% discount with Fedex and regularly ship motorcycle parts back to Australia...