Expensive Shipment To Indonesia...

I spent the whole day long haggling with the people at the shipping company, trying to solve my current debacle with my shipment of personal effects from the US. It has proven to be a costly shipment indeed. The total amounts to be around $800 (Rp. 8 million) for 1 cbm (cubic meter) or only 7 boxes. That is pretty costly in my dictionary. Why did it costs so much? Well, turns out there are many hidden fees which no one bothered to tell me before.

Here is the item by item breakdown of the charges, I hope this will one day help other people who will be making the same move as me.

FROM THE US TO JAKARTA:
I used DeltaMax Freight System.

1. $85.00 per cbm
2. $50.00 export handling
3. $35.00 AES - Export declaration
4. Total of $170
   

If you want them to pick up your items (I didn't, I dropped them off at their Inglewood office), then there's extra charges as followed:
$65.00 pick-up 1 pallet at 100 lbs in Los Angeles area
$55.00 Lift Gate
$35.00 ( Heat treat stamp if needed ** )

Required documentation:

1. Official letter from the Indonesian Consulate stating that shipment of personal effects is for student completing study (Surat Keterangan Selesai Sekolah) - this alone required me to go to the consulate and fill in incredibly bureaucratic forms - don't even start with me.
2. Passport
3. Commercial Invoice (they'll do this for you)
4. Packing List (write down how many pallets and what's inside - write "personal effects")
   

Deltamax Freight is actually pretty professional, easy to deal with and helpful. I highly recommend that you check them out AND THEN find out what the total cost is DOOR TO DOOR. When I say TO DOOR that means the total cost for shipping from your door in LA to your door in Jakarta. That is the code in the shipping industry.

Shipment is (somewhat) pretty fast: I dropped the boxes on May 18, they shipped it on May 26, and it arrived on June 27. So it's about a month.

There is another shipping company that virtually all Indonesians in LA use to ship their personal belongings called IS Express. I hear from a lot of people that their service is bad, with many items missing and many shipments being severely late or never reach their destinations. They're also infamous for having bad customer service, which translates to awful post-sales customer service. I kind of experienced that problem even before PRE-sales: I tried getting a quote, but no one ever gets back to me after multiple emails, phone calls, etc. So I thought "screw it." On the other hand, people say that they usually pay around 6 mil rupiah for everything, including shipping from LA. That's 2 mil cheaper than what I'm paying now.

When I called Combi, they only gave me the quote for their shipping charges, as above. But they weren't able to give me the quote for the agent in Jakarta, because it's an entirely different animal. Read on.

IN JAKARTA:
The agent that Deltamax Freight works with and recommends is called PT. (P.T. is Indonesian equivalent to L.L.C.) Combi Logistics Indonesia, located in Jl. Petojo. Hmmm.... what can I say about this company? I think in retrospect we both could've communicated more effectively. I could've dug more info out of them and find out that I shouldn't proceed before uttering the magic word "TO DOOR"; while they could've done their due diligence and presented me with all the facts before telling me to come in to their office, such as, "This is pending the final number from the port" or "You better wait until we find out how much the guys at the port, which is a totally separate entity from us, will charge you."

The problem here lies with the fact that I have to deal with 3 different agencies: Combi Logistics, then the guys at the port which are PT. Asia Connexindo Internasional (Unloading of the goods from the ship, and delivery to the Container Yard, collectively called as D/O or Delivery Order) and PT. Pelangi Bahari Anugerahtama (who then sorts people's stuff, collects my stuff, then warehouses it).

Here is the detailed breakdowns.

COMBI LOGISTICS' QUOTE:

1. Customs clearance Rp. 600.000
2. "PIB" System Fee (Import Notification Fee) Rp. 200.000
3. Trucking door to door delivery from the port to my house plus unloading Rp. 700.000
4. * Additional customs fee for "Red Lane" (jalur merah) Rp. 400.000
5. * D/O charges as billed from co-loader (Asia Connexindo)
6. * Mechanical fee and warehousing as billed from PT. Pelangi.
7. Total paid Rp. 1,900,000 ($190)
   

*Note that the last three items are the killers here. "Red Lane" customs is for contraband items found in my shipment - which is a Johnnie Walker Swing whiskey, a gift from my bros in LA. Totally unnecessary!!! If I knew they didn't allow this I totally would've drank it there. I could've saved Rp. 400,000 right there.

Note how they didn't specify how much of the two D/O and Mechanical Fee. They didn't give the numbers until the very last minute, when they're almost done taking out my stuff. When pressed why, they told me that they didn't know until they were there. Uh... what? What they really should've done was, try to find out these charges before telling me to come into the office and drop all the documents. This IMHO I think is their biggest flaw to date, and one that I can't easily dismiss. I feel that I've been misled.

Here are the charges for Asia Connexindo and Pelangi.

Asia Connexindo (D/O Charges)

1. DFS Charges $50
2. Agency Charges $35
3. Destination D/O $35
4. PU Charges $20
5. Administration $20
6. Handling Charges $10
7. Tax 10% $17
8. Total $187 (Yes, in dollars)
   

Here's the funny thing, if I were to unload a container load, the charge is actually cheaper: $145. Since I unloaded less than container load, the charge is higher.

PT. Pelangi (Mechanical Fee and Warehousing)

1. Receiving Rp. 277,050
2. Delivery Rp. 277,050
3. Mechanic Charges Rp. 277,050
4. Surcharges Rp. 277,050
5. Port Fee (??) Rp. 277,050
6. Handling Fee Rp. 277,050
7. Extra Movement Fee Rp. 277,050
8. Stripping Rp. 277,050
9. Trucking to Warehouse Rp. 277,050
10. Sticker Fee Rp. 10,000
11. Surveyor Rp. 90,000
12. Administration Rp. 60,000
13. Total Rp. 2,653,450
    

NOTE THAT THEY ARE CHARGING ME THE MINIMUM CHARGE OF 3 CBM AS OPPOSED TO ONLY 1 CBM!! When asked why, they calmly replied that this is the way it works, and there's nothing they or I can do. And by that time, it really was too late for me to do anything. So make sure you inquire about this.

So the total that I'm paying thus far is:

1. Deltamax $170 (Rp. 1.7 mil)
2. Combi Rp. 1.9 mil
3. Asia Connexindo $187 (Rp. 1.87 mil)
4. Pelangi Rp. 2.6 mil
5. Total Rp. 8.07 mil or $800 for 1 cbm or 7 boxes.

Pretty steep IMHO. I've had friends ship their entire apartment and the charge was $1200 or Rp. 12 mil.

So the moral of the story is, if you're moving back to Indo, make sure you negotiate following on the points above. Everything is negotiable, and I actually negotiated my way out of the full charge, which would've gone all the way up to 9 mil.

Points to look out for:

1. Don't ship alcohol, or any bootleg DVDs or CDs. They'll confiscate it and charge you the "Red Lane" customs which is about $40 or Rp. 400,000. Note that you don't end up getting the items!!!
   
2. Watch out for mechanical fee and D/O. Always ask about them and negotiate.
   
3. Ask whether the agency at the port will charge you the standard minimum 3 cbm (cubic meter) or not. If they are, you might as well add more stuff to your shipment.
   

On the positive side, the guy I dealt with at Combi Logistics actually provided very thorough follow up, satisfyingly feeding me with updates all the way. He was also courteous enough to negotiate with me on behalf of the other two agencies. If you're interested in using them, approach them with caution and don't start anything before you get the full, "to door" cost.

Deltamax Freight System
10834 S. La Cienega Blvd
Inglewood CA. 90304
Tel# 310-3381411
Fax# 310-3381425
Cell# 626-2786246
E-mail : Jackson@deltamax.com
Web Site: www.deltamax.com
Deltamax is C-TPAT certified member

PT. Combi Logistics Indonesia
Jl. Petojo VIJ-I No. 36
Jakarta 10150
PH. 62 21 380 5560
FX. 62 21 3483 2030

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