Car Shipping

Lisa,

Shipping your vehicle may not be as easy as it seems. Does your vehicle have a lien? If so, you need to have permission from your lien holder (which for me has become a long drawn out task in itself). And most likely you will also need a notarized power of attorney form for the shipper. That's what you need to get it on the boat which is the easy part. Also note: with Tropical, you will need to have the vehicle to the port 3 days before it set's sail.

After it arrives in the VI, before you take possesion of it, you will have to pay VI Personal Use Tax (4% of your vehicle's current value), Vehicle Road Tax ($0.16 per pound of the weight of your vehicle), and the DMV Title and registration fee (about $150). You will also need proof of VI insurance at the time of registration.

I am shipping a vehicle down here later this month. I am using Managed Freight (info@managedfreight.com). They have arranged for the shipping through Tropical and will taking care of the registration process when the vehicle arrives on Island.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Chris

Thanks Chris,

I did know about most of the Tax/registration/etc - but did not know about needing proof of VI insurance before registration, thanks for that info.

We have considered using managed freight - but are balancing convenience with watching our pennies. Do you know if Managed Freight helps sort out insurance, or are we on our own with that? Any recommendations on that?

thanks again,

Lisa

In addition to the documents Chris mentioned you will need to give Tropical your notarized power of attorney to clear the car through customs before it can be loaded in Florida.

If you are trying to save bucks you can do this yourself and save $50. Don't know how much of a hassel customs will be for you.

Depending on where your vehicle was manufactured you may have to pay customs when the vehicle arrives in the VI.

Jim

Lisa,

You'll have to get the insurance on your own. I got quotes from most companies on St Thomas. I found that PGU Insurance was the best priced for my vehicle. They were also the friendliest that I talked to and getting insurance from them was the easiest task that I've done on this Island so far. Hope this helps.

Chris

Thanks for the suggestion. It's always hard to know where to start. It sounds like there will be a bit of lag time between when we arrive and when the car gets in, so we hope to get the insurance set up then. We are planning on putting most of our stuff in storage in Michigan until we know where we are going to be living permanently. We have been looking for a short term up to a year long furnished rental to get started. We were down in STT about a week ago and looked at a few places, but did not find something that really fit our needs that was in our price range.
I've heard that the Trader is the best place to find something. Any other suggestions on this. We will probably want to get a monthly rental at first. That will give us a bit of time to look around. I've also heard this is a good time to look for housing.

Lisa

Lisa,

What size apartment are you interested in renting? What time of the year will you be arriving?

Chris

Post Edited (08-06-04 11:52)

WE are looking for a one or two bedroom. We will be arriving on August 21 - just booked the plane tickets. We are interested in long term, but for now a short term would fit our needs until we have a chance to look around. From our previous visit, we prefer either the north or east side. Safety is one of our top priorities.
I have a solid job lined up and we plan to be around for 2-3 years MINIMUM. We are hoping this will make us attractive renters.

Lisa