need advice on shipping

If you are moving less than a container load you can contact Econocaribe_Consolidators. They have locations in many major cities in the US. They have a web site.

You take or your pay someone to take your stuff to one of their locations. They in turn truck it to Miami. It is then loaded on a boat and shipped to the VI.

You will need to have a complete invoice listing every item in the shipment, its value and country of orgin. You will have to pay a 4% tax on the value of the shipment over $1,000 plus duties on every item not manufactured in the USA.

Everything has to be in at least in a heavy cardboard box if not a wooden crate. If it is furniture you will have to pay someone to make the box/crate for each piece. This is not cheap. It cost me $300 to have a desk and chair professionally packed. The cost for shipping is $2.45 per cubic foot plus the trucking to Florida. If you know how many cubic feet you will be shipping plus the approximate weight you can get a more exact qoute on the telephone. There are some other fees also.

Fleming Transport is Econocaribe_Consolidators' agent on STX and they handled my last shipment including clearing customs and local delivery. I believe they also operate on STT. If they do, then they would load your stuff on their truck and take it to the ferry at Red Hook and then deliver it to you on STJ. Talk to Lee Fleming at Fleming transport if you have any questions about local delivery.

Besides not being cheap it is not quick to ship less than container loads. The desk was dropped at Econocaribe in Chicago mid September and just arrived in STX yesterday. Shipping schedules were impacted by all the tropical storms.

It is much easier and usually cheaper to send by parcel post whatever you can.

Hope this helps.

Jim

jim-

you are the best!!! thanks for your advice!

🙂
celeste

jim-

based on your advice, i will probably ship my smaller stuff through the post office. a question: will the post offices (up here and in the VI) get annoyed when large quantities of my stuff come through? if you shipped any of your stuff through the post office, what were your experiences?

thanks,
celeste

Hi Celeste:

I am sitting in my bedroom in STJ surrounded by boxes. I just completed a move from Atlanta to STJ and I was visiting the message board today to post a message about the wonderful shipping company I used. I could not have done it without them and I wanted you to know about them after reading your post.

Rather than try to answer all your questions (each situation is different) please call this guy. He's honest, does what he says he'll do and I have no hesitation recommending him to anyone in need of shipping help.

Lee Fleming of Managed Freight at 340-277-4504 or info@managedfreight.com.

I have no connection with Lee other than using him to help me move.

Good luck to you. It will all work out if you do your homework.

Regards,

Lisa Danford
St. John's newest resident 🙂

hi lisa!!

thanks for your advice! i'll get in touch w/lee.

-celeste

Do I have to pay taxes/duty on personal stuff I would be bringing to the USVI, but not through a shipping company? I will be coming via my own boat, a liveaboard, and everything I have will be on that boat except my car (if I decide to bring one).

Hello MGoBlue,

There is a personal tax here on items brought into the territory for personal use. For items shipped in by cargo barge you have to include a packing list with prices. The tax is calculated using: total invoice - $1000 x 4%

If you ship by mail or other means you are suppose to go down to the custom's office and say I have taxes to pay on items I shipped in... basically thats what I was told when I called the folks at customs.

I don't know how the boat customs/taxes work. Pamela or Max - do you know?

--Islander

Thanks. The only thing I would have shipped would be my car, and I'm not even sure I want to do that yet. Everything I own is on my boat (because I live on it) and I plan to leave the mainland by leaving out of Miami and arriving STT by boat. So, I am very curious as to how, or if, taxes are assessed. I plan to continue to live on my boat once I'm there.

My mother-in-law sailed her boat down and has gotten a mooring ball without having to pay any taxes...that I know of. Maybe I shouldn't say that she hasn't paid any taxes? Oops! No, no....I,uh.....I meant she HAS paid. Yeah! That's it! She HAS!!

Thats a good question,I also am planning on bringing a boat down to live on. I may stay only during the high season each year and return with it during the summer months to the states,would that require me to register or pay taxes in the Virgin Islands if the boat is registered in the states?

Sorry - been recovering from the boat show - can't even see my desk ....
First question - TECHNICALLY you are required to declare all your personal belongings as you bring in them in to the territory for taxation purposes. The only problem is here no one knows who you must declare them to .... go figure .. so don't worry about declaring anything on the boat.
Second question - no you are not rquired toregister the boat here as a yacht in transit. Many of the boats here, as you can see, are registered throughout the world but visit us for extended periods of time.
Hope that helps.
Pamela.

And I just talked to my MIL, and she hasn't registered it here because she is only here for the winter. No taxes or anything. But, she DID pay for a mooring ball thru the DPNR. 340-774-3320

Does anybody know that whether there is a limitation for shipping cars to UVI. I have three cars. I am wonderinig if I can ship all there. Thanks.

I don't know, first hand, but I, personally wouldn't recommend it. There are way too many cars here now. Traffic is getting to be quite upsetting. There are enough cars here for sale for you to find equal to the ones you have already. Sell them up there and buy three more here. It'll probably be cheaper, too, as driving three cars to the dock, then paying for shipping is going to be a big pain in the butt! Just MHO.

My husband and I are planning a move to St. Thomas in the fall of next year. If we ship boxes by the post office, how does the post office notify you the boxes have arrived in St. Thomas for you to pick up. I know the boxes cannot weigh more than 70 lbs and the total measurement cannot add up to more than 108".

Thanks.

Nancy S.

that is a good question. i used to have a p.o. box up here in pennsylvania, and whenever an item too large for my box arrived, i received a notice in my box to come to the counter to pick it up. if you are going to rent a p.o. box in STT, my guess is that this is the procedure they'll use to notify you of your packages' arrival.

is the total measurement 108"? i read on the USPS's web page that it's 130". did they recently change it? does anybody know for sure?

I JUST CALLED THE POST OFFICE AND YOU CAN DO 130" FOR AN ADDITIONAL MINIMUM CHARGE OF $50.00. UP TO 108", NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. ALSO YOU CAN ONLY DO PRIORITY MAIL UP TO 108".

thanks. this is good to know.