shipping auto / Florida

Hi terry.

Not infrequently stateside shippers tell you which forms you'll need and then when you begin to check for the arrival of your vehicle on island you discover that there's an additional form of some sort they need or a signature notarized or some other issue and this is the first you're hearing of it. Someone on this board had their car mistakenly sent to another islands and nobody would tell them which island, though the car did eventually show up. Sometimes there's a line your car has to wait in at the dock in FL or a mechanical problem with the FL shipping equipment or some other delay like gale force winds in FL during hurricane season. Sometimes your car arrives promptly when promised. In any case, when your car is finally on its way to STX, four days sailing is about right but then it will take several days before it is registered and can be legally released to you.

We bought a car on the mainland in October because the local dealer didn't know if they'd be getting any of our preferred model in. We paid cash for the car so there were no lienholder hang-ups. Also, October is a slower time of year for shipping a car. We didn't present any problems of any sort but there must have been a line that was unknown to the person who quoted us an arrival date a week away because the car took four weeks to get here.

The boat trip itself takes about four days from Florida. However there are just two boats a week from either Tropical or Crowley.

Before your car can be loaded in Florida there is a seventy two hour customs holds so the authorities have ample time to verify the car isn't stolen.

Once it clears the title check cars are shipped on a space available basis.

The last car I shipped I had in ten days, The previous car took a month.

Jim

When we shipped our cars (three years ago), Tropical sent me a check list of everything I needed and every thing I needed to do to the cars. When we arrived at Tropical, we weren't there 20 minutes with both cars. It was almost too easy.

Ric, do you have a phone number for tropical?
Terry

I am in the process of going through this now.....

There's SeaStar in Jacksonville, FL. They were also the cheapest.

www.seastarline.com

I still have a lien out on my car so in place of the title, they accept a letter from the bank.

It only took about 20-30 minutes with paperwork and inspection. Except they wrote "heavy dust" on my inspection page for the interior. I'm busy, OK? ha

I shipped my car FROM Florida to STT this week. Good experience thus far. Shipped on Fri and arrived today (Tuesday) at 9am. Your insurance should cover it on the vessel since it is a US company, but won't cover it on the road here in the islands. SeaStar will pay your deductibe, up to $500, if they are responsible for damage and your insurance should pick up the tab for the rest. I got new insurance today and called several companies. I went through First Insurance Agency 340-774-3503 (spoke with Janine who was really helpful) and they negotiated the lowest rate for me through Guardian. (I got another quote through a diff agent for the same thing with Guardian and it was more expensive)

I have hired Viking Moving Corporation 340-776-1536 to pick my car up tomorrow and register it, clear it with customs, etc. Worth the $150 not to deal with the hassle. Then I just pick it up from their office tomorrow.

Hope this helps people because everyone was extremely helpful to me 🙂

Did you drive your car to Florida?

I live in Florida....well, now I live in St. Thomas as of Saturday 🙂

I lived in Orlando though and drove it to Jacksonville.

My roommate lived in Chicago and hired a moving company to drive it from Chicago to Florida and it was $800

Thanks so much for the info. I will be going through the process soon and really appreciate your posts.

I just got my car delivered to my office from Viking. They were great.

Highly recommend them!

Jen,

That's great 😉 ;)!

THANK YOU MELL!!!!!!

What a great recommendation!!! 🙂