Never trust administrations
Last February, I called the RACV (Royal Automobile Club of Victoria) in Melbourne to organize the Carnet de Passage. The person I spoke with told me he couldn’t do anything from Melbourne, and I had in fact to contact the AAA (Automobile Association of Australia). Since I had to go to Canberra to sort out various visas, I went to the AAA and spoke to Pepina, who was very helpful.
I was then told I could in fact have done it all from Melbourne, from the RACV, I has just given false information. Error number 1.
So anyways, papers were signed, dates were booked, and three months later, money was paid for the Carnet. I then received an email two weeks ago telling me the Carnet would be ready on the 10th of June, and sent to the AANT (Automobile Association of the Northern Territory, the NT equivalent of the RACV) the next day.
The person from the RACV who sent that email then went on vacation and left specific instructions to her colleague. Error number 2.
A misunderstanding between myself, the AAA and the RACV lead to believe I would ship after the 20th of June, therefore not need the Carnet on the 12th, last Tuesday. Error number 3.
After a lot of persuasion from the dedicated employee at AANT, Farren, got the AAA to courier the Carnet with TNT (the local DHL if you like) within 24h, at their cost.
Wednesday morning then, the 13th, I got the confirmation TNT had left Melbourne with the Carnet, and would be arriving on the next day before lunch, so I could pick it up at AANT, go to Toll, give them the car and get the Carnet stamped. Express courier takes 24h. Error number 4.
TNT got lost, or spent the night in the bush, or got drunk, or I don’t know, but at 5PM Thursday 14th, the Carnet still wasn’t there. This was therefore close to 40hours since the express delivery parcel had left Melbourne…
Since we had booked our tickets to Dili, non-refundable of course, we had little choice but to fly off, and give my friend Thor the car keys and instructions to pick up the carnet at AANT and drop the car at Toll, then send the then-stamped Carnet with DHL to Dili, at Toll’s local office.
I was told by AAA over the phone this would not be a problem. Error number 5.
Friday 15th, Thor went to the AANT in the morning, no Carnet. At 4PM he finally got hold of the Carnet, which was still at TNT depot in Darwin, and by then, Toll had closed their shipping yard, and it was all over. To top it up, despite both the RACV and the AAA assuring me the Carnet could be picked up by a friend, neither remembered to mention the Carnet had to be signed by its owner, me. I was in already Dili by then. Error number 6.
So here we are, Saturday the 16th, three days after the express delivery parcel was handed over to TNT, with the unsigned Carnet in Darwin, its owner in Dili, with Troopy in Thor’s driveway, and Toll’s ship four days from departing.
Brilliant Thor has then scanned and emailed me this morning the Carnet for me to sign and send back, along with a letter of authority to act as my agent. He will then have to go to Toll on Monday morning, convince the customs that the documents in his hands are genuine, get the Carnet stamped and the car loaded on the container, and hopefully get this all done before 10AM so DHL can courier the Carnet to Dili in time. If it wasn’t for his dedication to get his hands on the f**ing Carnet on time and actually go to TNT depot, we’d still have nothing today.
Option one : custom officer is in a good mood and stamps the un-signed carnet using its signed copy as proof. Boat ships in time and arrives in Dili on Saturday. Carnet is delivered by DHL on time on Monday 25th and we get to drive off on Tuesday 26th.
Option two : custom officer in Darwin is in a good mood but Carnet is not delivered on time in Dili, car is offloaded on the docks and broken into during the night, since nobody can clear it out of Dili customs without a Carnet.
Option three : custom officer in Darwin is in a bad mood, I then have to fly back to Australia, sign the damn documents myself, get it all done over the week, unfortunately the ship has already left port and I have to wait for the next shipping, early July. Claire is stranded in Dili while I waste my time in Darwin.
So, in conclusion, never trust an administration, double check everything they tell you, then triple-check again, and give them an extra week or even a month for every date they tell you things will be done by.
Let’s just hope option one works out, shall we ?
Merde pour option 1 mec….