This was our eleventh year entering via Buenos Aires, every year brings a new surprise at the time of the import; until last year it always occurred on the customs side. Even to the extent that one day, the chief of the customs told us in a “friendly” tone: “Inventamos problemas para venderte soluciones”, i.e. “we invent problems in order to sell you solutions”. Since I entered with my trailer and only one glider, I hoped that these problems would not be as complex as with the container: I have never been so wrong! To my great surprise, the customs papers had been signed in one hour, but the enchantment stopped at that point. After having waited for three days for a customs inspector to become available, this man asks for the strict application of the regulation that requires that the inspection of containers carrying personal effects has to be done on the ground, whereas the container in which my trailer had been loaded was already on a truck! Return to the starting point to get the service of the crane and a new appointment for verification, again five days of waiting. During the bus transportation, the inspector remembered that he had previously verified my glider and he signed the papers without even opening the door. At that point I asked to open the door and extract the trailer and then leave the port on its own wheels, but no, it would be too simple, it was necessary to put back the container on a truck, to move it into a fiscal deposit, then unload it back on the ground and there I may finally leave with my trailer.
Again another day lost. And when we did arrive in this famous fiscal deposit, we were no longer surprised to see the truck stop at the visitor’s parking and a crane unload the container onto the sidewalk (photo 7): to extract the trailer we then had to stop the traffic, which is particularly dangerous in that place. Fortunately all is well that finishes well but these unnecessary activities, that have never presented any technical problem, have nevertheless taken nine days and, ultimate surprise, an official invoice of 6.050 US$ only for the movements between the boat and the street, operations of a maximum value of 1.000 US$.
Plus numerous e-mails and phone calls of protest but since the logistic company DSV-GL held my customs documents in its hands, they had the knife in their hands and, with the help of a lawyer, I was forced to write a cheque for 4,160 US$ to be able to recover my glider. First decision: I would never again use Buenos Aires, so the trailer went back to Europe via the Chilean port of San Antonio, near Santiago. Second decision: I would never again use DSV-GL for South America and I can only recommend that readers do the same!