Monday 13th Feb

Every morning the battle with Maersk, Customs & CARS UK commences at 0830 BA time. We are entering our fourth week of the battle and we are now at that stage where we spend every day hoping that we have jumped through all the hoops and the cars will be released. The trouble is we are dealing with a completely opaque system.

This Monday we learnt of the mysterious involvement of German Weber who is 'de-consolidating' our consignment for customs purposes and nothing can happen until he has completed his paperwork. An extract from the day's WhatsApp group goes like this:

0830  Them - First German Weber has to finish at customs.

0845 Us - Who is German Weber

0850 Them - It was appointed by Maersk (as it was their responsibility) and we also had references from our colleague in USH, who normally also works with him.

0943 Us - Did you hear from German Weber?

1009 Them - Yes, we did. He is waiting this morning for customs final approval of his files. He will confirm us asap.

1240 Us - Hi, please may we have an update . What did GW say?

1516 Us - Please may we have an update

1543 Them - waiting for customs

......and so it goes on!

Finally at 1730 they say we have the customs 'green light' and the cars will be extracted tomorrow! Our hopes soar! There are still a few more hoops to jump through but we have a good supper at The Gran Dabbang and go to bed in the expectation of a departure on Tuesday.

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