BajaNomad

Review: Aliser Trucking

oxxo - 4-24-2012 at 06:37 PM

I needed to get some new furniture from California to Los Cabos for a client. The load would consist of a 4 piece sectional, queen mattress set, and queen headboard. My Nomad amiga, KareninTx, suggested that I use Aliser Trucking who she had used in the past with success. Long story short, I had everything shipped to Aliser's terminal in San Diego that is two blocks from the Otay Mesa crossing. Aliser will only take new merchandise and they need an original invoice with the seller's US Tax ID number. They said delivery to inside the casa in Los Cabos would be 5 to 10 working days (it actually took 7). They said the goods would be loaded onto one of their local trucks and delivered to aduana at Otay Mesa. There the truck would be unloaded for inspection and duty charged. From there, the truck is re-loaded and delivered to their warehouse in TJ where it is unloaded and loaded aboard a big semi with other consolidated goods. From TJ the semi makes a direct, 23 hour drive to La Paz and Aliser's terminal there. The semi is unloaded and various consignments are consolidated into a smaller local truck for delivery to Los Cabos. Whew!

Here are the charges which are based on the invoice price including CA sales tax:

Insurance: 2%
US Customs fee: 1%
Mexican Customs fee: 3%
Transportation: 14%
Extra Packaging: 9%
Mexican IVA (included on all the charges above): 11%

In addition, it cost about 13% to ship the goods to Aliser at Otay Mesa.

All together, it cost a little over 50% of invoice to get those items from a furniture store in CA to Los Cabos

I was a bit apprehensive about all the loading and unloading particularly with a sectional done in white linen fabric! I can now report that everything arrived clean and undamaged with no scuff marks. I am 100% satisfied!

Does this method make sense for everyone? No, it all depends. But in this case, it saved my clients about $2000 to $3000 compared to similar merchandise at a Los Cabos furniture store.

I saw everything in Alisers Otay terminal from four new Pirelli racing tires (going to a residence in One and Only Palmilla) to decorations for some sort of convention (G20?) - all going to Los Cabos. Sonia at the Otay terminal is very helpful and knowledgeable and I am glad she charged me for the extra packaging. I fear the results would have been disasterous without the extra packaging - it was well worth the cost (I bet they used 10 roles stretch wrap and bubble wrap!). I highly recommend Aliser Trucking (they're on the Internet) without hesitation. Muchas Gracias KareninTx!

[Edited on 4-25-2012 by oxxo]

oladulce - 5-6-2012 at 06:49 AM

I wrote to Aliser a couple of times to get a transport/import quote and never got a response. The only contact info on their website 6 months ago was an online contact form- no email provided. If you live somewhere with phone service (we don't) you're probably better off calling them.

We've been using another Logistics company and so far have had a large load of windows and doors, and another substantial load of tile shipped from CA and paid 30% of the merchandise value for transportation to our door, importation fees, insurance, etc.

For these deliveries I had Milgard, the door supplier, and Arizona Tile provide the bills of laden to the Trucking company and we didn't have to pay CA sales tax since the loads were being imported directly to Mexico. Saved a bundle by not having to pay the extra tax and it reduced the total value of the merchandise so the percentage we paid for logistics and importation was less.

Don't forget to ask if you can avoid the sales tax if you plan to ship new items to Mexico.

Thanks for the info oxxo- sounds like you and your clients were happy with their services. It is a relief when things arrive intact, isn't it!

oxxo - 5-6-2012 at 07:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by oladulce
I wrote to Aliser a couple of times to get a transport/import quote and never got a response. The only contact info on their website 6 months ago was an online contact form- no email provided.


Here is Sonia's direct email in San Diego: sonia@aliser.com.mx I have used it several times. I am certain she will respond. It certainly wouldn't hurt to get a second bid if you are shipping a lot of things down.

If you have Internet service, you can download Yahoo Messenger for free. You can then use VOIP to call the US and it costs 2 cents a minute (Yahoo to Yahoo, it is free). We use this service several times a week. 95% of the time it works perfect with our TelMex connection. In fact, we will be calling the kids today. At 2 cents a minute, we talk for hours at a time .
Quote:
We've been using another Logistics company and so far have had a large load of windows and doors, and another substantial load of tile shipped from CA and paid 30% of the merchandise value for transportation to our door, importation fees, insurance, etc.


That is consistent with Aliser pricing. We paid extra for additional packaging for white furniture and transportation from the manufacturer to Aliser's depot at Otay Mesa. Those costs added about 20% to the total cost. Since the items shipped were manufactured in CA we had to pay CA sales tax since I took possession of the items in CA.

Suerte

[Edited on 5-6-2012 by oxxo]