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QB kit port of entry

Steve N.

Well Known Member
Anyone know the port of entry for QB kits arriving from the Philippines?
I notice there are 44 container ships stuck off the coast of CA.
 
Anyone know the port of entry for QB kits arriving from the Philippines?
I notice there are 44 container ships stuck off the coast of CA.

Almost always it's the Port of Tacoma (Washington). It's not uncommon for stops and/or transfers to happen in Taipei or Hong Kong, where delays/waits can happen. Arrival back-ups are happening at all west coast US ports right now.

And, I will take the opportunity to provide a whole lot more detail about the potential for delays than your question asked for, by way of context.

Shipping delays in both directions, and in reality multiple sources of delays that have little to do with manufacturing processes, have been incredibly frustrating. All of the following have to line up, and while in "normal" times things went fairly smoothly, these days most of these steps include delays - and some of those delays are extreme and unpredictable.

  • Supply chain, materials, "bought" parts ***
  • Van's-controlled manufacturing delays **
  • Shipping container availability **
  • Truck available to bring shipping container to Van's **
  • Loading of container with crated parts at Van's
  • Truck available to take container from Van's to the port ***
  • Available transport ship that can take the container *****
  • In come cases, there is an intermediate port where container is transfered, wait for another available ship to destination ***
  • Available truck to take the container to quickbuild facility
  • (QB kit is assembled)
  • Container available to load finished QB kits into ***

    Note: For every one container of unassembled parts that we send to the QB assembler, about 10 to 12 containers holding assembled QB kits are shipped back to Van's)

  • Truck to take the container to the port
  • Available ship to return containers to USA ******
  • Potential intermediate port stop and container transfer to another ship ***
  • Arrival delays at US port (waiting offshore) ***
  • Customs delays **
  • Availability of offload crew and truck to move the container to Oregon **
  • Inspection and kit crating (can be compounded in terms of volume when containers don't arrive on proper cadence/schedule - if we receive a bunch of delayed containers all at once, they may stack up until we can complete inspection and crating) *

The stars (*) indicate common delay items and the number of stars loosely indicates how much impact they tend to have (when issues occur) on actual turnaround time for our QB lifecycle.

Example: We've had one set of crates containing QB parts ready to go and waiting for a ship booking since May, which only yesterday had a container to be loaded into - and the ship booking was just canceled by the shipping company (this is very common), so we're having to put it on a ship that is scheduled to sail a couple of weeks later. The domino effects are quite significant.

That said, it looks hopeful that things are slowly starting to improve. Getting ships out of the Philippines is improving somewhat at any rate, and that's been a huge source of delays the past 6 months.
 
Thanks Greg for replying. I was in no way blaming Van’s for slow delivery. But I have to admit I had no idea just how bad the situation had gotten. I do appreciate how much you and the rest of Van’s employees have been working to get everything back on track. Hopefully, others will also understand the difficulties you have been dealing with this past year.
 
Skip all those ocean shipping hassles and delays! Van's needs a Dreamlifter (or maybe something just a wee bit smaller)! :D

We've actually shipped air freight a couple of times just because we couldn't get the product on ships. Instant loss by doing that (it was ridiculously expensive) but sometimes we have to do what we can to keep things moving.
 
Even the cost of sea freight has gone through the roof. LA port fees are crazy. The port fees (not including duty) are as much as the freight cost. And as noted, it is moving slow. I have a LCL shipment that left the overseas port the very begining of July, finally available for pickup in Dallas today. Total cost to ship that 1 crate, about the size of a QB kit ( but 3100 lbs) was close to 3K, and I still have to go get it from the warehouse. I got a good deal on the shipping, now they are quoting around 5k for the same load.
 
... Total cost to ship that 1 crate, about the size of a QB kit ( but 3100 lbs) was close to 3K, and I still have to go get it from the warehouse. I got a good deal on the shipping, now they are quoting around 5k for the same load.

We're experiencing much the same thing. Quoted about 150% of the previous cost for "priority" service, and even then not actually reliably getting space on ships a lot of the time.
 
How much more would it cost to have the QB kits built here in the US of A?

A lot more. The costs of that portion of the kit price that represents the QB work and related costs increase by an amount that would be significantly more than double. But, even if that was acceptable, there would have to be a facility and personnel to do the work, and right now that's not even remotely practical. Every company we talk to (and it's our experience as well) is having a hard time finding people to go the work and do it well.

There are builder assist facilities here in the USA, several of them, that can and do build standard kits to QB stage and will also work with their customers to help them complete the build. So for someone who wants to pursue that type of option with a standard build kit, it's available through those third-party companies. That doesn't;t change lead times for kit parts, of course, but it could affect the QB work timeline and, of course, costs.
 
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