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Boat Transport By Sea

Published by Joe Webster.

What's in this article?
  1. Avoid fraudsters
  2. Price shouldn’t be your only guide in choosing a transporter
  3. How to tell the actual transporter from the transport broker
  4. How can you avoid brokers and instead deal with the actual transporter?
Boat Transport By Sea Help

Boat transport by sea is perhaps the most commonly considered option for moving boats across countries. So long as you book your boat with a reputable company that provides experienced personnel for loading your boat, your vessel will be handled with care, and it will arrive at its destination undamaged. Although it’s not entirely impossible for problems to arise, if you’re dealing with an experienced transporter, they most likely have the right insurance cover for your boat. Before you start preparing to move your boat around the world, it’s also imperative that you choose your transporter very carefully.

Avoid fraudsters

There are a frauds in the boat transport by sea market that offer fake services. These companies collect up to 100% of the payments without having any knowledge, materials or even a transporter in mind. As soon as the boat owner signs a booking note, the imposters disappear, money gets lost, and the boat gets stuck in the loading port with no space in the marina anymore. And the boat owner starts calculating losses. To avoid frauds, insist on face-to face meetings with the transporter. Preferably visit their offices and insist on seeing their operating licenses.

Price shouldn’t be your only guide in choosing a transporter

As with most things in life, cheap doesn’t necessarily guarantee quality. When transporting your boat, it’s important to pay a little more and have your boat in safe hands. Some transporters also fail to disclose all costs upfront, and the boat owner ends up getting unpleasant surprises when new fees keep coming up. In most instances, most of these people who give you ridiculously low quotes are brokers whose only intention is to lure you in for the sake of business. Later on, when you have already made a financial commitment, you find out that the initial quote is drastically different from the carriers. Whenever you encounter unreasonable low quotes, just know that you’re giving up something in service.

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How to tell the actual transporter from the transport broker

With this in mind, it's worth knowing that there is a difference between a boat transport provider and a transport broker. At a first glance, you may think there are many transporters to pick from, however, when you look closely, most of these are actually transportation brokers.

In recent years, many new transport brokerage companies have either rebranded themselves to appear as actual boat transporters. The business model of brokers is usually to book clients and then source an actual carrier, at a profit of course.

The problem with doing this is that, in most cases, the broker, in a bid to get the business, will book the boat at a rate lower than what the actual carrier will accept. The rates are usually below the market prices. Once the actual carrier refuses to accept these booking, the bookings are unfulfilled. The boat owner is left stranded.

Boat Transport By Sea

How can you avoid brokers and instead deal with the actual transporter?

It’s easy. When looking for boat transport by sea transporter, confirm if you’re speaking to a carrier or a broker. Ask the company to send you contact details for their available agents both at the loading and discharging ports. Unlike a broker, a carrier will have relationships with a vessel agent at each departure and entry port. If they hesitate to provide you this information, it's likely you’re dealing with a broker.

For further evidence, a reputable boat transporter will offer pickup services and handle your boat from the initial loading to the discharge port. You could think of this as buying something straight from the wholesaler rather than from the retailer. When you do away with the middleman, the deal certainly becomes better. When you choose to deal with the actual transporter, you will save money, time and avoid grief and delays.

After identifying a reputable company, you can that can take care of your boat transport by sea, next is to use this list and put a tick on every step completed.

  • Preparing the boat for transport: transom straps and bows should be in working order, remove any electronics and secure them, and secure any loose items. There is so much that goes into preparing your boat for transport and if you get stuck doing it, don’t hesitate to call your transporter for guidance.
  • Applying for permits
  • Confirming the shipping costs
  • Going through the transporters insurance cover for boats transportation
  • Clearing with customers
  • Taking delivery

For more information on how to transport your boat by sea, feel free to contact us. We will be happy to hear from you.

Transport Your Boat By Sea Help
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Joe Webster always knew the auto transport industry would be a great career option. And with decades of experience, Joe is now an established consultant for A1 Auto Transport.

Joe was born in Santa Cruz, California. During high school, Joe worked as a mechanic; a job continued to work part-time during his bachelor's degree.

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A1 Auto Transport... From the get go, they were very different from my past options. Their website was very professional and up to date, full of useful information. I requested a quote using their online form, and I got an email response within an hour. Surprisingly fast!

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I can safely say this is a legit company that will get the job done.
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There are a lot of options for auto transport these days, which surprisingly makes it harder to find a good company. I received more than 10 offers to ship my car, but I couldn’t decide on any of them... Fortunately, I made the right choice with A1 Auto Transport.

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We give A1 Auto Transport a big 10 out of 10! We chose them to move our car from California to Vermont, since we needed professionals.

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A-1 Auto Transport is a disclosed agent for the following shipping companies:

CSI Logistics
435 Division Street
Elizabeth, NJ 07201
FMC 22206
Intl Cargo
45 Campus Drive
Edison, NJ 08837
NO. 17858N
Trans Global Auto Logistics, Inc.
3401 E Randol Mill Rd,
Arlington, TX 76011
NO. 018191NF
CFR Rinkens
15501 Texaco Avenue
Paramount, CA 90723
NO. 013055NF
ABC Worldwide LLC
2840 NW 2nd Ave #105
Boca Raton, FL 33431
NO. 025472F
ShipYourCarNow LLC
1160 South Rogers Circle Suite 1
Boca Raton, FL 33487
NO. 025646
Merco Air & Ocean Cargo, Inc.
6 Fir Way
Cooper City, FL 33026
NO. 021869F
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