zz2017

Hi folks,

please do you know how long is taking for the cars to arrive to the dealer in the US once production is complete? So time between car being ready to be shipped (VIN generates) and landing at the dealer.

Thanks!

giovane

I've been told about a month.

mercedesmax

@ 2 months to the west coast

giovane

Does anyone know the shipping route from the East London port (South Africa) to US? Do they stop in Europe?

I was trying to follow instructions from this thread
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...errerid=506785
but I can't see wallenius wilhelmsen routes going from SA to US

23C300W4

Unfortunately the information in this thread is for transport from Germany to the US. Our cars are coming from South Africa. I don't know the information for South Africa.

giovane

On the original thread someone said they should stop in Bremerhaven (Germany) before coming to US.

23C300W4

No idea. If my sales guy gives me a ship name I'll share it.

Dmj958

I’m trying to figure this out myself. I got my vessel name back in December when it was loaded on and I’ve been tracking it. However it doesn’t seem as if this vessel goes to the US at all so I’m confused as to how it will get here or if they change ships at some point. I looked up the ship routes and there’s no destination for the US anywhere.

giovane

Most likely they transfer the car to a different vessel at some point.
Were you able to track via https://www.walleniuswilhelmsen.com/track-trace using your po# as customer reference number?

Dmj958

Nope I haven’t been able to. I tried that initially when I got the ship name. My car was on the Grande Dakar which is operated by Grimaldi Lines. It left SA on December 29th and i’ve tracked it up to a few days ago when the ship got to Hamburg. Now it’s a a matter of when it’ll continue again since I’m sure it’s not on that ship anymore.

mercedesmax

Typically ships from SA go to Europe, pick up more cars and then come to the US.

Dmj958

I think I found out which ship it’s going to be on based off that logic too. The Arc Defender just left Bremerhaven and is on it’s way to Belgium where my original ship stopped back on Jan. 27th where i assumed the car was unloaded. After Belgium it goes to Southampton and then Baltimore (me). I just hope this is the right ship.

superswiss

As said above, the shipping routes are pretty much around the world. They come up from South Africa and stop and the European ports to drop off cars and pick up more cars from the factories in Europe. Then the sail to North America East Coast, then Southern parts, through the Panama Canal and up the West Coast, then to Asia and eventually come back to South Africa and the loop continuous. Some ships may do short back and forward routes, but generally the sail around the world stopping at various ports. The ship my car was on after my European Delivery trip also came up from SA, picked up my car in Bremerhaven and then made its way to the US West Coast.

How long the journey takes is hard to say, because sometimes the cars sit around at the port for a while before they get picked up. It's also possible that a car from SA gets unloaded in Bremerhaven for some additional work such as missing parts before it heads on. The VPC in the USA is the last place where they can do additional factory work before it finally gets delivered to the dealership.

giovane

The vehicle carrier Morning Lucy arrived this morning in East London, coming from Europe. I'll keep an eye on it for the next couple of days, hopefully it's our ride @23C300W4 .

Edit: after some research it appears Morning Lucy is going East to Korea. Maybe the next vessel coming from Asia going to Europe will stop in East London, and it appears to be the Eukor Morning chant.

giovane

Found this post from 2 years ago on the W205 forum. The OP received his C class 2 months after production was completed.
https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...th-africa.html

giovane

This is the website of East London port. Every week they post a bulletin with the vessel traffic.
It's easy to tell the vehicle cargos on those lists and then google those vessel names to track them.

https://africaports.co.za/category/East-London/

Monta3

Any updates on if you have received your car or know when you'll receive it? I'm in the same boat, no pun intended, waiting for a ship from SA.

giovane

No updates. Mine is still baking under the African sun waiting for a ride.
There are a couple of vehicle cargos stopping by this week in East London, hopefully one of them will be the right one.

23C300W4

Looks like the Glorious Ace, which was in Brunswick, GA on its most trip to East London, is scheduled into East London on the 26th.

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9561277

giovane

There are a bunch of Ace ships coming in the next 10 days.
Glovis Symphony (owned by Hyundai) is moored right now. Let’s see where it’s headed to, once it leaves East London

Monta3

I see there's a bunch of ships coming in, there are only 2 docks in east london for vehicle carrier ships. Maybe that explains why the Hyundai ship is moored, no room. I'll update if I hear anything from my dealer.

giovane

For those curious on how they pack cars inside one of those ships, here's a good video

Greg Buechler

Very interesting video. I noticed that the available headroom changes from deck to deck, so the load plan has to account for that and taller vehicles like G- or GLS-Class rigs can't be stowed in the lower decks. The same applies to heavy trucks or other large vehicles. The very tight spacing is remarkable. I'm sure for some vehicles on-board tech like surround-view cameras can help, but otherwise a guide is absolutely necessary to position cars that close without hitting one. I live in the vicinity of Portland, and ships like this routinely travel upriver to unload cargoes at one or another of the Port of Portland's terminals. It's fun to sit in a hotel room in Astoria on a rainy weekend afternoon and cue up Marinetraffic.com to see what's coming over the bar into the Columbia River. Within half an hour or so, the ship will pass right by your window. Usually bulk carriers, but we have seen a car carrier go by.

And of course, these aren't just used for cars. Right now, a similar ship is en route from South Carolina to Poland with a cargo of Bradley IFVs for Ukraine.

superswiss

Haven't watched this video and it seems to be a short one. There are much better longer videos that go into much more details. It's way more complicated than this. Some of the decks can actually be adjusted for taller or lower vehicles depending on what's on the manifest. The loading strategy is also highly complex. The weight has to be distributed such that the vessel doesn't flip over in rough weather. Can't be top heavy or too much wait on one side vs the other. There has been a recent case of a RORO tipping over, because the weight wasn't distributed properly. Then they also have to plan where certain vehicles have to be unloaded, so that they don't have to rearrange a bunch of decks in order to get the vehicles out, and again, weight distribution has to be taken into account every time they unload and load.

Greg Buechler

The particular ship in the video doesn't appear to have adjustable decks, and none the ramps looked adjustable in any way. The dude filming it walked down all the ramps to the lowest deck looking around and pointing out various features, then climbed back up via the companionway ladders. Anyone who has ever been on a ship of any size, car ferries included, will recognize the environment. Totally agree that proper weight distribution is absolutely critical for ship stability. I would assume that under certain circumstances ballast could be pumped in or out to compensate for a load that isn't perfectly centered, but that might only be done at dockside to keep the ship stable as it is unloaded. The video did discuss the load plan with respect to where cars destined for various ports are stowed so that no car has to be moved unnecessarily when offloading.