Greetings,
One week of “Lock Down” nearly completed!
We dearly hope no one reading this is affected directly or indirectly by COVID 19 and everyone continues to stay healthy. We trust you and your fellow “bubble” sharers are well and keeping active and positive during these restrictive times.
Autohub NZ staff are all well and working remotely. Given the short notice on the implementation of Level 4 lock down, we did well in getting set up off site – the best way to communicate with us remains via email, however, you can reach us by phone if needed.
Now that a week has passed and the effects brought about by the lockdown on our daily lives are more clear, it seems to be a good time to go over a few things you may have questions on, and a few things we would like to pass on too…
- Essential/Non-essential – Currently, under the Rules under the lock down period , Motor vehicles are NOT classed as “essential” cargo. Ports are considered “essential” facilities, and are required to remain cleared and capable of receiving essential goods (such as food and medical supplies). As this is the case, vehicle transporter companies are authorised to move “non-essential” motor vehicle cargo off port to storage. They ARE NOT allowed to deliver vehicles to “non-essential” businesses (such as compliance centres or dealer yards etc). In fact, should any compliance centre or dealer yard open to receive vehicles, it is in breach of the rules and persons involved could face fines and/or imprisonment. Please do not ask transporter companies or Autohub staff to facilitate deliveries during lock down as this will simply not happen.
If you are however, a supplier of vehicle/s to an essential service/s (such as fire engines, ambulances etc), and there are specific vehicle/s required to be supplied to that essential service during the Alert level 4 period, then please contact us. - Storage costs for vehicles directed to storage due to Govt. COVID 19 lock down requirements – Autohub has been in negotiations with companies providing our vehicle storage in order to secure the best rates possible for vehicles diverted to storage during the COVID 19 lockdown.
We are now able to confirm that for ALL vehicles placed or going into storage from March 25th 2020 until vehicles can be delivered once again, storage costs will be charged at $2.50 plus GST per vehicle, per day. We are working on other potential ways to mitigate costs further and will advise in due course.
Please note that any vehicles which have not received an Agents release and /or still have outstanding D2D and Customs GST invoices will be reverted back to standard daily storage rates as per our standard Terms of Trade.
- Documentation – All documentation such as Japanese Export Certificates, V5C’s etc will be kept securely by Autohub until the lock down period is lifted and courier services return to normal. We have asked Japan to stop sending deregs until further notice as we are concerned documents may be mislaid during this time. Once the lock down is lifted, it may pay for you to contact your compliance centre and confirm when they are reopened from. Let us know as this will help get vehicles and documents to them in a suitable time frame.
- Autohub services continue – Autohub shipping services will continue during lock down. Vehicles can still be booked and shipped from Japan, UK and Australia (COVID 19 country policies may change at any time and prevent this) during this lock down, however, please understand that should they arrive during this, they will automatically go into storage.
- Autohub and exporter charges – Autohub would like to thank all customers that are continuing to pay invoices in the normal fashion on time. This is greatly appreciated as we still continue to pay all pre-export inspection and service providers, shipping lines and Customs GST as vehicles arrive.
We would greatly appreciate customers continuing to pay their accounts on time, regardless of the fact we cannot currently deliver vehicles. This will ensure your vehicles are set as “released” in our system which will ensure priority delivery once the lock down period has ended.
- Autobridge Finance – Autobridge have advised us that, unless otherwise requested by Dealers, Autobridge is also postponing the funding of any further vehicles for floorplan customers until the lockdown is lifted. This is to ensure funding periods, and any associated charges, will only begin from the point when vehicles are available for delivery. For further details, please contact sales@autobridge.co.nz or your Autobridge sales representative.
As always, if you have any questions or need further information re the above, please contact us at customerservices@autohub.co.nz
Please stay well and we will continue to send out updates as more information comes to hand.
Team Autohub.