What could happen to your car during transit?

For most people who don’t like buying cars from bonds or from individual dealers around town, the only alternative is to import. The reason why a number of people have resorted to this option is because you get to choose a car of your choice from many options.
However, though car importing is currently trending, some people would not even consider this option, given the different risks involved.
In late 2011, Ben Mwine, a car importer and radio presenter, was importing a Toyota Hiace for his client from Japan through the Malaba border.
A few days after the importing agent had delivered the car at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) yard in Malaba, Mwine was shocked to learn that the car was not there yet no one had paper work to show how the car left.
“I was compelled to open up a case at police against Uganda Revenue Authority and it is still ongoing,” Mwine recalls, explaining that the car had taken three-and-a-half weeks to arrive at Malaba, including two days it took for it to be cleared at Mombasa and one day to get to Malaba.
As a car importer, Mwine says the process involves many risks and therefore, a number of things could happen to your car while it is in transit.

It can be sold

Ben Mwine, a car importer, says when a car arrives at a bond, it can only be kept there for six months. “If you have not picked it by this time, it will be auctioned,” he says adding that if there is an assessment for taxes to be paid, an importer is required to do it in not more than 21 days and if they exceed this number of days, URA notifies them and they (URA) can suspend the importer’s ability to import anything again, if they don’t respond. To render a car safe during transit, he advises that the importer should acquire transit insurance from Mombasa to Kampala.

Stolen

When the car is in transit, it has no official number plate. So it can easily be stolen.
To avoid cases of highway robbery between Mombasa and Malaba, and Kampala and Malaba, Mwine advises that the car importer or person delegated to drive the car ought to be careful how they drive. Solution
“It is not advisable for someone to drive alone. The best option is to get a colleague or two and drive in a convoy of at least five cars and avoid driving at night because some drivers are robbed and killed and the cars are never seen again,” Mwine advises.

Parts stolen and accidents

Molly Kyakyo, the Quality Control and human resource manager at Be Forward, one of the local car importers in Kireka, explains that some of the incidents that may happen to a car in transit include, it (the car) being vulnerable to accidents and parts such as the car jack, spare tyre and indicators getting plucked off.
“There are incidents where the car could be stolen. It could even happen between Mombasa and Kampala or when the ship has just docked at Mombasa,” Kyakyo says, citing a sad incident in early 2015 where a driver was killed along Iganga road, and the car stolen.
Small items such as car carpets, tyre pump, window knobs, car logos, leather seat covers, leather side mirror covers, car radio and the small television that comes in the car are also sometimes robbed. “By the time you receive the car when some parts are missing, you don’t know where to start from. You can’t accuse or sue the person or driver who cleared it at the port because you don’t know what parts the car had and those that were missing,” Omondi says, adding that if the car has a unique car jack, spare wheel tyre and PIAA (driving lights) sport lights, they may also not be spared from robbery.
In related situations, Kyakyo says depending on the country where the car is being imported, there are parts of a car you cannot easily notice that there are missing.
Such parts can easily be stolen when the car is being loaded from the bond onto the shipping vessel, and when it gets to the destination port where the owner picks or clears it, it cannot be driven but rather towed because some important parts are missing.
Kyakyo explains that when someone imports their car through registered importers, they sometimes, on top of the price of the car, also have to pay for city delivery.
“The importer should make sure that the importing agent offers a free guarantee that when a car is in transit and any accidents or spare part robberies happen, they replace them.” Kyakyo says.

Planned robbery

“At whichever port the car is offloaded by the importing agent, the person to clear or drive the car from the port to the bonafide owner may connive with port officials to rob the car of some parts or even the whole car,” Brian Omondi, another car importer, explains, adding that the car may sometimes be loaded onto the ship or vessel distined for a different country where chances of tracing and recovering it are minimal, if not impossible.