Import Consolidated Freight

This page is about importing freight from the U.S. to Nicaragua. That is, typically new goods that are relatively large but not necessarily a full cargo container. For general mailing information and such, see How To Send/Receive International Packages.

How to Consolidate

First, what is consolidation? This basically means getting someone in the U.S. to accept items from multiple vendors, put them together into one shipment, do all the paperwork and ship them. This doesn't necessarily mean a company with a boat or airplane—just someone that understands how to put all the pieces together and get it shipped.

I searched and searched for a company that would do this. I came up with two solutions. The first is the "real one", the second is cheating a bit but it works for smaller items.

Republic Shipping Consolidators is who I found and ended up using. They are a NVOCC which, translated to English means Non-Vessel Owner Common Carrier. In other words, they consolidate and get the containers loaded onto someone else's boat.

You will find there are minimum charges and sizes but the cost of the minimums is not that large compared to courier services. As I remember, Republic's minimum is about $350 and that is for a lot of stuff both weight and size-wise.

To use this method, you:

1. Tell the consolidator what you are doing and make all the arrangements with them.
2. Tell the vendors to ship to them. In my case, it was to ship to CoolTop Properties c/o Republic. That told them it was for the shipment.
3. Send the consolidator copies of all the invoices so they can prepare the Bill of Lading.
4. When they have everything, they ship it.
5. If the order is over $2000, you will need a customs agent on the receiving end. They will need information on the shipment and originals of all the invoices.

The second method is to use someone that doesn't consolidate but will ship to Nicaragua in conjunction with someone that will consolidate but doesn't offer shipping options other than U.S. mail and courier services. In other words, Private Mailbox (PMB) Services. It basically works like this:

1. You ship all the packages (from multiple vendors) to your PMB.
2. When they have all arrived you ask them to repackage them into one box, label it with some useful customs information and ship it to a freight forwarder.
3. You tell the freight forwarder you have a box from vendor X (really you at your PMB), here is the invoice info and please ship it to your Nicaragua address.

The result should be one package to ship, one customs clearance fee to pay and everything works out fine. I have actually done this using US Global Mail and TransExpress. It was uneventful.

Who Not to Deal With

Some U.S.-based vendors don't have a clue about how to do paperwork that might be useful for international shipments. As an example, I had Harbor Freight ship some items to the consolidator. I received an invoice in email that said the order has been shipped. Apparently it had but there was no indication that it was in multiple boxes (there were seven) and no packing lists within each box. Email and phone calls from both me and the consolidator never got a useful response.

Northern Tool was a bit better but not a lot. I received separate packing lists but their actual packing was clumsy and bulky. When shipping by boat, the primary consideration is size, not weight.

Both of these vendors were on my consolidator's "problem list". There are certainly others. If you don't know, talk to the vendor and see if you can get a feeling for their ability to pack small but safe and tell you what is in each box. While Harbor may be cheap, you can end up paying more once you add in freight charges.

What About Duties?

First, be warned that import duties are apparently Nicaragua's biggest revenue source. Thus, the goal seems to be to maximize the duty as long as you don't object.

There are some exemptions—agricultural supplies, for example. But, based on what others have told me, get approvals in advance if you expect to import duty-free.

Also, expect "game playing". For example, we imported a large generator from China. Customs asked for a serial number from us to check against the equipment. While we had received detailed paperwork on the shipment, there was no mention of a serial number. We finally told customs it didn't have one. They said they would look and if it did, they would fine us $100. Well, it didn't.

All in all, this is what your customs agent is for. It is their job to get the right paperwork to aduanas and deal with exemptions and such. Note that I am not recommending a customs agent here as I am not pleased with ours.

What about the TLC you ask? Ha ha. If you read the TLC (CAFTA) you would already know it was designed to allow big U.S. corporations to import into Central American countries duty-free while protecting the U.S. from goods traveling in the other direction. Mexico learned this with NAFTA.

If you are ordering a bunch of drums of poison from Monsanto to spray on your land, for example, TLC will probably help you out. But, at least in my experience, buying things clearly made in the U.S. by a "typical little company" will never get TLC-approved.