I have twice bought car parts on Ebay in the past 4 months which were flown in from Germany - and arrived three days after ordering.
Shell synthetic oil (£19) - and Sachs rear coil spring £35(the Yaris let us down!).In both cases, DHL were the courier, the parts were packed and labelled in Germany - an automated warehouse - flown to the UK and delivered by courier the next day. And on line tracking let you know where it was.
Most impressive.
If we do end up with tariffs after Brexit, it will hit that hard.
PS. The Coil Spring was from Carparts4less - ECP's ebay arm. The Price on ECP's website was £65 - although discounts can be had - versus Ebay's £35.
|
>>
>> If we do end up with tariffs after Brexit, it will hit that hard.
You can tell me I don't understand, but, if all else fails, don't we revert to WTO tariff rate i.e. 10%?
Simple as that?
Or not?
|
I was working with an exporter of expensive machines recently (£300k to £1m each for factories).
They have been doing a lot of work re Brexit and have plans in place for different eventualities.
With no agreement they see the following:
1. 10% tariff.
2. Export licence.
3. Import licence (which the buyer has to get).
4. Goods stopped at ports and inspected adding to the delay.
The actual paperwork and instructions stretches to 3 full lever arch files.
Now, this firm is lucky. They are professional and have plans in place. Many don't.
They have lost about 30% of their order book from Europe due to Brexit. European companies just don't want the risk even though their prices are cheaper by 10-20% due to the lower £ / € rate and a 10% import duty will wipe out much of the benefit of that.
What they see as their real problem is competing with a European based company that can deliver a spare part within 24 hours for a factory when theirs can be held up by paperwork, licences and customs. The parts are too expensive for local stock holdings.
|
>> >>
>> >> If we do end up with tariffs after Brexit, it will hit that hard.
>>
>> You can tell me I don't understand, but, if all else fails, don't we revert
>> to WTO tariff rate i.e. 10%?
>>
>> Simple as that?
>>
>> Or not?
Not. Its not really the tariff, or lack of it, its the free movement of goods and customs union. If that ends we are looking at reams of paperwork, inspections, goods held up in warehouses. The french are good at holding things up, at one point they decided that all Video recorders from outside the EU would be handled through one centre (for the sake of efficiency you understand), the centre had the capability of handling 100 a day.
|
|
To be fair, the French are inclined to do that with goods manufactured in the EU. There's a reason there are very few non-French goods in France (where there is a French manufacturer).
|
>> and Sachs rear coil spring
Best practice is to replace both. If one's gone, the other won't be far behind as it's done the same amount of work. Not to mention the new one probably performing better than the old one.
|
>> Best practice is to replace both. If one's gone, the other won't be far behind
>> as it's done the same amount of work. Not to mention the new one probably
>> performing better than the old one.
I dispute that. The spring may have failed due to a fault not present in its pair.
Cars aren't symmetrical. Most modern FWD cars have the engine (and therefore more weight) over the right hand side. My car tends to get driven with one occupant - the driver, thus biasing more weight on the RH side. I've replaced single springs and never had an early failure of its pair.
A Fiat Panda I owned had a spacer on the front RH spring. This was fitted to all RHD models.
|
Wasn't that the point at which Alan Sugar, who was knocking out cheap Amstrad recorders, decided that flogging his range of cheap electronic gear in Europe was too much hassle.
Edit: in reply to Zero - dunno why it jumped a few posts.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate II on Fri 24 Feb 17 at 21:07
|
|
Sugar was very good at blaming all and sundry for for his woes.
|
I've had no contact in recent years, but way back in the first days of the Sky and BSB boxes he was inordinately shrewd. Overcooked it a couple of times, but generally uncommonly smart and driven.
I've always rather admired the man. Which is not the same as liking, though perhaps I'd like him as well if the situation arose.
|
|
I read a biography and while he is undoubtedly smart and shrewd I couldn't help feeling his early days benefitted from a bit of luck too.
|
Undoubtedly true. But....
What makes many of these types stand apart is their approach. They really are like a bull against a locked door. They've pushed themselves into a lot of wrong places, a lot of wrong times, fallen flat and then tried it again. They don't give up.
And then when it finally works everybody comments how lucky they were.
|
Flying in Parts _ Brexit - Duncan
