During our trip from Panama to Colombia with the FerryXpress, on January 14th 2015 (without our camper van), we had time enough to observe and puzzle about the weird situation that there was so much space for cars in the ferry, but cars weren't allowed.
What is wrong here and why is it not possible to transport any cars? The last report was that they had to build a new dock for loading the cars in Panama because of safety regulations.
If you walk around in the harbor in Colon in Panama you don't see any activity at all; nothing which has to do with improvement of the dock.
On the Colombian site everything looks perfect. The landing is in a cruise ship terminal and well organized with 10 people from customs who say "welcome in Colombia" and stamp your passport. To my opinion the problems are between FerryXpress and the Custom authorities of Panama. The ship should have been sailing at 07.00 pm but customs arrived late with only two persons to check all the passports. Two persons for a couple of hundred passengers! It was ridiculous.The staff of FerryXpress looked at it, shake their heads and turned around. The ship had a delay of almost 1.5 hours.
Shipping your car out of Panama with the FerryXpress does mean that customs have to change a lot. To get your car on a boat, you have to get a lot of stamps and papers in 4 different buildings in a different harbor area of 4 kilometers and finally you undergo inspection of the vehicle by customs and narcotic dog (of course we don't understand the reason for the narcotic dog when you go to Colombia).
So now FerryXpress is asking to change the whole system and logistics. I think this is the issue and it has nothing to do with the dock in the harbor. And of course, you also need more people and maybe small offices. And who is going to pay for this?
The Ferry is owned by a Italian company 'SNAV' and at this moment they are not very willing to invest in this Project. You can see that in staffing and the cheap terminal in Panama. FerryXpress brought their own people: half of the staff is Italian and half is Russian. Strange, because if you have a long term planning you will take staff from Panama or Colombia. Much more friendly to the countries and also cheaper.
The good part is the ship is nice and safe. It is build in the Netherlands and what we Dutch can ..... is building ships. 😃.
The funny part happened in the middle of the night. We got a sms from our provider: 'Welcome in .... (no not Columbia)......Italy!!!!!' For a moment we thought we took the wrong Ferry.
Off course this is a Ferry Tale and not based on any facts. It was only my observation. We hope for everyone that I am totally wrong.
Macro Brouwers
Dutch M.Y. Live
Read how to save your food here
What is wrong here and why is it not possible to transport any cars? The last report was that they had to build a new dock for loading the cars in Panama because of safety regulations.
If you walk around in the harbor in Colon in Panama you don't see any activity at all; nothing which has to do with improvement of the dock.
On the Colombian site everything looks perfect. The landing is in a cruise ship terminal and well organized with 10 people from customs who say "welcome in Colombia" and stamp your passport. To my opinion the problems are between FerryXpress and the Custom authorities of Panama. The ship should have been sailing at 07.00 pm but customs arrived late with only two persons to check all the passports. Two persons for a couple of hundred passengers! It was ridiculous.The staff of FerryXpress looked at it, shake their heads and turned around. The ship had a delay of almost 1.5 hours.
Shipping your car out of Panama with the FerryXpress does mean that customs have to change a lot. To get your car on a boat, you have to get a lot of stamps and papers in 4 different buildings in a different harbor area of 4 kilometers and finally you undergo inspection of the vehicle by customs and narcotic dog (of course we don't understand the reason for the narcotic dog when you go to Colombia).
So now FerryXpress is asking to change the whole system and logistics. I think this is the issue and it has nothing to do with the dock in the harbor. And of course, you also need more people and maybe small offices. And who is going to pay for this?
The Ferry is owned by a Italian company 'SNAV' and at this moment they are not very willing to invest in this Project. You can see that in staffing and the cheap terminal in Panama. FerryXpress brought their own people: half of the staff is Italian and half is Russian. Strange, because if you have a long term planning you will take staff from Panama or Colombia. Much more friendly to the countries and also cheaper.
The good part is the ship is nice and safe. It is build in the Netherlands and what we Dutch can ..... is building ships. 😃.
The funny part happened in the middle of the night. We got a sms from our provider: 'Welcome in .... (no not Columbia)......Italy!!!!!' For a moment we thought we took the wrong Ferry.
Off course this is a Ferry Tale and not based on any facts. It was only my observation. We hope for everyone that I am totally wrong.
Macro Brouwers
Dutch M.Y. Live
Read how to save your food here