Customs clearance and quarantine

Upon arrival vehicles must go through customs clearance like any item entering the country. Additionally since cars can contain plant or animal material (such as insects, leaves or mud) they must be inspected by the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) to ensure that cars are free from any such contamination which could be introduced into Australia. Of particular concern is typically excessive mud in wheel wells or to the underbody, leaves or other plant matter anywhere on a car, and a few other things which are typically checked for. If cars are found to possibly be a quarantine risk they are cleaned at the port (often via steam cleaning) to remove these dangers.

The AQIS inspection, cleaning if needed and other customs related issues are handled by a customs clearance agent who acts on customer's behalf. J-Spec submits all of the necessary paperwork to a customs clearance agent who will take care of all of the customs and quarantine related issues, and can also arrange for freight forwarding of the car if you wish. As a result, although there are many tasks and costs along the way, the customs clearance agent takes care of the various customs issues and consolidates all of the various costs along the way into one invoice. As such all the customer needs to do in the entire customs and quarantine process is pay the one invoice and inform the customs clearance agent of where they would like the car delivered, if so desired. The rest is taken care of for you.

If customers wish to use their own customs clearance agent or make their own arrangements this is fine, but J-Spec is happy to coordinating with the customs clearance agent we typically use on your behalf at no extra cost.