Season’s Greetings!…
Well, 2021 is nearly over and that will be a relief for many of us. I hope business is in an okay shape for you all and you can now turn your attention to having quality time with family and friends over the Christmas/New Year’s period.
Despite COVID interruptions to both business and personal matters, we have all soldiered on – particularly the last half of the year, and we thank you for your continuing support. Autohub staff have worked in isolation from home for the best part of 4 months, and I hope that you did not experience too much change in our services.
Some housekeeping matters before we close up…
We will still have vessels arriving over the holiday break. This has been hard to rearrange as vessel space is becoming difficult to get – if its available, we have to use it!
So…please monitor closely when your vehicles are due to arrive. Please ensure ALL invoices requiring payment are addressed so vehicles do not go to storage unnecessarily, and please ensure that your vehicles can be delivered – If your compliance centre is closed, or if your nominated delivery place cannot receive vehicles, please arrange an alternative location and let us know well beforehand.
We have now stopped sending documentation (deregs etc) from our office. This is to ensure documents do not go astray during the holiday period as couriers are very overloaded at present. For those in Auckland, you will be able to collect deregs from our office if required. Just please call first and make an appointment so we can have your documents ready prior to your arrival. Please also ensure anyone visiting our office is at least double vaccinated against COVID. We will resume sending documentation from the 5th of January.
Next Year…
Unfortunately, we been advised by shipping lines that vessel charter costs have risen significantly. Its difficult for us to see why the price increase amount is so high, but despite there being some plausible reasons, I do feel we are now in a time where the “power” has shifted back into their hands somewhat.
Autohub will endeavour to keep any further price increases from shipping lines down via negotiation, but I do anticipate we will have to accept some increases. As they say, “watch this space”…
For now, let’s leave the dramas for next year to one side. On behalf of Team Autohub, myself, and all our service providers, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year. Here’s to looking at a better 2022!
Frank Willett
CEO
Autohub NZ Ltd.