How Long Does Compliance Take?

[Manuel Kasko]

Nah not yet mate, the guys are waiting on canberra paper work.

[BigWillieStyles]

Me too. Another delay...

[SecretR33GTR]

Ok just to let you in a on a little hint - Adam has a Stagea in our shop that we lodged a very long time ago with Dotars.

He has just had a new baby and needed a station wagon so we bought one and shipped it - now this is for him personally and his wife is a very tough woman (being nice here). He has been getting no end of grief about the time it has taken to comply the car from his wife - so he especially understands your frustration.

The worst thing that anyone can do is call DOTARS and give them the vin on their car and say it is taking too long, as this makes them look at your vin and if they are visiting Sydney or wherever the compliance shop is they will stop in and check the car. Now if they find one thing that does not comply on the car (it could be a missing seatbelt tag or say Nismo taillights) they will hold the car up for at least 6 weeks while they go through the paperwork response from the RAWS shop (this is referred to as DI - discussion item). Other things cause DI's such as using a fullstop in the wrong place (yes that simple) and some VIS (vehicle inspection certificates) are 8 + pages long it is more than frustrating for me personally as I do 80% of our paperwork. I often spend more time fixing up a DI that actually complying a car - just to make DOTARS happy.

We all know minor things make ZERO difference in the real world but these guys are like Highway Patrol cops and seem to get off on slowing things down. I prefer to get cars in and out quick as that is how we make money - the longer a car sits the less space we have to work and in practice the less money we make.

If one of the DOTARS staff goes on Holidays his / her work just piles up.

Perfect example - we had 13 cars sitting in bonded storage @$20 per day due to the fact we were unable to get VIA's from the second week of Dec to the 1st week of Feb. Why might you ask ? Well they had the majority of their staff off on annual leave and ran a skeleton staff just to get the VICS processed. By the way we paid the $260 per day not the clients as we try to be fair with everybody.

Yes I called to ask what was happening and was told "the rules state you can't ship the car until you get the VIA", which is correct but if you sit a car on the wharf in Japan you will also accumulate storage fees.

It is a calculated risk if you ship prior to getting the VIA but 90% of the time it works ok.

I hope this explains things a little better.

[Manuel Kasko]

Haha sounds like a shit of a job!
These DOTARS people sound like they don't mess around and do seem worse than the defect police.

I haven't bothered calling DOTARS because as Kristian said the people who call them seem to wait the longest.

Thanks for being so transparent about what's been going on and taking the time to reply in here.

[nashy311]

Yeah thanks for clearing things up SecretR33.

I feel your pain I deal with RMS (rta) a bit at work and they pull the same stuff. Worry more about typos then the actual content of a report.

[r32-25t]

Seems to have driven backwards for 50,000km in those 50 days as well

[djvoodoo]

[Deleted]

SecretR33gtr is one of the best compliance/importers in the business with 20+ years of experience in the field. Iron Chef uses him.

[nashy311]

Yeah we know. Dodgyimports is just showing how much easier life is on the dark side.

50 days geez that's shorter then some guys have been waiting for compliance alone.

[djvoodoo]

I understand where Dodgyimports is coming from, but taking shortcuts is part of the reason why shit cars make it to our shores in the first place. Omission of repairs etc and then for sale at Edward Lee's as mint condition

[Manuel Kasko]

Dave I think you may have missed the sarcasm intended in his post.

His pretty much saying that JLM are doing a good job and good jobs take time.

[dodgyimports]

yes - massive amount of sarcasm in my post.

it's disgusting to see cases like this - and frustrating to see that those whose jobs are to manage and regulate this area continue to ignore this issue - all the while they make things harder for the good guys too. is there ANYTHING they ARE getting right?

[djvoodoo]

yes - massive amount of sarcasm in my post.

it's disgusting to see cases like this - and frustrating to see that those whose jobs are to manage and regulate this area continue to ignore this issue - all the while they make things harder for the good guys too. is there ANYTHING they ARE getting right?

Lol, sorry Dodgy, my sarcasm detector was not working yesterday!

[Manuel Kasko]

Me too. Another delay...

Any more info on yours?

[BigWillieStyles]

Any more info on yours?

Yeah I spoke with them on Thursday and was told fri or mon it should be ready. Haven't heard a word yet although i am in Japan so not sure if this is barring calls. I know don't believe it has anything to do with dotars delays. It's more to do with workshops taking more cars than they can handle!

Edited March 25, 2014 by BigWillieStyles

[nashy311]

I've been getting that same feeling for a while now. Fair sure its in the 'when we get a chance' basket.

[Guest]

Yeah I spoke with them on Thursday and was told fri or mon it should be ready. Haven't heard a word yet although i am in Japan so not sure if this is barring calls. I know don't believe it has anything to do with dotars delays. It's more to do with workshops taking more cars than they can handle!

They always blame DOTARS if they cant keep up of if there plate alocation has run out.

[Manuel Kasko]

Seems like a few of us are all having the same delays so it will probably be a huge holdup with DOTARS.

But has anyone had a car arrive in the last 3 months and have it pass compliance easily?

My car arrived in Sydney on the 1st of December & next week will pass the 5 month mark for total time spent importing.

[Sinista32]

must be absolutely spewin !

although no alternative, you guys have patience that's for certain.

when you cant do anything about it then you cant waste energy on emotion

did you not got any info on timeframe when doing business with importers?

meaning is this common this wait and see how long it takes. Most govt agency's have SLA's

I know of the downsizing of all government departments but this is beyond belief.

most departments have not been slashed yet

Approved vehicles link

RAWS site says it can take up to 20 days (1month)

So what has DotaRS said about their timeframe/delay ?

Complaints to [email protected]

Edited March 25, 2014 by Sinista32

[GTR-N1]

If I worked at DOTARS I'd rather say over a BBQ that I was in the business of being a 'mechanic'

[Manuel Kasko]

When it arrived I was originally given a time frame of about 2-3 weeks normally. After a month passed I followed up and was told it would be another week. Then after that it would be a couple of weeks. Next time frame was that it would be about a month and most recent was that it would be last week.

Most of my family and friends have just given up asking when I get my car because I keep telling them "next week"