Shipping A Vehicle Via 2Go

My Mom has been living with us here in Manila for the past 4 years, and she had recently gone back to Bacolod to be in familiar surroundings. With that, we arranged for her things to be shipped as well as her car. 2Go seems to be our only option so we had her stuff shipped last week via sea, and had a booking for her car to be shipped yesterday. This is my experience (almost) shipping a vehicle via 2Go.

Typhoon Henry had just left the country, trailing after Glenda, and we found out that another one was coming in named Inday that day. Undaunted, husband and I made our way to Manila North Harbor at Pier 2 to deliver the car. 2Go Rolling Cargo requires that the vehicle to be shipped must be brought to the pier 24 hours before booking. We had already called for booking a week before as advised by their Customer Service people who were very helpful.

We were already familiar with the area as we had gone there at least 4 times before – 3 times to drop off and pickup our helpers who came in from Bacolod, and once when we almost saw the Manila Galleon exhibit (The queue was too long that we decided to just eat at the nearby Shakeys instead. LOL!) .

It was raining on and off but we were thankful that there was ample parking although the entire garage was muddy (“kaka-semento lang po kase”, explained the person there. I did not see how that accounted for the mud but meh). We were already worried about getting home from the pier because there was no public transportation at all from the inside so we would have had to walk a kilometer to exit the area and hail a taxi outside. In the rain! 

The 2Go office still had the Negros Navigation sign up (2Go now owns it). There were 10 counters although about half of them were closed. Only 4-5 other customers were around so it wasn’t too busy. I noticed that only the personnel had air conditioning behind the glass counters while the customers were treated to ceiling fans. It didn’t really matter because it was cold anyway but I can only imagine what it’s like there in the summer. The a/c unit was also installed in a way that its exterior is inside the customer waiting area so you can just imagine the heat coming from it.

Anyway, the personnel were helpful and pointed us to the information desk to fill out the form and have the car measured. The information desk was empty and we were told by security to wait. And wait we did. For about 30 minutes. When the guy at the information desk finally arrived, he and the husband went back to the muddy garage to measure the vehicle and came back with an estimate. It took about 5 minutes. The estimate was around 24k. The shipping cost has always been in that ballpark. So far, so good.

Our papers were taken to one of the windows where we waited another 30 minutes until it was our turn. The lady behind the window came back with the final cost and it was brought further down to 22k++. Great! At that time, it was already pouring outside. We were then told to “go to the other building at the back”. The storm was in full swing by then and it was really windy out. There was no covered walkway and we had to go around the building to reach the one at the back. I was already cursing at this time. I already had a cold so you can imagine my irritation.

We reached the other building only to be told by the man behind the window to go to the “arastre” (hauling area), pointing to another building, er, container. We went out in the rain again and crossed to the area where there were workers in safety jackets squeezed together like sardines, waiting their turn. It didn’t seem like there was a line but there actually were different queues for each of the 4 windows. About 30 men were huddled together and I felt a sense of dread come over me. My poor husband had to squeeze himself in to get to the second window that processed whatever it was for private vehicles (it turned out to be a pass). We waited about an hour – thankfully, there was a makeshift roof and a ledge that was vacated to make room for me to sit on. By this time, my sandals were already full of mud and my feet were cold and wet. One of the men in line told me that the place was always busy, day and night. In fact, the queue could have been worse, he said, as it was turning out to be a slow day due to the storm.

When it was husband’s turn, he was asked to go to “the other building over there with the light”. I don’t know how I hadn’t lost it at this point. I think it was because my husband was so cool about everything that I didn’t dare complain. We went out into the rain again but couldn’t find where that other building was because there were so many makeshift buildings made out of containers and the visibility was really poor. I decided to stay behind in one of those boxes so that I don’t slow him down. I was also feeling really wretched by then.

He came back about 15 minutes later and told me that he was supposed to get a clearance but was refused due to the fact that there were still 18 private vehicles to be shipped from the last voyage but were delayed due to the storm. We could not be accommodated and they weren’t sure when we can be because of the storm and the fact that private vehicles are last on the priority list. They also pointed out that they had already alerted 2Go not to received any more vehicle cargo. All that after he went from one building to another for 15 minutes in search of the right one. And so…

We had to let the hauling people know that we could not get the clearance and then return to the 2Go office to cancel the booking and ask for a refund.

When I later told my sister about this, she was so shocked that I didn’t lose it and quarreled with 2Go. I guess I was that sick that I didn’t have the strength to fight anymore. LOL!

The silver lining of that entire experience was the ever-gentlemanly nature of the Filipino. The men at the arastre gallantly gave up the entire ledge  for me and told me to stay where I was (at the entrance) so that I don’t get squished in the sea of men. The employees of 2Go where I sought cover were also very polite and had me sit inside, and even turned off their ceiling fan so that I didn’t get too cold as I was coughing nonstop at the time. Chivalry is not dead! At least not in the Philippines.

I contemplated making another booking but dreaded having the same experience. It wouldn’t have been that bad if the weather was good that day. Still, shame on 2Go for accepting the booking that day even with the notice not to. They can also do better by streamlining their process for the customers instead of just saying “that building” without any concrete instructions or even a step-by-step guide like the one in LTO. And walkways! Please let there be walkways.

We traveled back home for four hours. I am never going to go through that much hassle ever again. No wonder cargo companies charge an arm and a leg to process the shipping themselves.