In this episode I chat with Damien Mason from Mason Transport, a leader in international relocation services to and from Ireland. With over 28 years in the business, Damien shares with us the ins and outs of moving to and from Ireland after helping people move over the last three decades.
Navigating the task of moving cars, furniture, personal items and more is difficult without guidance and support on the restrictions, paperwork and coordination (especially when it could be months before you see your stuff again). Damien shares his advice on navigating customs, avoiding common pitfalls, and making your big move as smooth as possible.
The insights Damien shares in this episode could be the tips you need to make your move from or to Ireland that much easier. We hope you enjoy the episode and can ease the strain on your move!
Main Topics discussed in this Episode:
If you'd like to get in touch with Damien and Mason Transport to move your stuff to or from Ireland:
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If you loved this episode or have a similar story, we'd love to hear from you! You can get in touch with us directly at info@expattaxes.ie or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Taxbytes for Expats is brought to you by ExpatTaxes.ie. If you're considering moving to or from Ireland and would like support with your taxes, book a consultation today: https://expattaxes.ie/services-and-pricing/.
Mentioned in this episode:
Welcome to tax bytes for expats. The top tax tips you
Speaker:want to know as an expat, the podcast is here to help answer
Speaker:the common queries and concerns expats have when moving to
Speaker:or from Ireland. Complex taxes explained
Speaker:simply, we'll focus on the irish and international
Speaker:tax issues to be aware of to ensure you save time,
Speaker:money and stress. Hi everyone,
Speaker:welcome to this episode of Tax Bytes for expats.
Speaker:Today we are speaking with Damian Mason
Speaker:of Mason Transport. For those of you who might not be
Speaker:familiar with them, they offer a full door to door home relocation
Speaker:service both to and from Ireland, Australia, Canada,
Speaker:New Zealand, the US and Dubai to name but a few. They've been
Speaker:going since 1996 and their philosophy has always been to
Speaker:provide a high standard and personalised service to their customers. They
Speaker:offer customs clearance, movement of personal effects, air, ocean
Speaker:and road freight and car shipping, to name just a few of the offerings
Speaker:they have. As you can imagine, Damian is somebody who works with
Speaker:people who are moving to and from Ireland frequently and
Speaker:we really want to have a chat with them so we can understand and potentially
Speaker:debunk some of the myths that people come across in their research
Speaker:phase of planning their move. Damian, thank you so much for
Speaker:joining us. It's really, really nice to have you on the podcast. Hi Stephanie, how
Speaker:are you? Yeah, I'm not too bad, I'm not too bad. It's
Speaker:Friday, so it's always nice to record on a Friday and it's great to
Speaker:have you on. Absolutely. So Damien, for those who are listening
Speaker:who may not have heard of you, because I know a lot of people will
Speaker:have, you're very highly spoken of in the expat community
Speaker:for people coming to and from Ireland. Tell us a little bit about Mason transport
Speaker:and I'd love to hear a little bit specifically about you and
Speaker:what drew you to, I imagine is very interesting work.
Speaker:Very interesting. Well, I started this back in
Speaker:95. I worked for a manufacturing company and I just wanted
Speaker:to drive, basically just get out on the road and drive. So
Speaker:I had a good boss, he gave me a loan of a couple of thousand
Speaker:euro and I bought a van and I just started doing deliveries for different
Speaker:companies. And then after not so long, I just built it from
Speaker:there. Just, you know, advertising and delivering door to
Speaker:door and, you know, around Ireland, back and forth, UK
Speaker:and that's where it started. So I just kind of built
Speaker:it from there, then got another van, sold the two vans, got a
Speaker:truck and then eventually, just before I know it, you would have had like
Speaker:twelve trucks and we were flying, you know, but. Uh, no looking
Speaker:back. And now looking back. So the australian part,
Speaker:we just. I don't think we just came by chance, years ago
Speaker:and we shipped some stuff by air freighter, if I remember right. It
Speaker:was two Dubai and it went kind of smoothly. And I thought,
Speaker:this is something that we were able to do, you know. Yeah, that was it,
Speaker:really. And we just started advertising. Yeah. And so
Speaker:28 years in business, is that right? Or 28 years. Show me age
Speaker:now. Oh, look, experience.
Speaker:So, I suppose, look, there's loads of things we could talk about and to some
Speaker:extent, we want to kind of, I suppose, lend the discussion
Speaker:to the people who maybe are in the middle or about to embark on a
Speaker:move. And I'm conscious that you probably deal with
Speaker:people from numerous locations. One of the things that comes up,
Speaker:particularly, I suppose, for people who are maybe coming to Ireland, from
Speaker:the UK or from Australia, or from locations where they drive on the same side
Speaker:of the road of us, would be the importation of a car into Ireland.
Speaker:Talk us through that process, what it looks like, and I suppose
Speaker:specifically with reference to the fact that Ireland's one of the few places in the
Speaker:world that has a vehicle registration tax like we do, so people won't be
Speaker:familiar with that and the things they need to navigate. Yeah. So if,
Speaker:basically, if you're bringing a car into the country, say, Australia, you've
Speaker:got to own that car for a minimum of six months before you ship the
Speaker:car. And once you have your registration certificate, your
Speaker:insurance proof insurance and proof of
Speaker:purchase, and they're all in your own name dated over six
Speaker:months, you're moving home on a permanent basis, then you'd be entitled
Speaker:to VRT exemption for that vehicle. And just to kind
Speaker:of frame that, for anybody who's listening to this,
Speaker:VRT is a tax that's applied to the market
Speaker:value of the car as determined by the revenue commissioners. That's right, yeah.
Speaker:It's a very high percentage. I'm not familiar with the exact percentage, but
Speaker:I think it's normally in around the 20% mark, isn't it?
Speaker:Generally, and it's big money. If you have an expensive car, it can be very
Speaker:expensive. Plus you'll pay your 23% VAT
Speaker:on your import and 10% duty. So you've
Speaker:got. Going to pay VAT duty, then you're going to have VRT when you go
Speaker:to re register your vehicle. Yeah. Very expensive. Yeah. So it's very. It's
Speaker:worth, like if you. If you have a car, you know, wait, that extra couple
Speaker:of months before you head home rather than trying to get it home, you only
Speaker:over three or four months, you know, and the. Paperwork that you referenced
Speaker:there. So that's the paperwork someone needs to have on file so that when they
Speaker:bring the car into the country they're not going to get hit for the VRT.
Speaker:Is there any other conditions when they come back in relation to the car that
Speaker:need to be met so that they don't get hit? Um, VRT command, you need
Speaker:to try and get yourself hold of a certificate of conformity,
Speaker:a CoC certificate, and it shows the output, the emissions
Speaker:output on your vehicle. And that is very important because
Speaker:if you don't have that, you will get hit with the high tax bracket
Speaker:on your road tax, your yearly road tax. Where'd you get that certificate from,
Speaker:Damien? It's very hard to get it in Australia and everybody seems to seem
Speaker:to have problems with it, but the main dealer should be able to
Speaker:supply that to you, you know. Okay, yeah, but you could
Speaker:be paying 1200 euro tax on a high, you know, engine, big
Speaker:engine compared to the low, you know, if you had that cert, you'd only pay
Speaker:a few hundred quid, you know. Wow. Okay. So even when you get back,
Speaker:having your paperwork in place can mean that once you've got the car to the
Speaker:country, the insurance is lower. Very important. Yeah. So
Speaker:then if you're moving home, like, there's a lot of paperwork you need to prove
Speaker:that you're moving home, you need to have cessation of employment. So a letter from
Speaker:your boss to say you've, you know, you've worked from
Speaker:2010 to 2020 and you're now moving home, you need
Speaker:to prove that you've sold your house or your lease is up, some utility bills,
Speaker:bank statements, these are the things they look for. Like to get your, your
Speaker:VRT exemption, you know, you've got to prove you, you've been living
Speaker:abroad and you're moving home in a permanent basis. Okay.
Speaker:And this is all paperwork. At what point is this paperwork
Speaker:presented or required? Well, we ask you for that
Speaker:probably two weeks, maybe two, three weeks before the container save
Speaker:comes in, the container arrives into Dublin. We would request all
Speaker:this, give you a list of paperwork. You send us on the paperwork, we
Speaker:complete the application and get it presented to the
Speaker:customs and then if they want anything we just come back to. Try and get
Speaker:across the board. I think as well, there's a requirement to retain
Speaker:the VRT exemption, that you must hold onto the car for a period of time
Speaker:after you come back to Ireland. It's twelve months as far as I know. Is
Speaker:that right? Twelve months. You can't sell that car twelve months. You
Speaker:have to have it in the country and you can't sell it within the twelve
Speaker:months. Yeah. Now if you moved home, you can bring another car
Speaker:home within twelve months of you moving to Ireland. So you can go
Speaker:and, you know, if you've three, four cars in Australia and you have the right
Speaker:paperwork for that, you know, the purchase, the registration
Speaker:and the insurance, you're entitled to bring them four cars in under
Speaker:VRT exemption. Any Mokshire enthusiasts listening to that are
Speaker:probably rubbing their hands together in glee considering the second
Speaker:hand car market in Ireland is expensive at the moment. Yeah. We've had a
Speaker:motorbike collect. A guy collected motorbikes before, like, he probably had
Speaker:about 20 motorbikes, but he's entitled to bring them in under VRT
Speaker:and get his VRT exemption on them because they're his property, you know, and he
Speaker:had all the backup paperwork. So the value there as well, I think
Speaker:is, you know, having you guys be able to even just list out
Speaker:that paperwork, you know, there's three or four things there that people are able to
Speaker:go and ask and get. And so your service would extend
Speaker:to the shipping of the car and getting the car, I suppose, on the ground
Speaker:in Ireland as needed. Absolutely. We get it cleared clearing
Speaker:and then we, you know, we bring it to your house. So we unload it
Speaker:at the depot and, and that's it. Then you deal with the VRT office
Speaker:yourself for your registration. The other thing I'd say to you is within,
Speaker:yeah, like I said, the twelve months. Within twelve months you've got to have all
Speaker:your, even your household furniture, they'll tax you on that after twelve months if you
Speaker:don't get it in on time. Like. So you could have all desks and
Speaker:chairs and sofas, but you bring that in and it goes over your twelve months.
Speaker:You pay that, Julian, so you kinda get hit with you've paid it all
Speaker:your taxes already, now you're gonna pay them again. So,
Speaker:yeah, it's an area that really needs to be kind of pulled
Speaker:through in terms of, I suppose, for people who are not coming
Speaker:back from Australia to say exactly what you just said applies to somebody coming from
Speaker:the UK. Is that right? Same thing. Because, yeah, the UK is not
Speaker:in the EU anymore, so, you know, you might as well be coming back from
Speaker:Australia. And the UK is the same rules. We don't do a lot of them
Speaker:from the UK to be honest. We kind of focus more on Canada, Australia,
Speaker:the US. We do a majority of stuff from. You know,
Speaker:talk me through from the first phone call. Let's focus on a client in the
Speaker:US or Canada who's planning to come back. What's the process if they
Speaker:get in contact with you guys or with any relocation provider, for that
Speaker:matter? Yeah, so they normally, somebody would get contact with us. We. They'd ask
Speaker:us, you know, people having a clue part, half the time, like, they'd be like,
Speaker:you know, if this is the first time, I haven't a clue. I need advice.
Speaker:And so there's different options. You know, you could say that
Speaker:the most expensive option is to have a crew go in and pack up all
Speaker:your. Your belongings. They go into your kitchen. They pack all your delft. That's
Speaker:the most expensive part. Then they take it away, and they load on the container,
Speaker:ship it over, then air guys on this side would do the
Speaker:same, bring it to your house, unload into your residence, and unpack
Speaker:for you. But that is a. It can be very expensive. So we give
Speaker:most people the option to, uh, load the container themselves. So
Speaker:we could drop a container to your residence, you know, put a 20 foot container,
Speaker:44, and you load it yourself. And. Yeah, we just ship it
Speaker:back over here. We bring it to your residence, and you unload it yourself, and
Speaker:it can. It can be half the price. And it's. It's not a. It's not
Speaker:brain science, you know, to do a job like that. You know, anyone can load
Speaker:it, you know? Okay, so you ask a couple of your friends or people who
Speaker:owe you a favor. Exactly. Yeah. In terms of getting it
Speaker:through, then. So what kind of paperwork are people giving you,
Speaker:then, if. Let's say that person goes, yeah, can't really afford maybe
Speaker:to get someone to kind of come in and pack my delve. I'll load it,
Speaker:and then I'll see it the other side at wherever I want it. In Ireland.
Speaker:What paperwork are they giving you so you can clear it? So they just got
Speaker:to give us an inventory. So just keep a list
Speaker:of everything you're putting in it, send us the inventory along with all the backup
Speaker:paper that we need for any shipment, which, you know, the
Speaker:proof of residency and Ireland and proof of end of
Speaker:employment in Australia or Canada. It's the same, really. You
Speaker:just loading yourself, you know, and what in turn.
Speaker:Okay, so if I go, I'm thinking that you're standing there, right, in your inventory.
Speaker:What are you not meant to bring in? This is important. Okay. So
Speaker:alcohol. There's one thing, alcohol. There's a limit to the alcohol,
Speaker:and it's more or less, you know, if you're coming off the airplane, you can
Speaker:only bring a small amount in. So that's all you can bring in. A lot
Speaker:of people have their. The cabinets full of, you know, half own open bottles.
Speaker:And so, yeah, you have to be careful because if you bring in
Speaker:too much alcohol, you get taxed on. And we had. We had a lady
Speaker:there coming from Canada. She had the cheap canadian wine.
Speaker:Six boxes she put on a list. We never noticed at the time, but
Speaker:when it came in, the customs pulled it to. Had to do an
Speaker:import declaration for it. And the cost of the vaT, the jury. And for us
Speaker:to do declaration, which was a few quid, was more than what the bottles of
Speaker:wine was worth. Which, you know, we had it the other
Speaker:way when we were in Australia. Friends of ours came out from Ireland.
Speaker:Now, obviously, bear in mind, australian border force are a different animal, I
Speaker:would say, compared to the irish one. Yes, absolutely. But
Speaker:they mistakenly put a bottle of. A couple of bottles of
Speaker:whiskey, paddy whiskey, into their boxes going out to Australia. And
Speaker:I think it delayed them actually getting their container
Speaker:delivered for about something ridiculous, like six weeks. It just
Speaker:impounded or something went terribly wrong. So just little things to be aware
Speaker:of there, you know, be careful what. You'Re kind of even sending stuff to
Speaker:Australia. People moving to Australia, they highlight on their
Speaker:lists the outdoor stuff or Christmas decorations. If you have a
Speaker:Christmas tree, they'll pull it to see is there acorns in it? There's
Speaker:acorns in it. They want to dispose of them or they want to analyze
Speaker:them. But there's one woman, she won acorn. I think they wanted a few hundred
Speaker:dollars to, and it was false. She said if she convinced it was false, you
Speaker:know, and they wanted a few hundred dollars to analyze it, like.
Speaker:So maybe this is part of the process. But one thing that I know we
Speaker:did when we were coming back from Australia, and this is a shameless
Speaker:plug, but we're not getting paid for it. We used you guys and you were
Speaker:fantastic. And from beginning to end, it was really, really good with the container we
Speaker:brought back. But what we did was, was you
Speaker:have an inventory list, but you cross reference it to a box number.
Speaker:So on your inventory list, box one contains x, Y and Z. And the reason
Speaker:is, at least then, if it does get pulled, you know what book boxes are
Speaker:being pulled out because our friend. Now I know this is probably unlikely,
Speaker:and actually, you're a better place to answer that. How frequently do things get
Speaker:stopped? Because that's the next question people will have is, okay, this sounds like. Yeah,
Speaker:it's kind of, it's kind of look at a draw. You know, if the
Speaker:paperwork's in order, customers will be happy with it. They'll just clear it. Right?
Speaker:Yeah. So if you have, you know, work tools on your, on your
Speaker:inventory, if you're bringing in work tools, you can bring in garden tools, you
Speaker:can bring in the, you know, the normal household tools that we all have, the
Speaker:little Sanders and the drill. But anything work related to
Speaker:big toolbox, you have to pay vat and duty on them at the import. They'll
Speaker:pull the container if that's on your list. Wow. So you have to pay
Speaker:VAT and duty on it. And they don't really stop to very, you know, once
Speaker:in a blue moon, we get, you know, we probably have one stopped for a
Speaker:check. You know, how, what's the demarcation between. These
Speaker:are tools for my shed where, because I like to go out and kind of,
Speaker:you know, is there any guidance there, like, in terms of, well, your shed tools?
Speaker:Like, you know, you've got your gen, your normal shed tools, your rakes
Speaker:and your forks and your, you can bring in right, on lawnmowers. You can bring
Speaker:in normal lawnmowers. You can bring in jet skis, quads,
Speaker:once you've owned all them over six months. But it's work tools. You have the
Speaker:big toolboxes. You know,
Speaker:that's, you know, if it's on your list, you're going to be taxed on it.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah. So that's really good information.
Speaker:Do you find, then what do people do generally? Do they sell
Speaker:some stuff? Do they bring it back? What? Yeah, some people
Speaker:do. Some people ship in the tools, but, yeah, you know,
Speaker:people do pay tax on the tools. Like, yeah, yeah. It's just something to
Speaker:be aware of, isn't it? Kind of sussing. Sussing it out. Tools are the
Speaker:trade. That's what they call it. What do you, what
Speaker:advice do you give to people, Damien, who, and I know
Speaker:it's obviously going to be specific if you're working with individual people, but, like, if
Speaker:your people are listening to this and they're thinking of sending the container back, what,
Speaker:what would you say to them in terms of advice? You know, often it
Speaker:comes, should I bring, what are the questions we see? Like, should I bring my
Speaker:furniture back? You know, obviously you can't answer that, but what advice do you give
Speaker:people some. Some people do like furniture, you have to
Speaker:think, especially coming from the states, the houses here are much smaller.
Speaker:Like, there was one house in particular in Dublin, and we
Speaker:delivered a load to her house was a two or three bedroom house, but it
Speaker:was a terraced house, and she brought back. I mean, I was there on
Speaker:that job that day. I went with the lads. But you couldn't move in the
Speaker:house. Like, there was nowhere to put stuff. But she insisted the stuff went in.
Speaker:And I don't know what she's doing with it in the end, like. But it
Speaker:was absolutely way too much. Like, the sofas are too
Speaker:big for, you know, for the rooms here, you know? And they obviously didn't. Look
Speaker:at that. You got to think, like, how big is your house going to be?
Speaker:You know, what kind of sofa am I bringing back? Do I need this? Do
Speaker:I need that? Some of that stuff you could buy here again, you know, rather
Speaker:than paying shipping, you know? Yeah. And don't forget then, if you're bringing big
Speaker:furniture, you might only need a 20 foot container. But I've got two, you know,
Speaker:two suites of furniture that I wanted to bring home that's going to run you
Speaker:into a 40 foot container. So is it worth, you know, is it worth paying
Speaker:the extra couple of grand for when you can, you know, you could probably buy
Speaker:it. Boy, sweet. Here, you know, be cheaper and just take a 20 home. Can
Speaker:people share containers? They do. We. Yeah, we do the consolidated
Speaker:containers all the time, like, two people. There's nothing wrong with. You want
Speaker:the ship home. But look, I've only got half a load. We don't have that
Speaker:much, but my friend up the road wants to move home, too. You two go
Speaker:together and split the costs so they could. The price of that would be much
Speaker:the same as you doing on your own, you know? Mm hmm. And the other
Speaker:one is that we do shared containers. We do them a lot, actually. And,
Speaker:you know, if you have two or three suitcases, we can take them. On board
Speaker:like extras, ones you're not bringing on your flight. Yeah, two
Speaker:suitcases. We only charge 250 euro to depot. So,
Speaker:I mean, I know our competitors are charging for 650 euro,
Speaker:you know, or 450 euro, so. Sorry, 250 euro from
Speaker:Australia to Ireland. From Australia into Ireland. So
Speaker:you drop them at the depot and we take them over to
Speaker:airplace and we charge 250 for that. Wow,
Speaker:that's fantastic. Which is nothing, really, compared, you know, compared
Speaker:to competitors, you know, compared to. What an airline would charge you. It's
Speaker:nothing. So I have all my favorite dresses and
Speaker:my grand, my lot, you know, my grandmother's favorite brooch in
Speaker:my suitcase. Yeah. How long do I have to wait before
Speaker:it gets to me? Oh, yeah. Most
Speaker:containers, whether they're shared or not, take, you know, average eight to
Speaker:ten weeks. We say sometimes they can run to twelve. It depends on
Speaker:the situation. And, you know, if they're busy in Singapore, it
Speaker:might not make that vessel and it gets held up to the next one. Or,
Speaker:you know, same in Rotterdam on the feeder vessel will be waiting for it to
Speaker:come over. But twelve weeks is kind of worst case.
Speaker:Yeah, I say eight to ten weeks. You know, I remember
Speaker:when we were waiting for our container and I think we had a tracking, we
Speaker:had the name of the ship it was on and we could actually track
Speaker:where the stuff was. So once you get here, you're going to have some indication
Speaker:of for somebody who's maybe going into a rental. And I suppose, you know, people
Speaker:coming back to Ireland from Ireland aren't going to be shocked to hear this. But,
Speaker:you know, in Ireland, a lot of rentals are furnished. You know, some people
Speaker:listening might not know that. So there's not always a need to actually bring a
Speaker:lot of furniture with you if you're planning to rent when you get here. In
Speaker:terms of looking at, I suppose, the things that are
Speaker:listed on your website then, as well, in terms of, like, the main
Speaker:things that you do, it's basically an end to end service, isn't it? If
Speaker:people want to pick up their life and move it, what they really need to
Speaker:do is contact you guys to get advice from the
Speaker:very start to the very end. Do you know what I mean? Like, you know,
Speaker:how do I get my car into the country? What do I
Speaker:pack? It's the whole thing. Yeah, see, we can do it. Like
Speaker:I said, we can do the whole pack up. If you've got a car or
Speaker:you've got, you know, all your phones, that we can do full pack up for
Speaker:you. That's not a problem. But I always give people the option to
Speaker:self load and save themselves a lot of money, you know, is there.
Speaker:This is just a side question. How does the insurance on all that work? Is
Speaker:that part of the service? So, yeah, there's another myth on
Speaker:Facebook, obviously, on the pages. So what happens
Speaker:there? Insurance. You can be insured. If you self load the container, you can
Speaker:still get cover, all risk cover. We can get you covered on it.
Speaker:Some companies are saying you can't, we can't cover you. Maybe they can't cover you,
Speaker:but we can get you covered. There's three different options on the insurance cover,
Speaker:depending on, you know, what exactly. But you're better off just with the auto risk,
Speaker:to be honest with. You probably pay about 2% or 2.5%
Speaker:of the total value of your goods. You just give it a good
Speaker:inventory and we send that to the insurance company
Speaker:and we get a quote done up and that's it. Then we give you. We
Speaker:definitely, 100%, you can be covered, all risk.
Speaker:And cars can be insured. Self loaded cars. You can still get
Speaker:insurance. Just. We just need photographs of the car. Before you
Speaker:ship it and literally shipped from the point it gets to the
Speaker:port in Australia to when it gets to yours. So it gets into our depot?
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And just so people know, where is your
Speaker:depot? Yeah, we're based in Ashbourne and County Mead. So it's just outside
Speaker:Dublin. So if somebody doesn't have a delivery direct to their door, they can save
Speaker:a few bob by. By driving up. Save yourself a few hundred quid on a
Speaker:delivery to the country. You know, if you have your car, you want it in
Speaker:Galway, probably going to cost you 300 quid. Just come up, get a lift
Speaker:up and drive it home. If people are. Because I'm just
Speaker:thinking in terms of saving money or being sensible, generally,
Speaker:if people are packing containers, is there any guidance you give
Speaker:them in terms of things to do to prevent damage in transit
Speaker:or what are the general things you say to people when they're
Speaker:loading? Yeah, generally, just box your stuff. Well,
Speaker:pack boxes. Just, you know, put plenty of bubble wrap around your
Speaker:tvs and just pack the container tight. Then, you know,
Speaker:don't believe in gaps everywhere where it's going to tilt or fall, you know,
Speaker:and then you just get a few straps. I know, I remember when
Speaker:we were leaving Perth, I distinctly remember my
Speaker:son, who was like, he was about two and a half at the time, watching
Speaker:Brian pack, my husband pack the car we were bringing back
Speaker:and literally shoving duvets and things into it. So there was
Speaker:actually, like, the amount of stuff you could put into the car before you put
Speaker:it onto the container, and therefore it's going to be in the car while it's
Speaker:on the high seas. So when it got to us, it was perfect, because. Perfect,
Speaker:yeah. So anything that needs to be kind of protected or, you know, might be
Speaker:likely to get damaged in cold or damp. Most people,
Speaker:when you're packing a house with a car, all the
Speaker:goods, the person effects will get loaded in first, to a certain extent, say,
Speaker:halfway and then you would get the ratchet straps and a couple of sheets of
Speaker:ploy and use that as a wall, you know, ratchet strap up. So
Speaker:that's even on our website, we put up, on our facebook, we put
Speaker:up some jobs and you'd see where, you know, there's a lot of wood there
Speaker:holding all that up together. And then the car gets run, drove in then, and
Speaker:shopped the car down and that's, that's it. Then the containers
Speaker:don't really get thrown around. When you think about it like it's a crane,
Speaker:you know, it's. It's going to lift it, it's going to put on a stack,
Speaker:it's going to, you know, take it off the stack, put on the ship so
Speaker:it's not like it's getting thrown around, you know. Yeah. It's. It's the
Speaker:person. The people walking around the ship might feel the swell, but nothing in the
Speaker:actual container will. Yeah. On the road maybe, you know, the trucks driving around
Speaker:corners and all. That's different. You know, you're going to have some movement, obviously.
Speaker:Tell us this, actually, because we're talking very much in the context of ships. You
Speaker:guys advertise air freight. Like, how frequently is that done? I would imagine that's
Speaker:obviously in a different cost bracket, but that's just an assumption. Yeah. Air
Speaker:freight is crazy money. Like, we doing some, we
Speaker:do some. We don't do a lot of it. We used to do a lot
Speaker:of it, but it's very expensive. Yeah. The last one, I remember
Speaker:there probably last week from the states, you know, she
Speaker:lady paid thousands to get a, you know, a couple of cubic meters or whatever
Speaker:it was at the time. I'm not sure, but it's very expensive. You want to
Speaker:really want that in a hurry, you know, to pay those costs. I
Speaker:don't think this is a service you offer, but I'm going to ask just in
Speaker:case you have somebody who you recommend. What if you want to bring your family
Speaker:pet with you? Do you guys do any of that or. We don't do
Speaker:pet transport, but there are companies that do it. We
Speaker:always recommend a company in Perth.
Speaker:I think it's all care, pet transport. And they're very good
Speaker:people. You know, there's a few. I know there's two or three people talk about
Speaker:and. Yeah, you know, yourself, recommendations is the way to go. So, you know,
Speaker:if someone does a good job for you, you recommend them, you go with it,
Speaker:like, you know. Yep. And I think that's the piece here.
Speaker:Is that when people pick up the phone to ring
Speaker:you. They've made a decision like they're going. And the next
Speaker:bit and how it goes really matters because when
Speaker:you get to Ireland, if someone tells you, oh, you know, you know, such and
Speaker:such has happened or something's gone missing or whatever it is, like that's,
Speaker:that's. You're kind of in trouble at that stage. So having a reliable
Speaker:service is, or even people to pick up the phone and ask
Speaker:questions of is really important. I would say it is, absolutely. And you know what?
Speaker:I get calls. I got a call there. Yeah, it was this morning,
Speaker:actually. His son is moving out Australia, but he's insistent. I haven't
Speaker:quoted him, haven't done anything, but he said, well, we're going with you guys no
Speaker:matter what. Like, so. Because all the reviews and, you know,
Speaker:people recommend and he's just adamant his son said, no,
Speaker:dad, I'm going with these guys. And that's it. So things like
Speaker:that is brilliant. Like, I just, you know, and then you hear all different people's
Speaker:different stories when they're moving home, which I love hearing all the different, you know,
Speaker:reasons and stories and, you know, you have a bit of crack and, you know,
Speaker:talking to people and. Yeah, brilliant. It's, it's, it's
Speaker:a great area to work in and I think probably like ourselves, you've probably
Speaker:met some interesting people and interesting stories along the
Speaker:way. I have, yeah. Absolutely. What we'll
Speaker:do is we will drop, obviously, all your details into
Speaker:the show notes so people can reach out to you. And what's the best way
Speaker:for people to contact you, Damien? If they have questions or they're not sure if
Speaker:they need your service or. So questions can just pop an
Speaker:email. There's loads of different ways you can contact us.
Speaker:WhatsApp, you know, you can contact us email info at mason
Speaker:transport.com, Facebook. You know, there's
Speaker:various different ways. So I think as well, if people let you know that they've
Speaker:listened to you on here and heard you on the podcast, you'll,
Speaker:I'm sure you'll give them five star treatment. They get six, six
Speaker:star. They get the Stephanie discount.
Speaker:Thank you so much for coming on with us. Look, I think we could probably
Speaker:talk all day, and I know even just around the whole topic of cars, it's
Speaker:just such an area of interest for people. And I think some of it's just
Speaker:around kind of debunking the myths that are out there, you
Speaker:know, well meaning people. Sometimes false information can sometimes
Speaker:be spread. The other thing to remember as well is we
Speaker:sponsor the likes of Central Coast Ga with the
Speaker:jerseys. You know, like we. You know, and there's a. You know,
Speaker:there's a few different. In part. We sponsor a mother and baby group, and
Speaker:there's different. Another guy's drift car, and he's out there
Speaker:joining around with a name on it. Right. So we kind of, you know, we're
Speaker:doing this a long, long time. Like I say, 1996. We're, you
Speaker:know, working with the Urs abroad, and you just keep. That's what we do.
Speaker:And, you know, we look after people like that. You want, you know, not
Speaker:saying I'm going to sponsor. Sponsor everybody. You're going to get
Speaker:a lot of requests from mother and baby groups after this. Yeah. Well, perhaps we
Speaker:do a mother and baby part. We do the Central Coast GAA. We do
Speaker:some jerseys there, and it's great to see the name. And they're all running around
Speaker:the field, you know? Isn't it, Joss? Yeah. Everyone loves GAA. Yeah. Don't
Speaker:they? Definitely. Okay. Well, on that note, thank you so
Speaker:much for coming on and talking to us. It's been really, really useful.
Speaker:And. Yeah, look, you know, I'm sure people listen to this
Speaker:for a long time to come, but if people have other topics they'd like us
Speaker:to talk about, they can drop us a note, and we could always report another
Speaker:session if there's areas that people would like us to touch on that we haven't
Speaker:got to today. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Thanks, Damian.
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Speaker:in connection with the matters dealt with in this series. The material
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