Ohai,
* Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> [2019-09-11 12:56:40 +0200]:
> Hi,
>
> (said this on IRC too, but for the benefit of those who don't follow that...)
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 05:53:24PM +0200, Nicolas Dandrimont wrote:
> > Hey,
> >
> > We're running video for a Debian conference in Switzerland two weekends after
> > PyConZA.
>
> Yeah, that's fairly close.
>
> > If the equipment needs overlap, I'm not too confident that shipping
> > our hardware halfway around the world will work out considering postal and
> > customs delays as well as just plain volunteer delays, etc.
>
> PyConZA is considering to buy their own blackmagic cards. They are
> planning to rent computers and cameras, so that shouldn't be an issue.
>
> So if that happens, this would only require the opsises, or something to
> replace them.
How many of them? I only have two of them in Paris, and to be confident I kinda
need two in Vaumarcus.
> > We also don't have a good story for doing temporary imports using commercial
> > shipment companies. I don't think I'll be able to come up with one in less
> > than a month (but someone should definitely feel free to try).
>
> Can you clarify what the issue here is?
"Commercial off the shelf" (UPS/FedEx/...) shipping companies don't know how to
handle temporary import of goods in a country. You'll have to pay VAT (and the
hefty customs management fees) on the declared value of the goods on entry in
the country of destination, and again when entering back the country of origin
(and then, if you're bored, you get to argue with both tax offices that the
goods have been reexported/reimported to get that reimbursed).
The single quote that I obtained for so-called "Carnet shipment services"
(where the shipment company handles the temporary import procedure) to ZA, back
in 2016, was... prohibitive (multiple times what UPS had quoted, which was
even more than just getting extra luggage).
A few years ago I've spent some time looking into this and gave up. I remember being appalled by such fees too, and realized these companies are optimized for large scale commercial transactions, not small almost personal use.
I remember one company quoting $1000 + x% of estimated value just to prepare the paperwork for me to drive equipment in my car to Canada.