Engine shipping nightmare!

My new engine is somewhere in the greater Denver area. It has been in Colorado for almost a week. It was shipped from the great folks at Aerosport Power on 5/18 - that's 19 days ago. I'm 1,450 miles from Kamloops where the IO-360 was picked up. I could have picked the engine up myself in three days round trip.

The shipper Aerosport Power uses is a company named Vitran Express based in Indianaoplis, IN. Vitran Express apparently cares not when, or if, your shipment ever gets delivered. In the past 6 days I have made 15+ calls to Vitran's customer service center trying to get confirmation on a delivery time. They have committed to a delivery on three different days and have been a no-show within the delivery window on all three days. I'm taking time away from my work to wait for them to show up....

Please don't take this venting to reflect negatively on Aerosport Power. Sue is doing her best to get this resolved. But if you're shipping your engine and you want it delivered prompty, I'd recommend staying away from Vitran Express. At this point I've written a nasty gram to the President of Vitran and filed a complaint with the BBB in Indiana. No response to either action yet.

Tony Partain are you listening? Suggest new service - engine delivery from the major sellers - Aerosport Power, Barrett, Mattituck, etc.

In the meantime, I'm hopefully Sue will be able to work her magic and I'll get an engine delivered within the next few days....

Al Thomas
RV-8A QB
N880AT
Finishing kit

I need an engine

I will go pick it up and install it so I can start flying again.

Engine shipping

Al thanks for thinking about us... LTL shippers(Less than a load) have a logistical nightmare to deal with on every truck load. I can't imagine having 20 to 40 shipments on one truck. We ship 3 to 4 on each truck and all it takes is one customer to cause a domino effect that slows down all of the other shipments. The odds of it happening with that many shipments on a truck are very likely. Or having a shipment lost on a dock some place. All it takes is a fork lift jockey to set a pallet in the wrong place and it ends up the wrong end of the country. Thanks but no thanks!

BTW your choice of Aerosport is a good one, it will be worth the wait.

Engine here but what a pain!

Two days and many phone calls by Aerosport Power after I originally posted, I did get my engine delivered. That's 21 days from pickup in Kamloops, BC to delivery near Denver. About 76 miles per day.

Vitran Express's service was TERRIBLE. They missed three deliver commitments and I was out of pocket about $250 in lost wages for the 18 hours spent over four days waiting for the truck to show. I have complained to the BBB about Vitran Express and even though Vitran admits to most of the delivery problems they don't seem to care about it. Vitran Express's web site clearly guarantees "it will be done right and on time, the first time" - don't believe it!

I really like Aerosport Power but if you by an engine from them I'd really recommend that you avoid using Vitran Express as a shipper.

Albert Thomas
RV-8A QB
N880AT
FWF & Finishing

16 years later, and a very similar story. In Canada, Aero Sport is shipping with Day & Ross. For me they shipped from Kamloops to Ottawa (actually Smiths Falls airport about half hour from ottawa). The engine completely overshot smiths falls and went to montreal. For the last week, there has been no sign of it. Today, the Day&Ross customer service is saying they don't know where it is (a week past estimated delivery). Luckily Aero Sport sold me on an insurance policy. So now i'll be pushing them on getting the insurance process started. What a nightmare.
Canadian customers - Aero sport is great, but don't let them ship by Day&Ross.

But what is our protection? As far as the insurance, i have no visibility into what i bought, except for the $420 charge from Aero Sport for a policy that protects against "all losses". I should have asked for the fine print - i guess i'll find out soon.

Lost IO540

My brand new IO540 was lost for a week when the shipper sent the entire engine to California instead of just the starter ring for magnet insertion. Went from the east coast to the west coast and returned. It was almost left on the dock in California over a weekend. Give it a week, hiring a lawyer now will only cost you money and he can't do anything now that he could do in a month. Give us an update when located.

It was finally found! It's been sitting on the loading dock at the Montreal depot for a week. The lady from montreal called me today to schedule delivery and she had no idea that the company's customer service team had been trying to locate it. The craziest thing is, if one of their customer service agents had simply called hte montreal depot (where it was last scanned a week ago) they would have presumably found it.
What a relief. It arrives tomorrow, hopefully in one piece.

Phil, glad that your engine was found and will be delivered.
Just for data, Aero Sport Power shipped my engine to Quebec via Day & Ross, all went well and on time so I did not worry like you did.
It's a shame of course that these things happen, and yes, insurance is a must when the value of the object is worth a new medium sized car...
Not affiliated with Day & Ross in any way. They should by all means be made aware of their goof-up, so that chances it happens to someone else is lowered.
I would'nt go as far as not recommending them for shipping. Another carrier could be worse...
We all make errors, hopefully not serious enough so we can correct them and be for the better.
Good luck with your installation !!!

Fair enough - although Aero Sport did say that they have another carrier they sometimes use that they have had better results with, but they're a lot more expensive. I guess you get what you pay for!

Inspect it BEFORE THE DRIVER LEAVES!

Better yet, on the Bill of Lading request "freight terminal pickup" with your phone number noted. This does many things for you. First, it allows you to go to the freight terminal with your pickup truck and/or trailer so you set your own schedule. Second, it allows you to inspect the shipment for damage before singing the acceptance form. Most local delivery drivers just wave a pen and clip board in your face before even opening the trailer door. At the freight terminal tell the staff you want to see your crate before you sign anything. That indicates to them you are a seasoned customer and know what you are doing.
If the freight is seriously damaged then refuse delivery and the trucking company must send it back to the shipper at their cost. Third, well over half of shipping damage comes when the local delivery route truck stops at destinations on it's way before they make it to your delivery address. And so that means that it is very likely your freight will be moved around and sometimes even unloaded and reloaded by people at the intermediate stops. Think industrial warehouses, manufacturing companies or even a bunch of gomers with ropes and crowbars trying to get their delivery into the back of a farm trailer by hand. Every time this happens there is a much higher probability of damage to the rest of the freight (including yours).

I am involved in the LTL shipping of totes of hazardous materials. It amazes me that an LTL company, while using barcode scanning technology, can totally lose totes weighing over a ton each. I can understand a load being mis-routed on occasion, but to lose something as large as this blows me away. In the end, they have to pay us for the lost product, and then have to pay to dispose of the hazmat material if they ever locate it. I would think the liability alone of having this laying around in a warehouse somewhere would be enough to encourage improving their game, but I guess it is a numbers game...