AGS Rhône-Alpes Auvergne has carried out a rather exceptional move. For the third time in recent months, the team was contacted by a private customer moving from France to the West Indies to ship his motorboat and its trailer via groupage to his new home.
“There aren’t many customers who own a boat and decide to move it to the French overseas departments and territories, so this was an exceptional assignment,” explains Wilfrid Montagnac, Deputy Director in charge of operations.
The branch, which has a joinery on site, adapts to each customer and can transport all types of vehicles, from quad bikes to motorbikes, cars and rickshaws.
A tailor-made joinery support structure
“In this case, we were looking at a length of 5.4m for the boat and its trailer,” says Wilfrid Montagnac. So he called on his team’s joiner to make a structure called a cleat for loading the boat into the container. This operation takes between 40 minutes and two hours, depending on the requirements.
For this type of operation, we opt for made-to-measure,” he points out. “In this case we needed a bulkhead to load the container, but on other occasions we make bespoke mezzanines depending on the type of vehicle to be transported“.
Efficient boat transportation solutions
Customers bring their boats and trailers to the depot, and the AGS team takes care of everything. They are responsible for ancillary operations, such as securing the engine, which must be chocked and locked to prevent any damage during handling and transport, and preparing the battery: “We have to disconnect the battery and check that nothing can switch the battery on during transport”, says Wilfrid Montagnac.
AGS Rhône Alpes can also transport boats to destinations other than the French overseas territories. In these cases, the vessel’s owner must supply a navigation permit and, sometimes, the vehicle registration document for the trailer.
It is thanks to this in-house expertise and its on-site carpentry workshop that the branch is one of the few able to carry out this type of operation, and word is spreading!
Are you looking to move exceptional vehicles abroad? Contact us today!