Delivery Spreadsheet - Let's Track These Inbound SEs

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My SE has been at Southampton since August 4, and 7 ships have left Southampton for Baltimore without it. I called 1-866-ASK-MINI to see if they could shed some light on the situation.

The advisor I spoke to said that this was longer than usual, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. He recommended I check with my dealer, as they often have contacts with the shipping companies that they could work with.

I contacted my dealer, and the sales manager advised me thusly:

At the moment this slow movement has been the norm.
MINI is generally running slow due to lack of transport-related staff (mostly furloughed).
Your car should ship soon though and while this part of the journey to the dealer usually takes a month in total, I would count on something like 6-8 weeks.
​
Congrats to those of you who had much shorter waits at Southampton!
 
MichaelC said:
Congrats to those of you who had much shorter waits at Southampton!
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I doubt there are more cars being shipped from the UK to the US in these days of COVID-19, so I assume there are fewer ships available to take them. My SE sat in Southampton for 6 weeks while other SE's manufactured after mine made it onto a ship. Which cars get shipped appears to be controlled by the luck of the draw. I hope your luck changes and your SE is drawn soon.

My car arrived at the dealer with just 2 miles of range on the guess-o-meter. Does the battery leave the factory fully charged? Who knows? I'd love to know how much charge it lost during its 6-week post-factory pause, but I can't stay out of my SE for more than a few hours, so I can't run that experiment.
 
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insightman said:
I doubt there are more cars being shipped from the UK to the US in these days of COVID-19, so I assume there are fewer ships available to take them.
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Between WW & K-Line there have been (and are scheduled to be) 2 ships per week that leave Southampton on a route that goes to Baltimore (my destination port) while my SE waits. I don't think it's a lack of ships.

I doubt the carriers would spend the money to send half-empty ships across, too, so there must be some other logistics at play. Maybe other manufacturers have jockeyed for better turn-around time to make up for the COVID gap now that their manufacturing rates have begun to recover? Maybe MINI is waiting until they have a critical mass of their vehicles before any are shipped to each destination port to save on their expenses? <shrug>

insightman said:
My SE sat in Southampton for 6 weeks while other SE's manufactured after mine made it onto a ship. Which cars get shipped appears to be controlled by the luck of the draw. I hope your luck changes and your SE is drawn soon.
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I gain increasing empathy for your crazy long wait with each week that passes, and I thank you for your support. :)

insightman said:
My car arrived at the dealer with just 2 miles of range on the guess-o-meter. Does the battery leave the factory fully charged? Who knows? I'd love to know how much charge it lost during its 6-week post-factory pause, but I can't stay out of my SE for more than a few hours, so I can't run that experiment.
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I'm also curious about this, but doubt anyone from MINI would be willing/able to answer. Since the owner's manual recommends a full charge before long-term storage (I assume because the high voltage battery is used to maintain the 12V battery so it doesn't go flat), and since MINI knows it takes several weeks to ship their vehicles, I would hope they leave the factory with full or nearly-full state of charge.

Conversely, I wonder if the batteries have a "pre-delivery mode" that allows for long-term storage at lower states of charge without damage. Maybe that's what is meant by the comment that it takes a while for them to "wake up"? <shrug>
 
After being "at the port" for 5 weeks. It changed to "in transit" today. The next status bubble says "at dealer", so does that mean my SE is on a US truck to the dealer, or is it still on a ship?
 
Current status of my SE:
imonaboat.gif

Msmith said:
The next status bubble says "at dealer", so does that mean my SE is on a US truck to the dealer, or is it still on a ship?
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From what I have seen others report, the status will go back to "at the port" when it arrives at the US port, then go back to "in transit" again when it is being transported to your dealership.
 
Msmith said:
After being "at the port" for 5 weeks. It changed to "in transit" today. The next status bubble says "at dealer", so does that mean my SE is on a US truck to the dealer, or is it still on a ship?
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MichaelC said:
Current status of my SE:
View attachment 9227



From what I have seen others report, the status will go back to "at the port" when it arrives at the US port, then go back to "in transit" again when it is being transported to your dealership.
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Excellent news!! Do you guys know which ship they are on?
 
idrw said:
Excellent news!! Do you guys know which ship they are on?
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Heh! I knew someone would ask that...

If I go by the Southampton Port's "Vessels Sailed" page, I would say that they're on the Patriot (meaning our shipment status updated a full day after the vessel left port).

However, if I look at that vessels current location and its schedule, it went to/is at Antwerp and will complete another loop around Europe before circling back to Southampton on September 15 before actually heading to Baltimore.

The next carrier that's scheduled to take the Southampton -> Baltimore journey will arrive in Southampton tomorrow.

So...I'm gonna make a call or two to see if I can get a clearer answer. Will report back when I learn more.
 
MichaelC said:
So...I'm gonna make a call or two to see if I can get a clearer answer. Will report back when I learn more.
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Per 1-866-ASK-MINI, my SE is on the RCC AMERICA (tracking link) and it's scheduled to arrive at Baltimore on 18 September. (This should also be true for you, @Msmith - but you could also call to confirm you get the same answers.)

That vessel left Southampton on 4 September and is currently at Bremerhaven port. It looks like that vessel is operated by Wainright Bros, and I have not yet found a current schedule on their website to confirm the route.
 
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MichaelC said:
From what I have seen others report, the status will go back to "at the port" when it arrives at the US port, then go back to "in transit" again when it is being transported to your dealership.
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The RCC AMERICA arrived at Baltimore yesterday afternoon (18 September), moved over to Dundalk this morning (where I think the BMW/MINI Vehicle Distribution Center is located), and left Dundalk this afternoon for its next port.

Each time I checked the MINI tracking site, it kept showing my SE as "In Transit". I don't know if the status is lagging a lot or if it was processed by the VDC so quickly that I didn't see it change...
 
MichaelC said:
Each time I checked the MINI tracking site, it kept showing my SE as "In Transit". I don't know if the status is lagging a lot or if it was processed by the VDC so quickly that I didn't see it change...
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It's completely illogical for MINI to create a linear graph tracking the stages leading from construction to delivery and then decide they had to economize on the number of check-mark bullets on the graph, requiring them to loop back to re-use named bullets multiple times. It violates the principle of a linear graph.
 
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