There are occasions when you may have need to ship your car overseas. You will not only need to find a reputable shipping company, but also prepare your vehicle for being moved overseas. You can’t just leave it as is, since this could cause problems in transit. So, here are a few tips to help you ship your vehicle safely internationally.Clean your car. Getting all the junk out of it and removing any valuables is best. This ensures that your car can be transported safely, without fear of something sliding around inside and possibly causing damage.Take a Polaroid. Or any other kind of photo. Take dated pictures if possible so you have proof of what condition your vehicle was in when you left it at the shipping company. If your car is damaged in the car of the shipping company, you will need to prove that this was their fault and that you left your car in good condition. Take your photos outside, with good lighting so any scratches or flaws are readily visible. Get rid of gas. You only want about 1/8 of a tank of gas in your car. It will need to be moved, so you’ll need to leave a little gas in it, but the less weight the better! If you need to, just drive around a bit to bring the gas down, or siphon it off into an approved container for use elsewhere.Disconnect the car alarm. The last thing you need is for the alarm to go off halfway across the ocean and wear your battery out! This is a big one, so be sure that the alarm is not just disabled, but disconnected, to prevent it from accidentally being set off. There is a lot of movement when a vehicle is being moved, so it’s possible for things to get shaken up a bit. Make sure everything is secure. You don’t want loose bolts or lug nuts, since these can vibrate loose during the move. So, tighten everything up before shipping your vehicle to prevent problems upon arrival. Small parts can shake loose and get lost completely. Get the paperwork done early. The sooner you finish up the paperwork, the easier it will be for you to get your vehicle shipped without extra delays. You will have left yourself time to get any changes made that may be necessary.Research the paperwork. Every country has different rules as to what they require, but you will most likely need to prove ownership of the vehicle and possibly get a special visa for it. Some countries will require you get special permission and to declare your imported vehicle. Without registration, you’ll need to leave the country and come back in every few months to get a new visa, depending on the country. Find out about import taxes. You may be required to pay import taxes when your vehicle goes through customs. This is pretty common and sometimes can be avoided if you have the right paperwork. Again, this all depends on the country that you are shipping the vehicle to, each one will have its own regulations that need to be met.Shipping a vehicle overseas can be stressful, but if you plan ahead and do everything correctly, you should be able to do it without any problems. Most importantly, you eliminate the need for a rental car as you’ll be free to drive your car in the country that it has been shipped to, once you have cleared customs and done up the paperwork required.Discount Car and Truck rentals offers a wide range of rental cars and rental trucks at very competitive prices and even has free customer pick-up and drop-off.
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To come up with some cute verses to place on your garage sale, simply visit your public library and check out a book on limericks. Adapt the ones that you feel are most humorous, and start making signs. Again, a word of caution before you get too deeply involved: Be sure to check your local ordinance before you start nailing signs to power poles.By all means, search out and use all the free bulletin boards in your area. It’s better, and usually much more profitable to take the time to make up an attention grabbing circular you can post on these bulletin boards, than just to use a scribbled 3 by 5 card announcement.Pick up some -transfer lettering; go through your newspapers and old magazines for interesting illustrations, graphics and pictures; then with a little bit of imagination and flamboyancy, make up an 8 1/2 by 11 poster announcement of your sale. When you have it pasted up take it to any quick print shop and have them, print up 50 or 100 for you. Your cost for this small print order should be well under ten dollars.If you make this circular/poster up with versatility and long-time usage in mind, you can use it over and over again simply by pasting on a new date. In case you feel ‘left-out’ when we talk of ‘pasting-up’ things, this simply means pasting a piece of paper onto the overall page you’re putting together.Say you have made up your circular with a date of Wednesday, May 1st, and want to change it to read Thursday, July 16th. Rather than do the entire thing over, simply write out a new date with your transfer letters on a separate sheet of paper, cut this out to fit in the space occupied by the old date, and paste the new date over the old date. The artwork master is now up to date; the printer does the rest. Incidentally, this is precisely what is meant in mail order and other dealership offers where they furnish you with the basic advertising/promotional material and advise you to ‘paste over’ their name/address with your own.For paste or glue, drop by just about any stationery store and pick up a tube of ‘glue stick’. This is a small tube of paste, about the size of a tube of lipstick, generally sold for less than one dollar per tube. The tube glue stick works much better than regular glue or paste, and is not as messy as rubber cement.Your signs have to be effective, but you have to remember to keep them simple. Don’t try to cut corners on your signs. Signs announcing and pointing the way to your garage sale should be placed at each intersection within a one mile radius of your sale location. If it takes 50 signs, then make 50 signs. The important thing is to let people know that you’re holding a garage sale.Signs can be made simply by cutting and using the sides of cardboard boxes, and writing on them with a heavy felt tip marking pen. Make it easy for your signs to be seen, and for people to read what’s on them. About all you really need is great big block letters reading ‘Garage Sale’, with the street address, and an arrow pointing in that direction. Don’t think for a minute that people are going to stop and read a lot of ’stuff’ you’ve written on your sign when they are driving by; you just want them to see your sign and proceed in the direction necessary to reach the location of the sale. They’ll be moving by your sign too fast to see or read anything else you may have written.The ads you place, the bulletin board announcements you post, and the signs you put up will bring many people to your garage sale location. A lot of people will drive by slowly and just look, but most will stop to browse around.Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor.Sign Up to my mailing list NOW at: Affiliate Marketing System and Receive my FREE E-Course Worth $67!
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Austin enjoys the self-promoted but well-deserved reputation as live music capital of the world. In recent years, the city has decided to put its money where its mouth is to ensure that it stays that way. One of the most innovative and socially progressive ways it is doing that is by providing an insurance program for working musicians through HAAM, or Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.It’s a unique concept. Besides New Orleans, Austin is the only city in the US to provide such comprehensive health care to its local musicians.”This city loves those who make music for us all,” according to Betty Dunkerley, Austin Mayor Pro Tem and HAAM board member. “What better way than Health Alliance for Austin Musicians is there to show our appreciation? HAAM makes members’ lives better.”HAAM was created in 2005 as a result of a partnership between local hospitals and the SIMS foundation with support from the city and various Austin businesses. They recognized the tremendous need that existed in the community of musicians in the city for affordable health care. More than 8,000 working musicians live in Austin and most of them are uninsured. Rather than wait for the federal or state government to come up with a plan to help the millions of Americans who do not have health insurance, this community of musicians and their supporters decided to provide that help themselves.Funding for the organization is provided by business and private donations and various grants. The HAAM benefit day every October mobilizes musicians, local businesses and city officials to raise money for the organization. In 2006 they raised more than $107,000, and more than $180,000 in 2007. Other events throughout the year, such as Austin music backer Nancy Coplin’s BIG SIX-O birthday party recently, donate their proceeds to HAAM as well. Of course, interested supporters may also donate money at any time through the HAAM.HAAM’s 2007 annual report reveals nearly 4,900 medical, dental and mental health visits which earned a 94 percent approval rating from member-musicians. This success results from a one-of-a-kind collaboration among the Seton Family of Hospitals (clinic visits, prescriptions, hospital services and specialist referrals), St. David’s Community Health Foundation Leadership (dental visits) and The SIMS Foundation (counseling, psychiatric and addiction-recovery sessions).Membership in 2007 grew to 929 of which 65 percent were age 40 and younger, with 67 percent earning less than $15,000 a year. To receive the benefits from the program, members must live in Travis County and be able to prove that they earn money playing music. For many services, members must pay a small co-pay; some other services are provided for free.The SIMS foundation was named after Austin musician Sims Ellison who lost a long battle with depression and committed suicide in 1995. His death shocked the Austin community and a group of family and friends decided to create the SIMS foundation to provide low-cost counseling, psychiatric and addiction recovery service to musicians who needed it. The foundation provided more than 2,300 such sessions in 2007.In addition, through HAAM, more than 573 members made more than 1,300 clinic visits that same year and benefitted from more than 500 hospital services of various kinds as well. Many members also took advantage of the free dental services provided by the organization.Almost all members are very positive about the work HAAM is doing and the services it provides. Guy Forsyth is an Austin musician who has built up quite a reputation throughout Texas.”It makes me really happy for younger musicians who are coming up and for parents who may have a child who’s very talented and it’s scary to think of them becoming an artist. Because we see all these examples around us of people, who aren’t part of a corporate structure are left behind in terms of health care and public support,” Forsyth said.If you are looking to invest in the Austin real estate market Ki can help. His website provides a Austin MLS search along with a free mortgage calculator
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