Shipments done by Travellers

I organised the freight of my BMW R1150RT myself via air with Qantas Freight.

Phoning the 1300 number, option 5 then option 3 gets you eventually speaking with a real person. They will tell you that only freight forwarders can book in a bike for transport. Other wise you go standby and it can take 10 days or l;onger to get the bike to NZ as it needs to go via Sydney, the clearance port for most Australia to Auckland freight. Freight forwarders will costs a lot more. I was not bothered about a delay, as this was my homeward journey.

I got the Dangerous Goods documentation done by Dangerous Goods Management (DGM) (phone +61 7 32602366) at the cost of $123 Australian. Just phoned them the day before, and they were really good.

I spent 2 days cleaning the bike, then had to take it in on a wet day so some last minute prep at the airport was needed. Took it to DGM, then after an hour took it to Qantas Freight. Bothe these places are reasonably close to the airport. I was concerned about the amount of fuel in the bike, but have since learnt that as long as it is below 25% full it is OK.

Took 2 hours at Qantas freight to check in the bike. They allowed me to place the stickers on the bike to eliminate any potential for damage. It was checked by security, I disconnected the battery and tapped the leads and paid the money.

The quote I received from Qantas Freight over the phone was worked using volumetric weight, but at the office they worked it out using actual weight which saved my $500. I think I was lucky. The Qantas freight people were excellent to deal with, and very helpful.

I had a Carnet for the bike, and the next step was to walk to Customs and get them to complete their paperwork. Qantas Freight then wanted the Carnet back to send with the bike, but this is not essential and I kept it (fortunately).

The bike was left with Qantas at 12noon on Wednesday and was in Auckland by the end of the next day! I found oput that I had 4 days from arrival to pickup before storage charges kicked in, so no problem as I was due in Auckland on the Sunday. (BIG mistake).

My wife and I made several calls to NZ customs (1800301861 from Australia; 0800428786 from NZ; 09 2565228 direct) and to MAF (0800222009) and to the Air Frieght Cargo people in NZ (099098631) in advance to try and find out processes upon landing. We got several stories, and then experienced a different scenario.

So here is our experience.

The best thing is to avoid flying in on Sunday afternoon. The Customs Customer Service building (3 km from Airport) normally deals with the Carnets and close at 12noon on Sunday. I went to Lane4 on customs when I arrived as instructed and asked them to complete the carnet (which I had on me, along with a copy of the airbill). The office did not know what to do and was uncertain, but I convinced him to stamp and fill it in.

I then went to the MAF/Air New Zealand Warehouse on Ogilvy St. This is a 10 minutes walk from the Airport terminal. I had a friend meet me and drove me around. This is a good idea if you can arrange it.

The fright people said I needed a Delivery Order (DO Number) from customs. THIS IS NOT TRUE: but it took several hours to sort out. If you do not have a Carnet, you WILL NEED a DO Number from Customs. The people were freindly and helpful, but just did not know the process for a Carnet processing of a returning bike.

MAF are in the same building, and inspected and cleared the bike very promptly. They were very helpful, but rather casual with the inspection. The bike looked really clean and polished though.

The only fees I pad was $33.75 NZ for a document fee to the freight people and $15 NZ to MAF. Saved $20 by having a copy of my registration papers with me.

All in all time from landing to bike being handed over was 4 hours.

Overall an easy thing to do, and cheaper than any quotes I received for shipping.

Mr Adam was really helpfull. He owns a courier business and has been on the businees for 30+ years, knowing all the ins and outs.
He helped me shrink the size of the shipment and made his trucks available for transport to airport, also having contacting different air cargo firms.

I shipped the motorbike through AMERIJET, with Claudia Perez Amerijet sales/Claudia P

After trying to contact agents in Bogota by telephone for over a week, I was completely frustrated and decided to ride directly to the airport. I went straight to the Gyrag/Centurion Cargo terminal and they directed me to Veronica down the street.
Veronica was amazing, offering coffee and reassuring me that she has done this before. She showed me all of the documents from the previous riders that have gone through her agency with prices listed. The full description of pricing was listed in front of me.
The day of shipment, there were two other men with bikes. One going to Miami as well and the other to Panama City. The guy going to Miami went through another agent and it took him an extra two hours to complete. The guy going to Panama had spent days because he did not want to use an agency. Working with Veronica and her staff was extremely quick. However, be prepared to wait for the Narcotics Agents, they tend to take their time as they go through the different agencies. You may want to bring a book. There is a cafe across from the cargo dock.
They will make you empty all of you gasoline from your tank!!! Try and load all of your things onto the bike to minimize volume!!!
My bike weighs 250kg loaded and had a volume calculation of 500. The rate charge for this volume was 0.41. The rate charge for the weight was 0.89/kg. The agent fees were 190 plus officer fees and docking fees in both Bogota and Miami, to make the total 955.25.
In Miami, I was able to collect my bike on a Saturday, which was nice. Miami airport hotels are $$$$. However, I did not bother to get my motorcycle cleaned before I shipped it. The Dept. of Agriculture inspector saw the dirt and made me get it disinfected before I could get it out of customs. This cost me 100 USD. So wash your bike before you ship!!!!
All in all, it was much better and cheaper than flying back into Panama and riding through Central America again.

FCL 20ft container with 4 motorbikes so these are total costs but we split them 4 ways.
Only 1 bike (mine) crated the other 3 strapped in by the guys in melbourne (and they did a very good job, crating was not actually necessary)

Shipment date from Melb Aust: 20 April 08
Original Scheduled arrival date Vladivostok: 14 May 08
Actual Arrival date Vladivostok: 22 may
Cost Australian End (Silverwind): $3971.20 AUD
Cost Vlad End (Silverwind): 21,300 Roubles
Translation Costs Vlad end (customs and Insurance): Asked to pay 8000 Roubles but paid our translator Julia fairly with 5000 Roubles
Comments:
Found Bill Nicoll at Silverwind to be very helpful in all regards
Found Irena at Silverwind in Russia to be very helpful but was not very proactive in resolving problems, needed to be pushed to make things happen.
Found Vladimir at Silverwind in Russia (Silverwind President) to be very helpful and definantly the person to make things happen if required.
Julia, the translator reccomended to us by Silverwind was helpful at the beginning but tried to overcharge us and again was not proactive in making things happen. In the end she left us to our own devices and we got help from random people at customs house.
Overall, would recomment Silverwind but do not expect things to happen in any hurry in russia (anywhere, expecially if it involves documentation of any kind!)
we were in Vlad for 2 weeks trying daily to make headway to get our bikes. In the end perseverance is the key

I contacted Geoff to request information about flying my Suzuki DL650 to Santiago. From the outset, I found him very helpful and knowledgeable.

Geoff asked that I pack the bike in a crate and keep the volume to a minimum, as this was how the airline calculated the charge. I found a suitable crate at Holeshot Motorcycles, Takapuna. Auckland (very helpful) and took it Jas Jenners, where I packed the bike into it using tie-downs. The battery had to be disconnected and taped, with only a couple of litres of fuel in the tank for the Dangerous Air Cargo certificate to be issued.

The entire process was very smooth and Geoff kept me well informed. I would thoroughly recommend using Jas Jenners.

Pick-up at Santiago was easy as I was assisted by a HU Community member; Roberto Thomson (tha...@hotmail.com). I was issued with my temporary import certificate and on the road within three hours of landing.

Note: Prior to contacting Jas Jenners, I had tried to get information from another company mentioned on the HU shipping pages (GreenFreight), but found them unwilling to help. Their receptionist told me that they were unable to ship bikes as they were dangerous cargo. I persisted with my efforts and was passed on to an Indian guy who supposedly dealt with such matters; he was equally useless and, after many calls, eventually quoted a ridiculous rate to ship the bike.