Shipments done by Travellers

Landing costs C$222. Very helpful. Dropped me at the airport afterwards. Was crated, but no battery disconnect required. Canada customs at Montreal Cargo is not close - very focussed on you not keeping the bike in Canada.

www.motorcycleservices.com

After faxing my details to Gail, 2 days before the bike was due to fly to Germany, I rode to the warehouse in Vancouver and disconnected the battery plus removed the screen and mirrors. I also had to have less than a gallon of fuel in it. The bike was then strapped to a metal pallet and cling wrapped. My panniers and some of my bike gear also stayed on the bike.

In Germany, my flight arrived at 3.30pm on a friday and by 5.30pm I was riding out the warehouse into Munich.

Dead easy and really not much more than it cost to crate and ship the bike from London to Buenos Aires but without all the lengthy clearing hassles that entailed.

Shipping my bike was as easy as putting a letter in the post. Bike arrived on time and in perfect condition.

Greg and his team looked after everything, answered every question I had, and let me change the shipping date at the last min when AerLingus changed my own flight. He even drove me to JFK airport after I dropped my bike off.

I shipped my moto from Zurubina to Seattle in three parts.

The first part had me and my moto on the Dong Chung Ferry from Zurubina, Russia(south of Vladivostok) and arrive in Sochko, South Korea. About $250 for the moto and about $250 for myself. The Dong Chung ferry people filled out all the shipping paperwork and helped the bike exit Russian customs. That was a HUGE relief...as Russian customs can be tough.

I lucked into a conversation with Russian insurance brokers at the port who were friendly with the Russian customs people. The Russian customs guys waived me through and told me to have the Dong Chung ferry people handle the paperwork. It was a very rainy day...

The second part of my shipment had my bike shipped( a about $300 bonded trucking) from Sochko, South Korea to Seouls Incheon Airport for crating(about $200)...done in 30 minutes...unbelievable!
The crating company filled out all the shipping paperwork and sent me to a nice cheap hotel in Seoul, while they handled the customs clearance in Seoul.

The third part of my shipment had the bike flown from Incheon airport as air cargo, to Seattle/Tacoma airport in the US. This cost about $2400 total including customs clearance in the US by Tony Shan of Apex.

There is a way of shipping by boat from Busan, SK to Long Beach, US for about $1600 but you have to wait about 3 weeks for your bike to cross the Pacific.

Hope this helps...although the shipping prices may seem expensive, everything happened as it should and I didnt have to waste time in hotels waiting for the bike to clear customs, etc. There are many other costs to shipping(delays, misc charges, etc.) aside from the actual shipping fare, that can add up when you try to use a cheap shipper...including meals, extra nights in hotels trying to sort out shipping delays, etc.

Shipping out of Russian isnt cheap or reliable anymore...which leaves Korea as the most reliable option.

Sorry all you bikers out there but this shipment was for a Land rover 110, but I am sure they would ship a bike and of course the cost would be less I imagine.

To sort out this shipping we drove to Chittagong and found that a lot of international companies like Maersk did not want to ship our vehicle, however PIL did. The cost quoted above is the total cost but the break down of payment looked like this:

In Chittagong paid to PIL:

Freight - $350
VAT - $19
Bill of landing - $11

In Chittagong paid to customs broker:

Custom brokerage charge - $150
Lashing - $37
Off dock charges - $37

In Bangkok to PIL (Eastern Maritime Ltd):

Not sure what for - $172

In Bangkok to Port officials:

Unlashing and storage - $66

In Bangkok to custom broker:

Custom brokerage charge - $277

The customs brokers were recommended to us by PIL in Bangladesh and then by PIL in Bangkok, and they seemed pretty insistant that we use the people they recommended, the two customs brokers we used were:

Bangladesh:
A2Z International
Mr Ahsan
Progressive Tower (Mezzanine Floor)
1837 Sk. Mujib Road
Agrabad
Chittagong

Bangkok:
Transport Management
Rama 4 Road
(sorry no further address)

The service from PIL and Bangkok customs broker was very good, but PIL in Bangladesh were totally unrealistic in predicting the costs in Bangkok so do not believe when they tell you it will only cost $30.

The customs broker in Chittagong did overcharge us significantly and was a bit unreliable, however he did get the job done in the end but if you could avoid using him, I would.

Another word of warning - customs clearance in Bangkok can be difficult and we could not get them to accept the Carnet even though apparently they will at some land crossings. Due to this we had to sign a bond to the value of $32,000 which is claimed if we stay within the country with the vehicle after the expiry of our visa (28 days). To be honest we did not understand the whole process so there may be ways round this.