Shipments done by Travellers

I own an 01 BMW 650 Dakar which needed to get from Europe to New Zealand asap, (dont ask why!). I found Motortransport.nl had the next sailing and the best quote over the phone. Peet van Dam organised the shipment for me. As part of the shipment Peet arranged to have it crated through a local company. They came to Peets office at the port to measure up, and the next day they crated it up and it was then put in a container with other cargo. I was very impressed at the quality of the crating. Being a carpenter myself, I know a good job when I see one! All the paperwork was sorted out on the day with an agent assigned in Auckland to arrange for unloading at the port.

Peet runs a pretty good ship, (no pun intended), and everything ran smoothly and as he said it would. My bike turned up at a transport company in Auckland on time 5 weeks later, where it was picked up and registered etc. I highly recommend his services as he is very reliable and most of all, he crates the bikes very securely.

I was most impressed with Graham Smith's service. We sent two Hondas (Africa Twin and TransAlp) across to Australia for an extended tour. Whereas other shippers we contacted seemed to make problems for us (supply your own crate and crate them yourselves), Graham made it so easy. We delivered the bikes to Greenfreight Cargo at Auckland Airport, two days before we flew and they were in Sydney at Qantas Freight when we arrived. We were able to leave panniers on bikes (two panniers and top box on each) with our riding gear inside. They were strapped to two pallets and both bikes fitted inside one aircraft container. Total cost of $633 for the two bikes was much less than our best quote for sea freight.

I send two bikes in the same crate. Bikes are small (honda nx 250). I tried different companies, and it was the only one that was doing bikes. 2900 Euros seems VERY expensive comparing to other shippements I have seen here. It includes the crate (approx 600 Euros), the fuel surcharge (420 euros), dangereous good surcharge, taxes, etc... The shipment it self was 1600 Euros. The crate was made by a specialised company because Gontrand won t accept home made crate. (they told me they would eventually have to put a crate over my crate if I do it my self).

Except for the price, the guys of Gondrand were very nice.
I just had to pay in Buenos Aires 315 Pesos for the handling at the airport.
In B.A, the guys opened the box in front of me so I could check the content. I could then mount the side boxes and top case on the bikes there. (1 hour of work, because it s hand made).

The whole process took 5 hours in B.A. (note : you should first go to the carrier office to get the receiver doc before going to the douana ).

the procedure:

mexico refused to accept our UK issued carnets. we had to report to an office at the Pichilinke terminal to get the bikes checked and be issued with an import sticker per bike. the ferry terminal at pickilinke is about 20 km N.E outside la paz. on entering the main gate take a left through the toll booth, collect a ticket as you pass through. the customs office opens between 0900-1300 hrs. the office is situated on the right hand corner of the ground floor as you look at the main building. knock on their window and have the following ready. your passport, driving license, vehicle registration, tourist card (make sure when you get you tourist card at Tijuana it states your destination in mexico as beyond la paz). have one photocopy of each of these documents to leave with the customs. also you must have a credit card, no cash payments. they

A very quick handling in 3 days. I had to get around the official regulations by buying an extra fee since my bike had no import papers in Tajikistan (messy border crossing..). All in all it was an easy process