Shipments done by Travellers

Firstly, I'd like to raise the question of why you want to ship to Singapore, and whether it's totally necessary. For me, I wanted to say I'd ridden "from the tip of the peninsula" and also, if you use this company, at least, you don't have to get your motorcycle crated, which for me was attractive.

But bear in mind that you can also use Perkins to ship to Kaula Lumpur, although then you need to crate your bike. And Singapore is very expensive and annoying to be able to ride around.

(This belongs at the end, but I want it up front)
Of course you need the port charges paid (SD$71.75 for me, plus to be able to go actually into the port to retrieve your bike you need to go and get a port pass (only SD$2 but you need to wait in a queue (30 min?) and get your photo taken). But first you need to go to the AA and buy insurance (minimum 7 days SD$105) and an ICP card (SD$10.50 for 1 week minimum). As well as go to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to get an Autopass card - this costs SD$10 (including one day)+SD$4 per extra day (you will have to pay at least $14), and is a requirement for foreign-registered vehicles - you will need it when crossing the border to Malaysia and will need to top up enough before then (can be done at a 7-11 or other places if not enough done at purchase time).

But of course, the worst is the ERP (Electronic Road Payment?) gantry system, which I only found out after all of this. If you ride under an active gantry, you need to have a transponder fitted which will deduct a small toll each time. But if you ride through without a transponder, it is a SD$70? fine per time. Of course these gantries are all over Singapore, especially in the CBD, so they are (intentionally) impossible to avoid on your trip from
the port to the border, even if you don't stay somewhere. And it costs a fair bit to hire a transponder. Good news - weekends, public holidays and after 7.30pm they are turned off. But if you're going to do this, check that the electronic sign says "Inactive" BEFORE you ride under it. And pick up an ERP brochure from the LTA, which tells you where they all are.

Anyway, the point of all of this, is the AA offered me to get my bike put on a trailer, from the port, to the Malaysian border, for about SD$70. This works out cheaper and avoids a fair bit of hassle, and you still don't need a crate. But I didn't take this option.

---------------------------

From the start:
Check out the Perkins website - they have details of their sailings, and they're pretty regular. They were very blind with the tape-measure, completely missing bits that I could see clearly (like the front wheel) which meant I ended up with the minimum 1m^3 charge.

All in all a good bunch. Shipping promised about 2 weeks, but it was there early, I think.

Perkin's Singapore agent is:
Megastar Shipping Pte Ltd
21A Neil Road
Singapore 088814
Tel : +65 6225 8226
Fax : +65 6225 5993 / 6823
e-Mail : angi...@megastar.com.sg

Angie is lovely and helpful and will tell you where you need to go and what you need to do.

AA Address:
Automobile Association of Singapore
336 River Valley Road
Singapore 238366

LTA Address: WILL ADD

Port:
This is the only one that's a little hard to find, because the port's a big place. If you have a GPS, then 01*16.5030N 103*47.7170E is the location of a bike mechanic on the big road (WILL ADD NAME) and about 100m further is the entrance you need to go into - show your port pass and they will let you in.

In the meantime, please email me antonp at gmail.com if you have any queries.

Build a wooden crate out of OSB panels for my buell XB9S. Final dimension LxWxH (cms) 204x64x129, total weight (kgs) 280.
Crate was picked up at my house by the transport company and they took care of everything else. I had a carnet de passage.
There Australian agent,
C.T. Freight PTY Ltd
Unit 10, 477 Orrong road
Welshpool WA 6106
Australia
Phone +61(0)893563688
Contact: Stuart Sliman
Http://www.ctfreight.com.au

On 23 March -05 I put the Gold Wing in the same crate I had used to airship the bike from Houston, Texas, to Auckland, and turned it over to Panalpina for ocean shipment to Brisbane. (I wanted to send it via air but was told that there was no flight that could accomodate this hugh crate other than to go by plane via Singapore and Sydney to Brisbane. The cost would have been prohibitive, so there was no alternative but to ship via ocean). The shipment was to take one week but it did take 3 weeks because Panalpina had neglected to inform the port that the crate was cleared for boarding, so it missed the first sailing. Once it arrived in Brisbane on the 2nd sailing, Patrick Port Services took a week to get the crate out of the consolidated container. I wanted to assist in removing the bike from the crate because it needed someone close to a contortionist (me) to crawl in and unstrap the bike and roll it out. However, I was denied access to the port area, so in stead of crawling into the crate to unstrap the bike the stewaddores tore the US 960-dollar crate apart in order to turn the bike over to Quarantine for "disinfecting". (To their credit the guys patched up the crate because I needed it to ship the bike back to New Orleans). Once the Quarantine was thru with the bike it was turned over to me since Customs had pre-cleared it on the strength of my Carnet (MANDATORY). The port fee was A$500. The fee for Quarantine and Customs was A$500 and Panalpina charged A$400. The fees in Brisbane equaled the cost of the ocean freight! And I was cooling my heels in Brisbane for 26 days which added about A$5,000 to the cost. - The moral of the story: NEVER SHIP BY OCEAN unless you have the time and can afford unpredictable delays.

The most important thing is to get your bike and kit REALLY REALLY CLEAN. Jetwash your bike and boots (making sure you aim into any missable nooks and crannies behind footrests and things), use a scrubbing brush as well, then remove all gaffer tape, dead leaves from the bottom of your toolbox and panniers, sand from inside the ends of your tent poles, fit a new airfilter (unless you have a reusable one) - the Aussie quarantine guys are EXTREMELY fierce.

1. Ring Angie Ong - she'll get the papers ready.

2. Go to the Megastar office with your carnet and stuff - all the papers were ready, and I only spent about 10 minutes with Angie.

3. You get the PSA (Harbor) pass at the PSA building gate 1 (end of Cantonment Road at Keppel Road)

4. Ride to gate 3 (around 10 km west of gate 1). Customs is at the gate. Get the carnet stamped.

5. Go to building PT1 and ask for Mr. Sum (if Angie is not giving a different name).

6. Pass over the shipping documents and ride your bike into the container or just leave it in the warehouse (as I did). They prefer not too much fuel in the tank.

7. Go back to Megastar to pay them and get the Bill of Lading (extremely important document). I paid S$608 altogether.

Go to Darwin.

1. Contact Nandra Turton (nand...@perkins.com.au Tel: 8982 2000) or Dawn (8982 2018) to find out when the bike will be available for inspection.

2. Go to Customs (21 Lindsay Street) and get them to fill out a Quarantine Entry. They need the B/L documents and ask for carnet, vehicle registration documents and passport. They fax this to the Quarantine chaps (AQIS) and arrange the meeting with Quarantine at the docks. Costs: A$94 per appointment.

3. Go to Perkins (Francis Bay Drive) to meet Dawn and the Customs and AQIS chaps. You need to wear shoes/boots (not sandals), so don't pack them with the bike like I did (had to buy a cheap pair of shoes then give them away afterwards).

4. If your bike/gear doesn't pass the inspection, Perkins charge you 50A$ per hour to jetwash and do other cleaning for you. The second AQIS inspection costs A$80.

5. When you have the final YES from AQIS, go back to see Dawn and pay her (cost me A$61.45 plus the extra A$50 for cleaning) to get the pink release form. You can then get you bike and ride it away, dropping off your pass and orange waistcoat on the way out.

6. Ride to the Motor Vehicle Registry in Goyder Road at Stuart Highway. They check and register your bike. Sort of MOT test. Here I paid A$195 Ato get the 3 month mandatory third-party-compensation-contribution.

That's it. Now you can bugger off into the outback.

I liaised with Linda over the months and weeks leading up to my shipment, and she told me the cost would be NZ$135/m3+NZ$41 for documentation plus about AU$100 on the Aussie side.

I had specifically said I wanted it to be cheap, so I organised my own metal crate (free from a local bike shop, gas-cut and rewelded to save volume - 1.65m3 was the end result) and delivered it to their depot in Auckland (82 Richard Pearse Drive, Auckland Airport, MANGERE) on Wednesday February 2 2005, at around 10am.

Note - a metal crate supposedly saves fumigation on the Aussie side.

All the staff seemed very helpful, competent and efficient. I requested that my crate be wrapped, as I had my riding gear, tent, sleeping bag, etc loose inside the open metal crate, so they wrapped it in plastic and cardboard for another NZ$15, which I think they neglected to charge me.

The paperwork was very simple - I had to do no declarations or tell them what my personal effects were, nor was I even told to drain the tank (although I had). They gave me a Waybill, which I need to uplift it on the other side.

Note - I chose to make the destination address C/- Mainfreight Brisbane (the crate is put into a container and shipped by Mainfreight International) - apparently I need a real address, or this will cause trouble with Aussie customs. Will update this after the uplifting.

Anyway, the bike shipped on February 7 on the Kota Jasa 94, and is due in Brisbane on February 16.

I will update this once the all-important Aussie customs, cleaning, etc has been conquered. I am travelling on a Carnet de Passages et Douane.

----------------

Update #1

I arrived in Brisbane early on the 15th, and visited Mainfreight office (not the depot) to pay their charges and pick up the "Delivery Order" form - apparently NZ hadn't sent it through yet, so I had to pick it up on the 16th. I needed my Waybill for this, which was given to me by PFL in Auckland. I also paid AUD95.28 ($33 Port Service Charges, $40 Delivery Order, $12.50 Sea Cargo Automation) - hmm, some of these charges seem a little imaginary to me, but they told me I would not have to pay any more at customs.

I went straight off to customs in town, but they did not have my entry released for processing yet, so I tried again the following morning (17th) and in the afternoon, when it was allowed. They were very friendly and helpful, and apologised for taking so long - while they were not 100% efficient, due to not knowing the process 100%, I was very happy with their performance, considering they are a government department!

In any case, as my personal effects and motorcycle are in the same crate, I had a single "Delivery Order", but customs wanted this split into 2. Mainfreight struggled to do this, but eventually the eager-to-help customs found a way around this for me. Also, while I was waiting, they got the Quarantine lady to come and tell me the process from here.

Anyway, keeping it separate - customs gave me a "Customs clearance for Motorcycle and P/E's (personal effects) subject to quarantine". They also needed me to fill out a 4 page declaration of the contents of the personal effects, and that they didn't contain any drugs, alcohol, weapons, huge amounts of money, meat&fruit&seeds&nuts, etc, and that I owned all of the stuff to use, not to sell.

Quarantine involved paying another AUD88.75 ($14 Lodgement, $71 Inspection 1st half hour, $3.75 LCL container fee) - my first unexpected cost - I had thought this was included in the previous payment.

Anyway, they gave me a "Quarantine Order" and a "Quarantine Field Record" and faxed them through to their office at the port.

They got me to ring the shipping company depot at the port (Patricks) to see what I'd need to do next, and they said it would be Wednesday-ish before I can expect to have the bike out of the container and checked by Quarantine - they will give me a call. Oh, and also charge me AUD110 for using their facility and labour!

----------------

Update #2

Yes, eventually at 11am on Wednesday 23rd February, I received a call that quarantine had inspected my bike (I found that the tent had been unrolled but not much else) - I had to pay AU$110 (AU$50 for Patricks having it at their depot, and I think the balance for them unpacking it for quarantine, and for putting into _their_ computer).

By now I was a bit unhappy that it took 4-5 days longer than promised and cost so much extra, but the worst was when they said if I didn't take away the crate, they would have to charge me AU$50 to dump it - it is metal and it folds down pretty small, but they said that they needed to put it into "deep burial" which involves fumigation, and the works - regardless of the fact that quarantine had already cleared it, that's the only way they can dump stuff. They were quite unyielding, and not very patient in these negotiations, as they have had people sneak off without their crates before. I was quite tempted to try this too, but thankfully the friends I was staying with came and collected the crate and dumped it in the scrap metal recycling bin at the dump for free.

Note - you will probably need to take a taxi out to the port from Wynnum Station (on the Cleveland line) - either that or catch a special "port workers bus" from there.

Summary:
PFL in Auckland were very friendly and helpful, but obviously don't have much idea what happens on the other side - be wary of every step where somebody will tell you that you just need to pay their fee and not be sure about the next place. Customs was the only place that didn't need money - unlike the shipping company on either side, quarantine and the logistics company hired by the shipping company in Brisbane.

The time taken (just over a week) is probably not unreasonable for clearance, but had I known for sure, I could've stayed at home for longer. The cost breakdown ended up making the actual volume of the package to be a relatively small factor - many of those charges are per item, rather than per cubic metre, so I would not expect to pay too much more for 2 bikes on a single crate!

At the end of the day it got me here, and I have had a good trip - next stop Singapore!