Shipments done by Travellers

Southern Algerian towns are full of friendly people and net importers. This means that they're happy to help and the planes are lightly loaded flying north. The people don't, however, do this often so you need to help them work it out.

A friend bust a leg near Djanet so he needed to fly home. This is where the fun starts ... when you enter Algeria, you get a stamp for your bike and thereafter you can leave your bike with the customs for up to 4 months or take it with you. The latter saves going back for it while still in plaster ;-) the Air Algerie guys didn't have any crates or fixed pricing, but we agreed $160 for the bike (XR650R) and rendered it safe before heading off. I didn't know of declarations of dangerous goods so I later had to complete one before the bike could fly from ALgiers to London where I paid $50 for handling. A right bargain!

This shipper is very very good. His office is small and smelly, but he knows what he is doing. He is quick as well. He did my bike in two days, packing papers, everything. The bike came, as promised, after 20 days in Rotterdam. It took 1 week in customs and another 170 dollars port charges. But now its home

It doesn't get much easier than this. It was simply a matter of riding the bike to his office. One of his staff loads it onto a purpose built truck. They take it through customs collecting the necessary stamps and load it straight into the container. The stamped carnet was back with us within the hour.

We were a bit concerned about not being able to do this ourselves but our bike arrived exactly as we left it. We flew straight to Perth where he faxed across the bill of lading etc with a copy of my passport on which I used as proof of i.d. This end.

The bike arrived 7 days later. We then paid 220 oz dollars port and handling charges. The carnet was stamped within minutes, as was the quarantine papers. We were charged no fee as the bike was clean, and the man was there only a matter of minutes. I thoroughly recommend using this agent in Singapore.

Shipped my bike from Rio to LAX for less than $800. Simply rode the bike to Varig at Rio's international airport. Just followed the signs to the airfreight terminal, and walked into the Varig Offices. All I was asked to do was disconnect the battery. In my haste I stupidly did not take off the mirrors, and I forgot to shut off the fuel tank.

Paperwork a snap, I filled out one small form and the Varig and customs people filled out all the others. I got there at 0830, and was finished with the paperwork AND customs by 1130. All people were courteous and efficient. (Of course all my bike papers were in order.) And by the way, they shipped the bike the very same day!

Anyway, here's what I got to Los Angeles: $2.00USD per kilo, but because the bike's dimensions are large, I got a surcharge (naturally!) and paid for an extra hundred pounds or so, for a total fee of $788 including shipper's $50USD handling charge.

My bike was in LAX in two days, frequently it takes up to 2 weeks, but I got lucky. Bike was strapped to open pallet, wrapped in plastic, and arrived in LAX in perfect condition.