Shipments done by Travellers

This was a TOTAL hassle to ship my bike from Rio to NYC. First off, the border officials didn't give me the proper stamp upon entry from Bolivia. When I went to inquire about shipping to the States I found myself caught in a major legal bind; they would not ship the bike without proper stamps etc. To top it all off, customs in Brazil was on strike so I could not get much done.

It took one month(1) of daily meetings (shipping companies, federal police, US embassies), paperwork and phone calls. TOTAL hassle. When I got clearance, they still would not give me anything in writing (due to the strike?) so I left the bike with Transwaite Shipping in Rio and on a handshake agreed to $500 on a Rio to NYC shipment.

1 month later the bike arrived in Miami, and I was told I had to pay $300 for their handling, and $300 to get the bike to NYC. The people in Miami (Lilly & associates-Miami) were barely interested in talking to me and I had to constantly keep on them as to how to get the bike to NYC. It ended up in Newark, New Jersey; 2 months after I started the process...

We shipped 1 honda africa twin. The costs in details are:

per volumetric kilo: 4,92$NZ
Fuelsurcharge 0,11$NZ/kg
Wartax/security: ,35 NZ$/kg
Documentation 35NZ$
Dangerous Goods Management 75NZ$
Handling (charged by NZAir to use airport) 50$NZ
Food/Agriculture inspection in Canada: 46 Can$
Warehouse paper fees; 35 Can$

Airfreight from NEwZealand is quite booked, NZ Air prefers to send perishables first. SO one needs an agent, and you get a better chance to get your motorbike transported in time. We could ship the motorbike uncrated, packed it ourselves, the Dangeous goods management people (tel--64-9-2755559) issued the papers needed and came down to the warehouse, and by taking off handlebars, windscreen and indicators and adjusting all extra luggage around and under the bike we could reduce the prior 448 vol-kg to 305 vol-kg while we had goods of 273 kg net.

Greenfreight has its office aside of Canadaair, and can book Canadaair or NZ Air. But contact Greenfreight in advance, so they can make a booking. The wooden palet we luckily got for free, not the plastic wrapping, this can be bought at the warehouseshop stationery section close to the airport

Once arrived in Vancouver we declared the motorbike as extra luggage, and customs went to Food/agriculturedepartement, they checked it imediately (for dirt/food?) for 46 $can and the customs was just a simple matter, after 3 hours we could drive away from the airport. PS: don't forget drivers insurance for Canada/USA.

Seashipment would take several weeks as it is not a direct route.

Volume was a BMW-standard crate: 224x114x95=404 Volume kg
Weight was including full paniers two new tyres and the crate 348kg.

404 THB MDC (1THB/day) - storage/ handling Kathmandu
808 THB CSC (2THB/day) - storage/handling BKK
40 THB DC - ???
100 THB TC - ???
12 THB Duty stamp
10 THB Administration fee
23028 THB transport fee - (57 THB/kg - but because of the UNICEF-campaign I got 250kg reduction)
1800 THB Dangerous goods declaration
122 THB Terminal Charge
150 THB Overtime booked
60 THB Custom book
25 NPR Paper for cutoms clearing
200 NPR Customs clearing (Agent), incl. copy of passport
350 NPR Customs handling fee (1 NPR/kg)
Costs all together converted in US$: 287.43 USD

Remark, that Thai Airways Cargo sponsored 250kg for the www.2-mad.com Global Polio Awareness Campaign. This saved using their rates 351USD - thank you very much again Thai Airways cargo. I also did not count the taxi to and from the airport.

No problems on either side. Presenting the crate and leaving it with all the paperwork was about 3h in Bangkok. Releasing the motorcycle in Kathmandu was besides the world championships on TV (there was a match on and almost everybody was watching) also only a 3h task.

Thai Airways Cargo has a rate of 57 THB/kg some other shipping agents offer rates around 49 THB/kg. This might be an alternative. But I was very satisfied with the extremly good service and efficiency.

I prepared the bike for dangerous goods inspection by disconnecting and taping the battery cables and draining the fuel to about 2 litres (regulation from DGM was to be no more than 1/4 of the tank with fuel).

Breakdown of costs:

Shipping $557.00
AWB fee 15.00
Secw 48.50
Fuel 28.50
edf 30.00
dangerous good 65.00
DGM - paperwork 120.00

Total $864.20
Credit card 4% 34.56 beware if you pay by credit cd
Grand total $898.76

Hellmanns flew the bike on Qantas. The cost was about $300 more than shipping by sea but I saved that on the Singapore end in time and dock fees. It didn't cost me anything to collect the bike except my time. To satisfy Dangerous Goods people I had to give them an address and phone number in Singapore so I gave them the number of a hostel. I didn't stay there so I called Qantas as soon as the flight came in to Singapore and let them know I was there to pick it up.

I was very happy with the service.

Here are the details of a very helpful shipper for Georgetown to Medan and also the cheapest I could find - 250 Rinngit roughly $80 and he did all the paperwork for me. Lovely guy and his boats leave on Monday and Thursdays, probably best to bowl up the day before.