Shipments done by Travellers

We flew 3 bikes from Kathmandu to Bangkok. Two Africa Twins and one XT 550. Everything went fine. The bikes were in the same plane as we were. But we told from the beginning that this is very important for us. We also checked directly at the Thai Cargo office if there is enough room on the same day. If there is more cargo than room in the plane then it is not guaranteed that the bikes are in the same flight. But this is not the mistake of the agent.

We were very happy with Eagle Eyes Export. Two days after us three BMW arrived without problems through the same agent.

Our bikes were charged by volumetric weight. To make the box smaller we took off the front wheel, the handlebar and one alu-box. The outside dimensions of the africa twin boxes were 44"H x 34"W x 81"L. The formula for the volumetric weight is VW=L*W*H/366. Our bike was 332kg by volume. The rate from Thai Cargo was 1.07 U$/kg. Then there is a crane charge of 0.1 U$/kg (332*1.17=388 US$). The carpenter was 4500 Rupees per box (=60 US$)and the agent 2000 Rupees per bike (=27 US$).The airticket with Thai Air is 220 U$ per person.

Our boxes were damaged when we picked them up in Bangkok. Nothing happened to the bikes or other contents. But this happened in Bangkok. They were undamaged when the aircraft was unloaded. We took our bikes through the customs in Bangkok by ourself. There are many agents in front of the building who wants to do the clearance for big amounts (up to 100 U$ per bike). Don't pay them. There are official agents available in the Custom Service Center for 350 Baht(=9U$). The custom claerance takes one day. Be there early in the morning. We put our bikes together in the storehouse. The staff there was helpfull.

Later...

In Thailand the Carnet de Passage is not valid. Every motor biker has to sign a re-exportation guaranty (white paper). It is a huge amount of 500'000.- Baht (=11'000.- US$). It's always this amount no matter how old or expensive your vehicle is. You have to pay this amount in cash if you don't export the bike within 30 days. So don't get your bike stolen in Thailand.

There is no fee to pay for "the white paper". The tricky thing at the custom clearance is that you sign a lot of papers which you don't know what they are good for. Everything is in thai and you lose the overview. This document at least is in thai and english but no one really tells you what it is about. I had an accident now and I have to wait for a new front fork from Europe. So I really needed to extend this form. They did it without any charge. I applied for 10 day and they gave me 30 days. All the officers are helpfull but the language problem is huge. If they once know what you want they really try to help you. Our officer first meant we want to re-export our bikes in his office and he has to pay us 500'000 Baht back. He asked if we want it in cash or a check. We should have said in cash and left the bike with him. But eventualy we could make our point.

...Everyday there is a ferryboat (Ro-Ro) from Trieste to Istanbul. The bike is loaded by the owner on the ferry and few days later the riders goes by plane from Istanbul to Lubjana (Zagreb) and by bus to Trieste where the bike is taken out of custom directly.

Kazim used this service recently and he writes: "Just show at the port; find the dock of the Turkish ferry. Allow time for this, as the port is 12 kms long along the sea! One does not need any reservations as they can always find room for a motorcycle. I paid 60,000 Liras (about 30 US$) to Samer for port handling fees. After you get your receipt you are ready to load the bike. Loading starts at 2 PM, and normally the ferry leaves around 7-8 PM.

After tying and strapping the bike, there is lots of time to kill at the Turkish Cafe, frequented by all the truck drivers, until the bus comes to haul you to Lubjana, capital of Slovenia. The ride from Trieste to Lubjana takes around 45 minutes, but the plane is at 00:30, which meant along wait at the airport for about 4 hours. I was in my bed at 4:00 AM, Turkish time.

The boat comes to Istanbul in 3 1/2 days and you pick up your bike in Harem. The cost of freight ($150) and the one way plane ticket ($250) was a total of $400, payable in cash only at UND's office in Harem. Not too much considering the amount of time spent on the road, money spent on hotels, ferry from Bari to Igoumenitza, and gas. Custom formalities took only about 15 minutes, everybody was very helpful.

Leaving Oz from Melbourne I contacted a company called Oss (address, Noble park) and they can be found in the Yellow pages, contact there is Anthony Golding. Any of the Bike shops on Elizabeth St would supply a crate for free, I got mine from Honda Oz but they are a bit out of the way if you don't have transport.

For 2 cubic m it cost $450 Oz.and I shipped to Christchurch. I was able to do all the crating etc myself (all the normal, drain petrol and disconnect the battery) but for a cost they will do it for you.

The Nz side was also fine,contact MAF and Customs at the airport before the bike arrives and arrange inspection times, there is a set fee but I can't remember what it was. On the day of inspection you can be away on the bike. My carnet expired the day the boat left M/bourne so I entered the country without one. All that was required was a letter from a bike shop saying what the bike was worth, and as they don't import Africa twins to Nz, I could get a reduced value. Customs refund the deposit plus interest when they have proof the bike has been exported, copy of the bill of lading is sufficient.

We promised to send you some information about freighting bikes from KL to Perth. When we got to KL we made enquiries with Multimodal Freight Sdn Bhd (details below) about putting the bike on a ship but, for us, the timescale was too long. Going to Sydney is quite quick (15 days) but Perth or Darwin takes at least 30 days. Sydney was by the far the cheapest shipping option (we think about 250 sterling basic freight cost). However, as we didn't want to go to the east coast first we opted to fly the bike with Malaysia Airways and it travelled on the same flight as us. The particular agent we used no longer wishes to airfreight bikes but we're sure there must be others in KL. Mr Murele at Multimodal is incredibly friendly and helpful and might be a good place to start.

As to the costs they were as follows (it's in Malaysian ringits [RM] - when we paid there were about 5.3RM to the pound): Basic freight: 6.37RM p/kg Fuel Surcharge: 0.38RM p/kg Agent's Handling Charge: 250RM Terminal Charge: 79.20RM Dangerous Goods Fee: 100RM Crate: 300RM Fumigation: 120RM

The fumigation was an Australian customs requirement (we're not sure if the crate was actually fumigated - we were given several copies of the certificate which were collected direct from a printers (!) - in any event it satisfied Australian customs!). Our flights cost 1315RM per person. People should be aware that Australian customs require bikes to be spotlessly clean. Before you can retrieve a bike it must be inspected by quarantine officials (fee $80AUS) and passed fit. Ours passed with no problem but we did spend a considerable time in KL cleaning it up. Mud is the thing they're really concerned about and they do check bikes over thoroughly. The only other charges we incurred at Australia customs was a $27.50AUS customs tax and $65AUS handling charge. Australian law also requires that you temporarily register an imported foreign bike at a Transport Licensing Centre. We had to get a temporary licence before we could drive the bike out of the customs shed but a stamped carnet is required to obtain the licence. Basically it involves a bit of tooing and froing from customs to the Department of Transport - time consuming but the officials are all very helpful. A Dept of Transport inspection (a mini MOT costing $60AUS) is required before the final licence can be issued and on top of that there is the obligatory rego/3rd party insurance (in our case approx $50AUS for three months). Hope this information is useful. Chris Jagger and Sara Down (UK - RTW on R100GS and, for the OZ leg only, Sara is riding a Honda Dominator).

My story is kind a nightmare. In short, I shipped my bike in time, got my plane on schedule to arrive in Perth where my bike was NOT there. Because there was no room in a container for Perth it was put into a container for Sydney (which is about 3000k to the east!)! It was not even in Australia by then. Very annoying, so I asked the handling agent in Aus to send it with a roadtrain to Darwin where I finally picked it up. In prime condition by the way, having seen more of Aus than I had then!

I think they (the agents) were okay, it was the company in between that did the horror's. I cannot blame them for this and they felt bad about it as well. However, there are always problems with their shipping, so maybe it is them after all. A friend of mine had his bike delivered in Perth three weeks late. Same shipper.

...Use a reinforced motorcycle crate. You can find them wherever motorcycle shops are. (arrangend one by emailing an internet friend in Brisbane). A friend of mine got a dent in his case, which could have been his engine. The forklift inserted too high. Put some plates (wood, aluminium) there to protect it.