Shipments done by Travellers

I did this from Santiago to Sydney in May 99. It cost nearly 1500 US and gave me a great deal of grey hair. I chose sea freight for the money factor. The bike arrived nearly 2 months later than promised. The crate was a mess and lots of things broken and stolen. My advice? Go by air and check out DHL - a mate used them to do the same and had very little hassle.

Grant's note: LAN Cargo quoting US$ 2,000.00 for this routing by air in Jan/2001

Very detailed description of the shipping process, including pictures!

Conclusion is that next time they would go direct to Lufthansa, but beginners would find it useful to use Mandell to smooth the process.

Best method to send your bike is via air. Unfortunately the US airlines are getting paranoid about shipping bikes - they class them as hazardous materials - and often refuse to carry them at all. All you can do is call all the airlines freight departments and find out if they will do it. Not the head office etc. - their automatic reaction is NO. If you find one make sure you talk to the guys in the freight department that actually handle it - what they will tell you is often very different from the official story from head office and passenger people.

You may have better luck with foreign carriers. Lufthansa is the best for shipping bikes - and SA freight companies, such as Challenge Air.

In my personal experience, I found shipping by sea to be far less expensive and very convinient. I shipped my motorcycle by sea from Los Angeles to Hong Kong for the total cost of $350 including paper work, customs clearance, and 1 week of storage. On the other hand, shipping the same motorcycle by air from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, Germany cost an extraordinary $3,500 and took a week to arrange because 1) no airline other than Lufthansa agreed to do this, an agent was absolutely required, the motorcycle had to be "air-cargo safe", meaning the battery had be taken out, the tank had to be completely empty (drained and blown with compressed air to ensure there isn't any fragrance of gasoline vapors left!) and the tires had to be deflated.

Yes, shipping by sea may be a little more difficult to predict but if one plans well, it should pay off. In my case, I did not book my flight to Hong Kong until after I called the shipping agent and was told that the motorcycle was loaded on a ship and that the shipped had sailed for Hong Kong, and was expected to be there on a particular date.

I hope visitors to your website will find this information useful.

Dimensions of 240 cm L x 102 cm W x 137 cm H, and total weight 550 kg in box. 6000 cubic cm = 1 kg per SAA Cargo, so their calculation is 559 kg.

16 Oct/97 - Martin at SAA Cargo quoted R7.99 / kg approx. R4,500 + R50 for handling from Cape Town to Buenos Aires direct.

28 Nov/97 - South African Airways Cargo; R4,390.66 - airfreight bike to S. America; US$993.36

Grant built most of the crate on Thursday, then the owner of the bike shop where he'd been doing the work drove the crate pieces in his trailer to the airport, and we followed him on the bike. At the cargo area, Grant finished putting the crate together and the bike in it, while I did the paperwork. The customs official was amazingly casual about it all, strolled over and looked at the bike before the box was finished, then stamped the carnet.

Our flights were on Malaysian Airways. Price: US$ 775.10 each.

Re carnet for Argentina:

Gonzalo Figueroa, Argentina/Norway, from a post on the Bulletin Board about the carnet question for Argentina, "You do NOT need a carnet and that is definite Argentine law. If you want I may provide the name and number of the Argentine Customs Regulation where this is made clear, as well as the text from a cable from the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs on which requirements for foreign reg. vehicle entry are listed.

If customs upon arrival starts asking you for a carnet it will be because (1) they do not know what the law says (lack of knowledge is common) and/or (2) they want you to "collaborate" - give them a tip. Although these two instances are rare that does not mean you might not suddenly get an idiot to process your entry. But Argentine law is clear on this point: No carnet for temporary entry of foreign reg. Vehicles up to 8 months, renewable for another 8.

Gonzalo Figueroa, Argentine"

Grant's comment: Carnets are very useful to have, typically making customs clearance much less hassle, so if you are travelling elsewhere (e.g. Asia) where you need one, might as well have it valid for South America as well.