Shipments done by Travellers

As some know, the cost of shipping by sea depends on the volume of your crate.
I crated the bike in a small iron crate of 1.4m3. Which makes the price being quite low.
I delivered the bike in the crate at the Port of Antwerp. In Montreal i paid the costs at the shipping company there. Customs was a little paperwork without a cost.
Need to have bike insurance or you need to apply for a Canadian number plate.
At the warehouse you need to pay 56$ as docking fee with a car. But they delivered my crate to an address for the same price(as you than don't pay a docking fee).
Everything went as they told me and i had no extra costs at all.
So i was very pleased with the whole shipment in total.

Grtz,
Bossit.

CFS made shipping out of Egypt really easy. Process was
1. Contact them a few weeks ahead by email to discuss options. Replies are usually within one day which I think might be unique for EgyptIan shipping agents (I contacted 20 firms before finding them, only one of these even replied).
2. Arrive at their Alexandria office the morning 3 days before shipping date and spend half a day with them as they walk you around the immigration department and the court (this to get documents in Arabic saying they are authorised to act on your behalf).
3. Next day deliver bike to them at port gate and they take over, and you can leave.
4. As soon as ship leaves with your bike, CFS courier your completed carnet to your hotel in Piraeus.

Total shipping time from starting process in Alexandria to receiving bike in Pireaus was 13 days. It was supposed to be about 8 but ship was delayed a couple of days and then arrived Piraeus on a Friday night which meant I couldn't get the bike to the Monday.

I elected to leave some of my stuff (tools, spare tubes, camp stove) in my soft bags on my bike for the shipping. I was warned this was at my own risk. All were still there when I got the bike back.

Price was 425€ for the shipping and 4000EGP for the paperwork and assistance services (ie about $900 total or $450 for each part ). It might seem a lot for the paperwork and assistance side but once you see Egyptian bureaucracy in action it doesn't seem nearly so bad.

My shipping was done via Neptune Lines who seem to run a weekly ro-ro service on this route. Their fees were 110 Euros including a taxi service out to the port and all the running around to get the bike released. Port storage fees were extra to this, but for a bike it is only 2€ a day (8€ total for Fri - Mon) Neptune Lines Pireaus contact is:
Theodore Nearchakos (who is a motorcyclist and goes out of his way too help)
Import Department
TEL:+30 210 45 57 742
FΑΧ:+30 210 42 83 858
EMAIL: a...@neptunelines.com

(If you were thinking of shipping in the opposite direction I would suggest initially contacting Theo direct).

IMPORTANT NOTE: To enable the bike to leave Egypt you need to get a notice from the Traffic Court saying you have no traffic fines outstanding. The catch is, that if you enter from Sudan you needs to be got in Aswan. See my post " No traffic fine notice" in the regional forum as to how to get this.

Pretty simple customs clearance in Bogota. Took Maybe two hours, Found the Centurion Office, paid the Airport fees of 150k Pesos, went to the Girag warehouse for the DIAN paperwork, over to DIAN where you need copies of the stamped AirWaybill, Arrival Stamp, Title, and Passport.
Talked to the Descarga Directa ladies for about 30 minutes and went to pick up the bike.
Girag uncrated in the warehouse and I was off.

We just can say, Bernd and his wife Ita where so helpfull to crate the bikes and to do the paperwork for us. We had 2 x Suzuki DR650SE. Bernd and Ita told us, what to do to reduce the price. At the end we paid way less than estimated and had a great time with them together. So - if you want to ship your bike home from South-East-Asia, get in contact with them.

Nermien is very professional and quick to respond to emails. My experience could not have been easier. I just rode my bike to their downtown office, left my bike in their underground garage, put my extra gear in her office, and they measured the bike and had the crate made. I was done in 3 hours. They took me to to government offices to complete legal papers and that was it. I did email copies of my passport, carnet, and bike registration to them ahead of time. The price she quoted via email never changed. The $1500 USD was the total all in price, including crating. Shipping time is to be 45 days. She did request payment in US cash.

UPDATE!!! 9-20-16
It ended up taking 90 days for my bike to reach Chicago, not 45 days as I was told.
Total cost went from $1500 to over $2400US due to all sorts of port fees in Amsterdam and New York. My bike was held in Amsterdam for exactly what reason I will never know, except that the New York importer informed me that they had to send my original Carnet all the way to Amsterdam to get my bike released. WHAT??? The shipper in Alexandria had mail carnet back to me in Chicago when my bike left Alexandria. The New York importer insisted I overnight the carnet to New York where they then took 10 more days to forward it to Amsterdam. RIDICULOUS.
When I finally went to pick up my bike here in Chicago, it was fallen over in the sorriest crate you can imagine. It was not a fully enclosed crate, it was slatted. Nothing was missing but the handlebars were bent way beyond repair (I will never understand how this happened) and the bike was just barely hanging by a thread on their sorry straps. it looks as if it went through WW2.
When I relayed all of this to Nermian back in Alexandria, she said her quote was door to port. I said right, my port is Chicago, not Amsterdam. I asked her to reimburse me for some of the crazy expenses incurred in Amsterdam. She would not, saying they were beyond her control. Bottom line, she is an excellent person to work with, but buyer beware of additional costs if shipping by sea. I most likely will never ship by sea again. Air is the way to go. I would have given Nermian a 5/5 rating except for 6 week delay and the additional $905.