Shipments done by Travellers

Olaf was very helpful in every way. quick answers, good tips on crating and all the shipping and picking up went smooth.

The shipment was pretty expensive, but was the cheapest we found (we wanted to airfreight, due to time-schedule and other issues).

He offered us a shipment by sea for 800$, but at that time we were so busy with other stuff (quitting job, renovating flat, moving out...) that we had no nerves for that.

Picking up the bikes would have been super easy if you know what to do. i wrote a little bit about it:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/trip-paperwork/enter-bike-quito-ai...

Gail did all the paperwork very well. The payment was a little bit difficult because Paypal did not accept my creditcard (mastercard) I used this card everyday without any problems until this moment. Had to ask my son to use his visacard.

This is the second time I shipped with Transat from Toronto and both times I had problems to keep our riding gear (helmets and jackets) in the boxes. Gail's instructions are clear. Nothing allowed, due to customs and Airline regulations, but that's is not the reality.

In both my cases the customs nor the airline or the dangerous goods inspectors did not make any difficulties,  only the supervisor who received my bike and why should they as long you do not transport illegal stuff on the bike.

When I crate my bike and send it by air I can put all my luggage in the crate and do not have to find suitcases for transport and get rid of them on arrival.

Getting a motorbike our of the crate does not take very much longer than making ready without crate and when you use the right material  it will be not a problem to get rid of it or store for the return trip.

I proposed Gail to deal with Airline and customs about this. A completed personal effectslist together with the bike does the trick.

Delivered the bike a few days before the flight and had arguments with the supervisor on duty and was in the end allowed to keep our helmets, riding boots and protective clothing on the bike. Disconnected te battery and said goodbye.

We had a motel on walking distance from delivering point and airport.

On arrival in Lisbon take a cab because "cargo" was relocated on the other end of the airport and it took a little bit time to find this out. Visitor's information was not very helpfull.

Go straight to Edificio 134, not to 133 and the on second floor is G.S.A. (agent) After paying € 30 you get a paper.

With this paper you go to 133 and pay there € 158, warehousedues and get in return a customspaper.

With this paper again to 134, now groundfloor, to customs.

A very friendly lady gives a stamp and now you can collect you bike in 133.

Do not do that between 13.00 and 14.00 because that is lunchtime

Check the bike and push it outside, connect de battery, load, get rid of the new suitcase in wich all the rest of the luggage was stored, and continue travelling.

It was $210 per person plus $205 per motorbike. The agency issues an invoice that you must take to the bank down the road and pay. They issue a receipt for which the agency give you the ticket. (An Aussi kid that went by bicycle was told he could pay on the ferry, and he did.) Some others booked and paid in advance at an agency in Sofia. I imagine it was a similar process.

The ferry mainly transports trains, but it has a few cabins on deck. So they take a few cars, lorries, motorbikes, bicycles, passengers as a sort of side business.

Departure times are not necessaily as initially advertised, so be prepared to keep calling them. If you booked in advance, keep double checking the departure date and time as it changes hourly (due to delays loading trains, etc.). If you buy the tickets at the office, you may be told to wait a few hours or even days for departure, so be prepared to hang around. And also leave several hours to buy the ticket in the first place as the dated admin and organisation systems take time.

Don't let all of that put you off though! People are super friendly and there is a restaurant/put a few doors down where you can hang around and wait. And once the ferry is getting ready to go, they are good at sorting you and your vehicle out and you are free to get comfy in your cabin. The border police and officials are all very used to dealing with passengers and do so in a relaxed, efficient manner.

Oh, and our ferry was one that stopped off in the Ukraine first. You just stay on the boat while it's docked in the harbour and trains are unloaded and re-loaded....

Contact with the company was a mess, partially due to the fact that no sane person will import a big bike by airfright from Istanbul to Khartoum...
We had to arrange our own crates some how. Yet, they gave us the best quote, so we went with this guys. The transport worked out, hence we can recommend it.
Don't use those guys to get the bikes out of customs in Kahrtoum, they are wildly over priced. Contact Mr. Midhat Mahir www.tour-sudan.com a great and honest guy.

UAE Dubai to Delhi : motorcycle airfreight, 30 September 2014.

We had decided to go with self managed shipping and use Emirates SkyCargo to ship the motorbikes by air to Delhi. This would allow us to apply for Myanmar visas in Delhi while we waited for the motorbikes to be delivered. We had negotiated a price for the transport of two bikes in crates with Emirates. Note that this cost will be based on either weight or volumetric space converted to weight whichever is larger. In our case the volumetric weight was over twice the actual weight, so do not get too excited when they quote a price per kilos and you multiply it by the bikes weight, the volume calculation will come into play and you will be up for, in our experience, at least twice the weight of your bike. Note that we shipped all the panniers, spare tyre and motorcycle clothing which along with the crate which added about 100kg each to the shipping weight.

We arranged with BMW AMC in Dubai to pack the motorbikes in two used BMW motorcycle delivery crates. This cost us 500 dirhams per bike for packing. Noel and his team in the service department did a great job. He even cut hatches for the airport officials to see the motorbike serial numbers without opening the crate completely. Noel also arranged for a vehicle recovery truck to deliver the crates to Emirates SkyCargo which we paid for separately in cash.

Entry permits are required to get to the Emirates SkyCargo main building at Dubai (DXB) airport, note: if your shipment is on a freighter flight it will likely depart from Dubai World Central (DWC) airport. Do check this. We had been told we needed dangerous goods clearance. This can be arranged on the day as Emirates have the contact numbers of various companies at the airport in an adjacent building that do the work. The process took about an hour to complete and you pay cash. I forget the amount but not too expensive.

Depending on the crate size, I believe anything over 2.2 meters in length cannot be accepted at the Emirates SkyCargo main building, you may need as we did, take the motorbikes to the old cargo building which you would have passed on the same side as the Emirates SkyCargo building when you came in. In our case it was not only oversize but too big for the X-ray machine which required some opening up of the crates to check the cargo by the police. The police approval is needed before Emirates can accept the cargo, although by this time the crates have now disappeared from our view. Customs may also want to conduct an inspection, and this is where using an agent, for some cost, may be beneficial. In our case the people carrying out the dangerous good inspection had worked free of charge to help us through some of the steps to obtain the piece of paper needed by Emirates knowing how time consuming they were. A big thank you to them.

With the dangerous goods paperwork and the paper accepting the bikes for shipping after the inspections, we pay Emirates, get our receipts and then undertake the Carnet process to leaving in the Emirates building. With the help of the Emirates business cargo staff this is quickly done. That’s it, not cheap to ship by air, but you know when it will arrive if time is a key factor as it was in our case.

Our crates were BMW motorcycle delivery crates, not acceptable to Emirates for stacking so we paid a volume premium of about 30-40%.