Shipments done by Travellers

We shipped from Kuala Lumpur to Rotterdam, Netherlands in May this year, 2014. We met Assir through BMW Malaysia and he's a really nice guy. We dropped our bikes off at his warehouse and the crates were built for each bike, this was included in the quoted price.

What we weren't prepared for was the cost of receiving our bikes at the other end in Rotterdam. The bikes were sent to G.I.L.S. I'm glad we were seated when told the price......... We paid $1421AUD to have the bikes shipped with the crates and then paid $1275AUD to receive them.Then they insisted on seeing/using our Carnets, even though this is not a requirement in Europe.

Next step was to find an insurance company that would sell us Green Card Insurance. The one we ended up going with was bought from Toeras Assurantiekantoor in Schiedam. They charged us 425Euro for my Yamaha XT250 and 435Euro for my husbands BMW R80GS, this was for 3 months only and it can be extended for another 3 months only. There is Knopf Tours in Germany that does this insurance also but he was more expensive at 495Euro p/bike.

After this experience all I can say is, DON'T ship your bike into Rotterdam! 

If I remember right it takes just 10 !!! days with the RoRo plus extra days at the ports. Many ferrys with regular and reliable schedule, they use the boats of Wallenius Wilhelmsen for RoRo. If it happens that you get in contact with Reina (it is a Japanese female name), please give greetings from Thomas the German and his motorcycle. It probably doesnt make it cheaper for any of us the next time, but works for good connections and one or the other favor for us.

At the port of Yokohama you have another broker who does the job there for you. (Reina makes the contact). If you do that the first time its all confusing, specially if you dont speak Japanese, but you can absolutely trust the Japanese organization skills and the people you deal with do speak English. Still, plan a couple of hours for the port.

No luggage is allowed on a RoRo! I did send my panniers in two cardboard boxes to a friend in the USA: by ordinary Japanese post! It was the cheapest and it worked!

Interfracht is a German company in Bremerhaven: http://www.interfracht.de/                          

They also do many other destinations RoRo and container. See other post about NY - Bremerhaven. 

For more details dont hesitate to contact me:

thom...@thomaslehmen.de

Ride safe! Thomas

Container Handling in Port, USD 406,-- and Port will charge USD 80-160 for use of port instalations and customs inspection. E-mail: manfred.al (a) gmx.net Agent in Cartagena and is a well known amongst travellers (US$150) from the ship arriving and us back on the road 36 hours.

Excellent service. Air from Bogota to Miami. Truck from Miami to Seattle. Air and truck was done by Lyncargo. I used my own trailer to haul bike from Seattle to my home in Vancouver. Steps I went through:

Ahead of time email to Veronica pdf of registration, passport and temporary import document that you received when entering Colombia . Stay at hotel in Bogota near her office, near airport for 2 or 3 nights, Hotel Munza. Carrera 103 No. 24F-22. Park bike in hotel lobby. First day 3 hours at her office doing paperwork Calle 24 No. 95A-80 Office 302, 15 minute walk from hotel. Their helper gave me lift back to hotel and led me with bike to car wash where bike got washed. Must be clean. Then helper led me to crating shop where it was left for crating. Walked back to hotel 15 minutes. Second day lift back to crating shop on helpers moto where bike was already crated in hand made wooden crate. Rode in truck to shipping warehouse near airport where helper and assistant did paperwork in customs and shipment offices 4 hours. Signed papers then said goodbye and took free airport bus from customs office to catch my 2:30 pm Air Canada flight to Vancouver. Normally takes 2-3 full days for shipping arrangements. They rushed things for me and got it done in a day and a half. 1 week later I drove from Vancouver to Seattle with bike trailer and picked up bike at Fortward Air 6531 South 219 Street in city of Kent.  10 minutes later I received paperwork from Forward Air and drove to US Customs 15 minutes away at 7 South Nevada Street Seattle 98134. They did 30 minutes of paperwork. Drove back to Forward Air. Got bike. Dissambled wood crate at Forward Air and loaded wood into my van. Loaded bike onto trailer. Disposed of wood at Ferndale dump near Bellingham $20. No problems at border into Canada.

Shipped two XT600s in separate crates. Removed wheels, forks and bars. Final crated weight 210kg each (bit high I thought) Dims 170 x 110 x 60 cms. Crates were ruined but didn't care. Customs at Almaty took an entire day and bartered the fixer (100% necessary) down to 300usd for both bikes. Customs fees for temporary import were about 45usd.