Shipments done by Travellers

I dropped off the bide at Toronto airport two days prior to the flight. The staff at Swissport were very friedly and helpful. The process took an hour or so. They didn't unplug the battery as the documentation say. They didn't even care about how much gas there was in the tank. Flew with the bike out of Toronto on July, 30 2012. Took me 3 hours to complete the customs paperwork in Frankfurt and I was on my way our of the airport.

Excelent service, no damages or scratches, I even had a half tank of cheap American gas to burn on German autobans :)

I recommend using there service if you have a little bit extra budget, or if you are in a hurry to get to Europe as I was.

Thank you Motorcycle Express..

Karwan

You have to buy the tickets the day before and start getting all your paper stamped. Apparently all the people that work in the port will have to stamp your papers, so it is a very long process (we went there twice in 2 different days for a total of more than 7hours of running around to get photocopyes and stamps).

The ferry leaves Monday and Wednesday at 9pm (on the paper, actually it leaved at about 11pm) and arrives 12hours later.

The expensive part is to get your motorbike inside the Emirates. We payed 1300 AED - 290 euro to temporary import the bike for tourism purpose only.
At the Sharjah custom try to do everything as fast as possible because after 4 pm is considered evening time so you will have pay more than double the price for all the importation charges.

Gail is wonderfull. Extreme good and easy to understand info. Used motorcycleexpress for bikeinsurance USA and Canada too.
Official you are not allowed to have luggage on the bike, but when you polite ask they will allow BUT when the actual weight is much more than the weight on the dangerous goods papers, your are in trouble. I had to take off everything off the bike because I made a mistake (about 30kg difference) and my offer to endorse the extra weight with my signature made the inspector furious. Thought I did not take him serious, wich actually was the case.
In the end I brouhgt the bike, disconnected the battery and bye bike.
In Glasgow I had to take an agent. That man, only spoke with him on the telephone was only interested in his fee.
Thanks to the people of Servisair cargo (transat) this agent called somebody else who cleared the bike for us. Clearance? Why. Our bike is a European bike returning after a USA/Canada trip. For some EU reason the customs wanted to import the bike.
After 2 hours we were on the road again. Not too bad.

In Toronto stayed in a motel 5 min walking from Airport and Swissport Canada. very convenient
Servisair cargo in Glasgow is 5 min walk from arrivals.

Apart from the dangerous cargo inspector in Toronto and the compulsory agent in Glasgow who did not show up was the complete operation with Transat extreme easy

It was my first motorcycle trip and the first time I ever shipped a bike. It seems like most people ship out of Argentina but it seemed easy enough to ship out of Chile, especially Santiago. I originally contacted the cargo departments directly and they referred me to various "agents." I contacted a few shippers and got three of four quotes and these guys were the least expensive and were also the nicest and most professional out of the bunch. The transaction took just a day once I told them I wanted to use their services.

We used a metal structure and we did everything the day I flew out, in the morning, and my bike was in Seattle three days later ready for pick up. The process was identical to other shipping process described on this website (showed up at the cargo, disassembled the front of the bike to reduce volume and put it in a structure), the only difference was that instead of using a pallet we used a metallic structure which created a frame around the bike which was then wrapped with plastic.

Originally I thought $2000 (USD) was a bit steep, but again it was the least expensive air freight I found and everything (documents, enclosure, etc) was included - they even gave me a ride back to the hotel to pick up my stuff and go catch my flight. The only thing that was not included was a $40 warehouse fee which I had to pay here in Seattle upon pick up.

Once I picked up the bike in Seattle I was handed all the relevant documentation and saw that CTS paid American Airlines Cargo $1119.60 so I was correct about the price being a bit steep; however, it was the cheapest and the cargo departments I contacted (LAN and AA) did not accept shipments directly from individuals so it leaves the consumer little choice.

The only critique I have is I think CTS can use more practice shipping bikes and maximize the use of volume because on my shipment I felt like there was some wasted volume on the top of the shipment (in between the top of the bike and the top of the structure) - I ended up having to pay for volume and not weight. Maybe if you have shipped bikes before, and know how to pack one, you can get a better price and get charged for weight. Both the owner, Hernan, and the guy I dealt with, Rodrigo, were awesome though and that makes up for any critiques I have.

Overall I am very satisfied with them and would use them again if I had to do it over - it was easy, fast and what I expected to pay for air freight. This is definitely an alternative worth exploring for those of you thinking of finishing trips in Chile. The price was a bit dear but if you choose this option maybe you can bargain the price down a bit since they have an pretty wide profit margin. By the way, I shipped a 2007 KLR 650 with all the boxes but no gear - just riding jacket, pants and boots inside panniers.

We took the expensive ferry, too. But liked it a lot! We heard the other ferry from Sakhalin only goes in summer starting 15 June. Here just some additional information to the earlier reports:

We asked at DBS Ferry in Vladivostok if it is possible to get off the boat in South Korea for longer then the few hours the ferry stops there. They said we could leave the bike on the boat and board it again 2 weeks later. Its only one boat doing circles. It is not possible to leave In the end we didnt do it, but the Japanese employee working in Vladivostok was very helpful, but also spoke hardly any English (but Russian).

Yes, Yuri is a nice guy. He is right now working on a website with more information for overlanders. He has an employee Svetlana speaking German too.

Its possible to book the ferry tickets in Germany (Reisebuero Gleisnost) for a small fee. You pay when you get there. For the bikes booking is not possible and needed.

Mr. Minami, Japanese Automobilclub JAF, e-mail: h-mi...@jaf.or.jp