Shipments done by Travellers

This was a shipment of two adventure bikes.
Packaging was arranged by Josh and included in the price.
We left the motorcyles at BMW Sydney on September 27th and collected them from Los Angeles Airport Services on November 9th, which was as quoted. Air freight would obviously have been quicker but we were not desperate.

After consultation with multiple freight forwarders i decided to try and do the whole thing myself.

I did get a carnet ($900 AUD) and it was used to have bike signed out of Australia. This may have caused me issues since i would prefer to not travel on a carnet since it ties me to bring the bike home to AUS but will try and sort that out later.

Things to be aware of
- DGM at 32 Rickettey St, Mascot (02 9669 4811) arranged my Dangerous Good Certification, v easy, $100 AUD. You must have <25% fuel in your tank and have the battery disconnected.
- Most importantly, you must book! I turned up without a booking since on the phone Qantas freight people on the phone said i don't need one. This is incorrect and you must book through reservations.
- You will also need a customs examination before the bike can fly. I was lucky, i walked across from Qantas Freight to Customs House at Sydney Intl Airport and was able to find someone at 4:30pm on Friday afternoon to come and sign my carnet after an examination of the bike. Along with all the gear in my panniers i was putting into the shipment as well. You may not be so lucky, you must book with Qantas (you need an airway number) and Customs (an appointment for examination).
- Don't trust what anyone on the phone says to you, unless they personally have shipped a bike themselves assume they know nothing. They will al say you a dangerous good cert., but this only half of what you need. Trust only what the people actually handling the shipment at Qantas Freight tell you (they are good people and very experienced, the phone people are idiots), the forklift drivers are especially good blokes and masters of their art.
-Also most people at Customs know nothing, only the more experienced staff know what a carnet is, make sure that they supervise anyone handling your paperwork.

Having said all this, doing the whole thing myself saved me $2.5K AUD, which is a serious amount of cash. Worth doing, just visit Qantas Freight (Link Rd, Mascot) a week before you want your bike to fly to make sure you documentation is in order.

Also air freight on this type of leg is far superior to sea freight, i was quoted up to 70 days via sea, for about the same amount of money.

Send me a PM if you need help air freighting a bike from Sydney to Buenos Aries or Santiago, happy to help.

Adrian

I turned up without a booking since I was told that would be fine by the sales people on the phone, for future reference you must have a booking through reservations for two reasons
- to get space allocated since this is a busy air freight route since there are few shipping routes from Australia to South America
- A customs inspection must be arranged. I did this myself (and you may need to as well) by walking over to customs house from the freight terminal and getting in the queue for a customs officer. I used my carnet but def worth finding out if you don’t have to use one to get an Aus reg bike out of the country. You will need to ring customs and find out.

The people at the freight desk know their stuff (worth visiting them a day beforehand make your documentation is in order), I found the people on the 1300 number did not know that much and I rate their service as epic fail but the people at the freight terminal as top class hence my final rating as 3.

Breakdown of costs (items in order)

Australian Side
- Dangerous good certificate = $100 AUD (I used DGM, 32 Ricketty St, Mascot 02 9669 4811)
- Freight charge from quantas (by weight only) = $2538 AUD

Argentinean Side
- 2 months Argentinean Local Insurance = 100 ARP(From ATM 930 Sarminento, Capital Federal BA. This cannot be sorted abroad and must be arranged before you go and try and pickup your bike. Alternatively Sandra at Dakar Motos can arrange it for you amongst other things.
- Get airway bill documents from freight office at BA airport = 480 ARP
- Clearance fees from Arg Customs = 1157 ARP

Total cost ~$3100 AUD + carnet $900 ARP

Handling fee C$45.00
Export declaration C$25.00
Ocean freight Vancouver to San Antonio port only C$1157.18
$10,000 Insurance C$250.00
Credit Card transaction fee C$51.70

THIS COST WAS FOR 2 MOTORCYCLES.

WE CRATED AND DELIVERED THEM TO THE WAREHOUSE, OURSELVES

Does not include destination charges and importation customs fees

My Suzuki DR650 was crated at Richmond Motorsports in Vancouver. Free crate, only charged for labor and tie-down straps. LEI sent a truck and the crate was wrapped in plastic and fork-lifted onto the truck. From Richmond Motorsports you can get a taxi to an airport hotel, or to a rail station where you can easily get down town to more lodging options. There are a few hostels on Main street near the rail station stop. The people at Richmond Motorsports were top-notch and took great care of me.

Later at Vancouver Int'l Airport (YVR) I visited the offices of LEI, an easy walk from the passenger terminal if you aren't lugging anything, but can be difficult to find among the dozens of offices. A taxi can take you there as well, you just have to get picked up from the Arrivals terminal. I filled out a few more forms and paid with a credit card. Marshalla handled everything very professionally.

In Incheon, it is best to hire a customs broker to handle getting the bike from customs. If you want to ride in Korea, insurance and temporary plates are required, and these can be had at the district government offices in Incheon. The subway system is clean and easy to use, with station signs and announcements in both Korean and English.

The customs clearance agent I used was Mr. Choi, at airshinhan<{(att)}>naver.com He is a former long-time customs agent and boss, so he knows all the ins and outs.