Shipments done by Travellers

the process was painless. without even seeing the bikes prasanna kumar gave us a quote. oddly he asked us what we thought we should be paying and if we were happy with his quote.
we took the bikes to the interfreight wharehouse at 1200 on the day of packing, while my wife sorted the paperwork, carnet stamping etc. at 1700 we drove to the customs wharehouse and within 1.5 hours the bikes were crated and closed. the inspection was done in the dark without a torch so was pretty quick.

one of our bikes was broken down and interfreight provided a lorry to take it from our hotel, 50 mins to their warehouse and then to the customs warehouse (the entire day).

the packing does require you to do all the taking off of any ancillary parts, but the bikes retained their hard luggage paniers in the crate.

no other monies were asked for throughout the entire process.

we paid in indian rupees. the bill of lading was in our name with an associate shipper in port klang detailed on the paperwork. they are mac-nels shipping (k.k) sdn bhd. contact amin the assistent manager.

we specified we would do the clearing ourselves in port klang.

in port kland we found mac-nels, paid them for the delivery order and took that along with our carnets to the customs house. they stamped the carnets and we went to the northport warehouse. there was a delay with the ship of one day (due to xmas), but when the crates arrived we broke them open and were away in an hour.

the costs in port klang were as follows:

lcl - 185.50
terminal handling - 26.50
manifest fees - 30.00
delivery order fee - 80.00
agency fee - 110.00
total - 432 malay ringits
(exchange rate approx. 3.7 - $1

at the warehouse we had to pay 48.00 ringit for the warehouse bill.

the quote we had to clear with an agent was approx $430 so we saved about $300 US. it was simple.please note however, in port klang the agents are a distance from the customs house which is a distance from the northport warehouse.

Wit a few detours already under my belt, decided to get to Trinidad via Miami instead of overland.

Showed up with my bike at the Ocean Air warehouse not far from the ariport the day before my own travel and all went pretty smoothly.

But then the bike spent four weeks clearing US customs as Canadian bikes, at least bikes from British Columbia, don't have registration docs that are familiar to the Yanks. If you're from BC, you need a letter from ICBC certifying that you're the registered owner of the bike. Don't wait for anyone to ask you for it, just get it and include it in your paperwork.

Ocean Air were pretty slack on their end on getting the bike cleared and costs started adding up.

Shipping took six days, and then clearing Trini customs took three weeks.

There is no mechanism for importing a bike to Trinidad on a temporary, toutist basis. In fact, at first, people will tell you it can't be done. Persist a little.

You need to post a bond against the full, dutyable value of the bike (38%). This means opening a local bank account and filling it with cash off your Visa card. You will need a local's phone or utility bill to do this. My bond is for $20,000TT, or about $3000US.

The good news is that you get most of that back - you are assessed duty at 10% of the dutyable value every three months until you leave. If you stay 2.5 years, the full value of the duty is assessed.

My bond is, for some reason noone can explain to me, for more than the duty, as well. My full duty will be about $1500US, and I will end up paying 30 or 40% of that.

You will need a customs broker on the Trini end, call Milton Felix at 868 624 8350 and ask for the number of Ian Reid. Don't use Felix. He will have you back and forth running errands, he'll call you at the crack of dawn and tell you he needs to see you immediately, a nightmare. Ian is a paradigm of efficiency and you will avoid a lot of screw-around. Customs brokerage will cost you another $200US.

As for getting out of Trinidad to Venezuela - stay tuned.

Bonne chance,
Jeff

Note: actual shipping date is November 2002!

We shipped TWO motorcycles in ONE box. Cost was 115 Euros per cubic meter. Built the box ourselves and used many, many screws to make it hard for stealing inspectors to open it. We found the box pretty much we in the way we gave it to the truckdriver that picked it up behind our house (pick-up was included in the 625 Euros price).

Customs in Valparaiso is very, very smooth. We arrived 10:00 am in Santiago, bussed to Valparaiso (two hours) and we were riding our bikes that night at 20:00 (8:00pm). Most of the time was used by an very old customs agent and the opening of the box and putting the front wheels back in. I would highly recommend going through Valparaiso in Chile. No corruption, just friendly people. No need to be fluent in Spanish either. Just be friendly yourself.

We did have a slight problem getting an insurance, which is required. We ended up in Piqa del Mar, at the municipalidad, traffic dept. There are people outside that office who will sell you a three month insurance (30,000 pesos - about 42 dollars or Euros). We heard a rumour that in Brazil one could get an insurance that covers most of the South-American countries. True? I do not know. We rode uninsured after we left Chile.

Hi All,
We packed the 2 bikes on a Quad crate (only the base). We filled the space between the bikes with our panniers and bags. DGM wrapped it with cling wrap, took it to the Airline and brought us the "Air bill" We were allowed to leave fuel in the bikes and lubes, puncture repair kits etc.
Very friendly service and very helpful.

We organised our crates from Procycles, the Hornsby (Sydney) BMW dealer. We both have BMWs, R 1100 GS and F 650. The front tyres had to be removed to lower the bikes. The crates are 2.25 x 1.10 x 1 m = 2.50 cbm. We transported the collapsed crates to Towers one day in advance. The container is loaded usually 3 days advanced to loading the vessel. Call Tony to confirm the next container shipment. The container is usually loaded on Friday.
In Auckland we contacted Phil Gibbs. The vessel was afew days late. Make sure you get an MAF appointment asap. The guys are very busy. We had to wait 5 extra days incl. a weekend. The bikes need to be very clean, same for camping gear and boots, no spices, no food. We chose Jas Jenner because they allowed us to store the crate for further transportation.
1. Export from Australia
1.1 Seafreight 2 x 2.5 cbm x 85 A$/cbm = 425 A$
1.2 Documentation Fee 65 A$
1.3 Customs Inspection for Carnets 50 A$
1.4 Total in Sydney 540 A$
1.4 Total 313 Euro 408 US$

2.Import New Zealand (Jas Jenners Worldwide, Phil Gibbs, p...@jasjeners.co.nz, +61-9-275-1103, close to the airport)
2.1 PSC Australia 38 N$
2.2 Forestry Fee 10 N$
2.3 Delivery Order 40 N$
2.4 MAF Permit (Ministry of Forestry) 15 N$
2.5 MAF Inspection 110 N$
2.6 GST 27 N$
2.7 Total 240 N$
2.7 Total 127 Euro 165 US$