Shipments done by Travellers

I went out to the Cargo airport in Panama the day before I dropped off the bike for shipment. All went fairly smoothly. I did the paperwork the first day, and dropped the motorcycle off the second day. Shipping charges were $350. Breakdown, $250 for freight charges, $75 dangerous goods charges, $25 airbill charges. Pretty much everyone gets charged $350 to Bogota. They typed up all my paperwork, and took my money (they only take US cash, but Panama ATMs dispense US currency).

The next day dropping of the motorcycle was a bit hetic, as no one seemed to know where I was supposed to go to get the vehicle stamped out of my passport from customs. Long story short. Drop the motorcycle off at Girag, and then catch a ride back or hike back to the main entrance to the Cargo terminal area (don't ride the motorcycle there or they won't stamp the passport). Get your passport stamped out at the first entrance house to the cargo terminal. I spent about 2 hours running around being referred from one place to the other before this final tidbit was worked out.

They wanted a nearly empty, or empty gas tank, and a disconnected battery. I was well past switching to reserve, and "Ooops" I forgot to disconnect the battery. I removed the mirrors and put them in a Givi bag on the top rack.

I had arranged with Girag for them to keep the motorcycle in Panama for two weeks, so that I could fly back to NYC and get some work done, before meeting up with it in Bogota.

Upon arriving in Bogota on Monday, I found that most of the city was shut down, including Girag, and Customs, due to the "festival". The security guards did let me look at the motorcycle though. I returned the next day at 7:30am to Girag. Girag photocopied my paperworks (airbill, passport, and title). I walked over to the Customs office (DIAN), but they didn't open till 8am. Turns out that a second necessary office of DIAN didn't open till 8:30am. All told, I only had to have one additional photo copy made, and then the customs inspector came over and looked at the motorcycle. Returned, and had the jefe sign the last piece of paperwork, and I was done.

Reattached the mirrors, turned the key, and it started.

Overall a good shipping experience, though it was frustrating that Girag couldn't send me to the proper place the first time to get the customs stamp in Panama City.

Hopefully this is not to much information.

Started off well enough, reasonable price, nice looking offices and the Pan. City manager Fransisco took me with his family to his beach home for a BBQ! But they were 5 days late with the shipment and I then had to really rush through Equador because of it. I don't recommend Girag because of this and the fact that they were so unprofesional when "poo hit fan". Classic story of "taking the money and running". All the other cargo companies (about 5 of 'em) in the airport charge the same price (apart from Copa - they wanted $650). They seemed to have standardised on this price of 450 now.

ALL flights go via Colombia, Bogota now. None go direct to Quito.

Ask around for Bertha Iberra at Quito airport, she is a solicitor and for $50 will do all the paperwork for you to get the bike out of customs. Took about 6 hours to get all this sorted, so go in the morning to get the bike out the same day.

If you do choose Girag, say hi to Fransisco for me, he is in the Toucaman airport. He's a nice enough guy, but his company sucks BIG TIME!

They promised me a partial refund, but I have yet to see this after constant chasing and emails. A month has passed since this promise.

All in all, keep your cool, allow time for this and all will be groovy.

Good luck,

Brian

A shockingly good option. My best shipping experience. Both Federico in Buenos Aires and Iris in Hamburg are the model of friendly efficient service.

The bike goes in a small container of personal effects. Advantages: 1.no crating needed, 2.excellent security on the voyage, as the container is locked. 3.Trustworthy organised people to deal with both ends. And they speak English.

Disadvantages: 1.no guarentee as to departure date--they wait until the container is full. This was a matter of weeks in both my experience and Lois who went earlier in the year. 2. The only regular destination in Europe is Hamburg. My flight from London was 29GBP with Ryanair. I think Easyjet are starting this route in September 2004 also. So you will have to calculate in the travel costs to and from Hamburg back to your home on top of the 574 Euros.

This seems the best option from Bs As to Europe at present (July 2004). Lufthansa are now assuming every bike weighs a minimum of 500kg as of May 2004; in Argentina anyhow. So flying is getting costly. Be warned, not all agents are aware of this new policy so may quote you the old cheap air freight price then sting you with the big bill later. This happened to a friend in Bs As this year.

Breakdown of costs:
EUR 296,47 - SEAFREIGHT
EUR 14,82 - BAF
EUR 14,82 - RIVER PLATE TOLL
EUR 24,71 - E.I. FEE
EUR 32,94 - OTHER CHARGES
EUR 28,82 - DOC FEE
EUR 61,76 - STUFFING COSTS
EUR 45,00 - LCL CHARGE HH
EUR 30,00 - KAIUMSCHLAG HH
EUR 25,00 - DOC FEE HH
-----------------
EUR 574,34

I crated the bike,a 2003 BMW F650GSL,with gear and extra parts and delivered it to a BDP warehouse in Harrisburg, PA. (The measurements of the crate were (in inches)82Lx46Wx48H and the finished weight 331K. The volume weight for which I was charged was 485 K at 2.05 per K) BDP trucked it to Philadelphia, where it was to clear customs and be loaded on to a plane bound for Miami, Fl. Customs in Philadephia would not clear the crate because it was not leaving the US directly, but going to Miami first. (This hiccup in the shipping arrangements stems from the Port Authority of Philadelphia choosing to maintain a federal law that was repealed a number of years ago.) After wrangling with customs for a few days, Bob Feldman chose to truck the crate to Miami. All of this he explained to me six days after I delivered it to BDP in Harrisburg. The crate rode to Miami, via semi, where again it was held in customs. At the same time I was enjoying the Memorial Day holiday and flying to Quito.

At my request, before the shipment occurred, Bob arranged for a consolidation company, Cal-Vima CIA. LTDA., in Quito, to help me get the bike through Ecuadorian customs. I contacted Claudio, at Cal-Vima, after my arrival in Quito and he told me of the issues in Miami. The folks in the BDP Miami office faxed an Export Power of Attorney (EXPA) form to Cal-Vima, which I promptly signed and returned.

At this point in the endeavor I was in contact via email and telephone with Philadelphia, Miami and Quito shipping agents at BDP and Cal-Vima. Everyone earnestly did everything in their power to speed the shipment of the bike. After receiving the EXPA form customs retained the crate for 72 hours, because they didn

Alfredo Amaya was a great help in getting the bike shipped with as little problems as possible. His English is very good and his company has had experience shipping bikes world wide. The bike actually flew out of Panama by FedEx and I received it in Montreal in 3 days. Finding a crate in Panama was very difficult and they refered me to Panama Packers. They built me a bullet proof crate, but it cost me another $150 and increased the volume of my shipment.