Shipments done by Travellers

Shipping from Caracas is not easy as I found out - no-one else seems to have done it.

Lots of phone calls and a couple of false starts before I found Juan Jose, he speaks excellent English and rides a bike himself.

Some of the quotes I'd had from other companies had been outrageous - $1800 to send by boat (six weeks at sea), so I was really pleased with the price I got and also the service was superb. I've done a lot of shipping at various locations around the World, and these were a great bunch.

I had also tried approaching the airlines directly at the airport as well as the ships at the dockside but they weren't helpful.

There is a a lot of paperwork, but it was worth it. Another plus point was that Caracas is the cheapest place to get a passenger ticket home to Europe from South America.

Good luck.

easy going,
no crate,
2 bikes on one pallet

handling ok,
a lot of extra charge

This is an update from Chris Lockwood's comments in June 2001:

Some things have changed in the past couple years. Sorry I took so long to send an update!!

Customs in June 2003 told us that the shipping company Bisintour Service (BIS) was in charge of our bikes, and they would have to do the procedures for us. We couldn't do customs ourselves. At BIS, they told us that it usually takes at least three days to get a vehicle out of customs, but BIS didn't want to do anything with us as it was Monday and they were busy with the ship leaving the next day to Japan. They told us that "customs procedures isn't our job." After almost an hour of us bothering them, one woman spoke up and said, "OK, I do it today. My fee is $100 for each motorcycle." It was a take-it or leave-it proposal. We hopped in a car for the customs house. At customs, "wait here 10 minues" meant wait three
hours. In the end, we paid a few more rubles in tax and were out with papers in hand just before customs closed.

At the warehouse, another $20 for each bike to the manager got us our bikes.

All-in-all, we paid about $130, but the bikes were ours again in just one day. I guess it could have been worse. I was just disappointed because we were told before departing Japan that customs is no problem.

Don't lose the pink document you will receive. That is your temporary vehicle regsitration for Russia. You show this to police and return it when you leave the country.

Self crated '78 BMW R100RS and riding gear was dropped off at the warehouse of the South San Francisco trucking company contracted by Top Container Line, Inc. in Long Beach, California.

Total of 3 weeks from drop off point to pick up point in Osaka, Japan.

Itemized cost:

Ocean Freight $296.25
B/L Fee $ 7.50
Handling Fee $ 85.00
Maine Insurance $40.00

Total ======== $428.75