Shipments done by Travellers

We supplied the crates, paid only for the actual shipping and the transport of the bikes to Bremen Port from where they actually left Germany.

Breakdown of costs:
Sirlsped $697
Agent in US $158
Fork fee $35
Crate disposal $50

All would have been perfect if there hadn't been a dockers dispute. Our bikes sat in the port for 2 weeks before we got them out. Customs was easy, they gave us plenty of forms to fill in, one of which we had to surrender at the border when we left.

This was to be my 5th time to fly my m/cycle,and proved to be the easiest company to deal with. I had approached the airline direct and did not use any agents at either end. I explained that I wanted to fly it uncrated, this means the freight gets charged on actual weight not volumetric weight as it would be if crated,the latter is a lot more expensive. This was not a problem they said and they have a flight everyday to Heathrow.

So I disconnected the battery and taped up the terminals. The engine oil was left in as was a quarter of a tank of fuel. Note the bike was also cleaned. I was confident enough to fill in the dangerous goods form myself having done a few. Three copies were needed. This is easy to fill out if you have the right info and make no mistakes when filling out the forms, if there is an error the form will not be accepted. This is why most companies want us to use an agent to process the paperwork. The bike was then loaded into a ALN container,supplied by the airline at no cost. They checked my forms all was ok.

The cost was $3.89cdn per kg. My KTM Adventure was 250kg= $972.50cdn dollars plus the dangerous goods form and other charges came to a total of $1042.50cdn.=476.66 pounds sterling. The exchange rate at the time was $2.25cdn to the pound.

Once in the U.K I went straight to Air Canada cargo to collect the bike this took less than two hours with the help from Air Canada staff who took me to the customs dept, 20mins later we left with the papers and I was able to ride the bike away. All without the need for an agent. The cost at U.K for clearance and storage was 32.00 pounds sterling. The little extra you pay to fly, against sea freight is far outweighed by the frustration of hidden costs and loss in time when collecting your bike. And there is less chance of it going missing.

Lucas at FLC has now shipped many bikes, especially to Europe and Australia. They have offices in Los Angeles and various other places. Both Lucas and his business partner Gerard, are helpful, efficient and know their stuff. They can also arrange air freight. 1USD = 3.8RM (Malaysian Ringit) 1USD = 0.65GBP 1GBP = 5.9RM Costs in Malaysia were as follows: Crating (125RM/m3) 250RM (65USD) Bill of Lading 50RM (13USD) EDI Fee 30RM (8USD) LCL Fee (40RM/m3) 80RM (21USD) Transport Fee 40RM (10USD) Customs Fee 75RM (20USD) Freight (25USD/m3) 192RM (50USD) Charge Sub-total 717RM (187USD) If you're British and feeling rather depressed about the end of your trip and returning home, then getting your bike out of Southampton will do nothing to improve your mood. Expect poor service, inexplicable delays and high expense. Firstly I had to pay 89.10GBP to the "shipping consolidators" who were specified on my Bill of Lading - I had no choice about who to use as they were selected by FLC in Malaysia.They deal with Terminal charges, the relevant paperwork, and getting the crate from the container into a storage warehouse. On the advise of the consolidators I used their recommended Customs Agent. Then the fun and games really started. It took nearly a week to explain to Customs that I was neither Malaysian nor importing a Malaysian bike but returning a UK registered vehicle - a concept they seemed unable to grasp. A further week and conversations with seven different customs officers to get the correct form - Form C179B "Re-importation of an unaccompanied private motor vehicle from outside the European Community" (you can get a copy from their web-site: www.hmce.gov.uk - you need Adobe Reader) and then another week for them to process the application. In all this time I racked up 162GBP in storage charges. Costs in the UK were as follows: Terminal Handling Fee 46.90GBP (73USD) Import Service Fee 35.00GBP (54USD) Customs Agent 39.10GBP (61USD) Storage 162.00GBP (251USD) DTI Fee 3.00GBP (5USD) Port Fee 9.00GBP (14USD) Haulage 85.00GBP (132USD) Sub-total 380GBP (590USD) TOTAL SHIPPING COST 501GBP (777USD) Timescale: Day 1 Ride to FLC offices, crate bike (took 4 hours) Day 3 FLC transport crate to dock and clear customs. Day 4 Collect paperwork from FLC offices and pay bill Day 5 Ship sails Day 22 Ship docks at Southampton Day 23 Customs clearance starts Day 43 Bike released by Customs Day 45 Bike delivered to home address You could collect the crate yourself but with van hire and petrol it is probably cheaper and easier to have it delivered. The storage company in Southampton would not let me uncrate the bike in their warehouse and ride it away."

We shipped two bikes (Honda XL 650 V Transalp) in two boxes. We got one box from BMW Auckland and another one from a friend (Total volume 4,85 m3). The cost was:

In Auckland:

Local cartage from Auckland city = NZ$ 85 = USD 43
Seafreight + BAF US$ 50/m3 = US$ 242,50
Export Documents = US$ 40

In Singapore:

LCL S$ 25,25/m3 = S$ 122,50 = US$ 75
THC S$ 10/m3 = S$ 48,50 = US$ 30
Wharfage S$ 1,75/m3 = S$ 8,50 = US$ 5
D/O Fee S$ 40 = US$ 24
Agency fee S$ 45 = US$ 27
Documentation S$ 50 = US$ 30
Forklift charges S$ 60 = US$ 36

Total: US$ 552,50 (including Singapore side and local cartage in Auckland)

If you want you can get insurance for a premium of about 1% of the insured value.

Description:

Michael Dunn was very friedly and helpful and all went very smooth. We crated the bikes ourselves and Mainfreight sent a truck to pick up the boxes. The transfer should take 15 days (during this time you can have a nice time in Bali if you fly with Garuda Indonesia to Singapore) and the bikes arrived in time.

I contacted MAC-NELS (their company in Singapore) to make sure the bikes are there and then went to the AA of Singapore (Mrs. Alice Fan was very friendly, 336 River Valley Road, Tel. 8312101) to process the carnets. You have to buy a crazy S$ 103 per week insurance (per bike !), get a "international circulation permit" for S$ 10,30 and the AA stamp your carnet at the back ! because customs will later endorse the carnet only if it has this stamp.

Then you go to the "Land Transport Authority" (LTA, 10 Sin Ming Drv, Tel. 1800-5535226) and buy an "autopass" for S$ 10 plus S$ 4 for every day your bike stays in Singapore (not for Sat./Sun. and Holidays). You don't need to rent a IVU (In-Vehicle-Unit) for the ERP (Electronic Road Pricing). These electronic devices would be fitted to your bike and automatically deduct money from your autopass each time you pass a "ERP-Gate" (mainly in the CBD and during peak traffic hours). You don't need one if you don't drive during these hours and not during 7 am to 7 pm in the CBD or if you manage to avoid these "gates" (you can get a brochure from the LTA or AA with the locations and "active" times of the ERP-system". I felt a bit like in a SCIFI-movie with all these "High-Tech".

Then I went to MAC NELS and paid the charges for the Singapore side of the transport (as above). Unfortunately at first they were about US$ 130 higher than agreed in Auckland but after a bit negotiating and explaining that i will do the uncrating on my own we agreed on additional US$ 70 including the disposal of the boxes (i already contacted Mainfreight and maybe i get some of this money back). The nice guy there drove me to the warehouse in his car and arranged all with the "Port Police" (you get a nice Visitor Pass with Photograph !). We then went to the warehouse and i uncrated the bikes and put all back together. We then drove out of the port throgh customs and they processed the carnets (i had to help a bit because they stamped EVERYTHING !).

Well, all sounds quite complicated and confusing but it isn't. It's just a lot of running around and of course it's expensive (especially the insurance). Next time I would ship into Malaysia (freight is a bit higher but the rest is cheaper) but what about the "Singapore-Sticker" on the bike then ...

From George von Waldburg, Dave Broughton, Adrian Greygoose and Lucy Gardner

Not much more to add to Harvey and Lisa's detailed description. Ed. See below. We found Ishowar to be efficient and eager to get the business. We felt comfortable at all times that Ishowar would make every endeavour to sort out any problems should any arise as he made a more serious and professional impression than some of the other agents. This was our prime concern in choosing him as all quotes we got from 4 agents were with $20 or so of one another.

The collecting of the bikes itself turned into a bit of a pain as we spent four hours running around attempting to locate our crates and find the appropiate people (this might have been componded by our hangovers though!) but all turned out well as although we were misinformed by a customs officer that the warehouse closes at 1500, it is in fact open 24 hrs so you have no time pressure to put the bikes back together.

Incidentally, I have a EUR 12,000 vehicle value in my carnet - it was only later on closer inspection that I realised that the customs chappie had mistaken this as GBP and accordingly had entered a BTH 1,000,000 bond in my documents rather than the usual BTH 500,000!

All in all the whole process went smoothly.