Shipping a bike from India to Australia need advice
 

Hello,

I am planning to ship my Tiger 800 (registered in Switzerland / have a carnet) from India to Australia at the end of the month.

I would like to ship it to Melbourne, but it's not obligatory.

I've been reading a few posts about shipping to Australia and I'm a bit confused about the procedure.

I know that the bike needs to be clean, I'll handle that but as far as the paperwork is concerned, is there any important thing to do before shipping ?

Also, I'm considering shipping by land/sea but I'm a bit concerned about the delay. The guy I'm in touch with in Delhi tells me it'll take 40 days max. I'm concerned that it might take a while longer... Has anyone done that recently ?

thanks for the advices :)

Hey Kiki
It's been a few years but I shipped a bike in to Darwin. Before you ship it you just have to make sure it is clean. Plan to spend at least a few days cleaning it, especially underneath. Also make sure to clean your luggage, the inside of tent and sleeping bags etc.


Find a shipping agent to crate it up and they will organise the port stuff in Australia. You will be contacted by someone who will ask for the port fees. Your bike will be unloaded and transported and stored in some customs controlled warehouse where it will stay until you finish all the paperwork.



You have to arrange customs and agriculture yourself, but they are dead easy. You just go to the customs office with your carnet and get it stamped, then contact the department of agriculture (usually somewhere near the airport) to arrange an inspection. You have to have it inspected before the shipping agent will be allowed to release the bike back to you. But once they have ticked everything off in their system you just ride away.


If you need a base in Melbourne give me a shout, I have a spare room and garage for as long as you need and can maybe help organise some things, although it has been a little while since I had to do it.

Okay, seems pretty straightforward, thanks for the info !

I'll only arrive in Melbourne early January but I'll definitely contact you before, thanks :)

How long did it take to ship your bike ? Was it by sea ?

It was about 3 weeks Dili->Darwin, and then 2.5 months Brisbane->London. Both times by sea. The shipping company took care of all the crating and port stuff, I just had to do the paperwork. Nothing was particularly difficult, just drawn out as is everything with the Australian government.

Shipping bike by boat.
 

hei Kiki, be advised that there are a lot of additional charges before the agent in the destination port will release your bike. Do your research, there are a few posts about this which you should read. My own experience, ten years ago, of shipping India - Scandinavia was very aggravating.
If possible you must supervise the crating to avoid damage to your machine, it's not trained mechanics doing the work!
Good luck

Peter in Oslo

Make sure that the address you use in Australia is in the same state as the port of arrival, I had mine in different ones and someone made an issue of it.

Waw 3 weeks from Dili to Darwin... It's pretty long.

I've finally decided to ship my bike by air instead. I've found a reliable guy in Delhi I think he will do a good job with the crating. I'll let you know anyways.

@GSPeter, what do you mean by additional charges ? Like paperworks you need to pay for or stuff like that ?

I've found that post during my research : https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...torcycle-92012 . Peddastic has shipped to Melbourne by air recently and it seemed to work out OK. I am not looking forward to cleaning the bike though, at this point it looks like it's been through 3 wars.

@Mark Manley what do you mean the address I use ? for the visas or stuff like that ?

Thanks for your answers

I put down a friend's address in Sydney as my address in Australia on the paperwork but shipped it into Perth which is in a different state and customs told me that I should have put down an address in Western Australia, they fussed over it for for 15 minutes before letting it go.

The handling agents in Oslo had a long list of extra charges.
Some were legitimate enough, handling charges where my bike was moved from ship to shore, warehoused, new ship/road transport type of thing. But there was a long list of more nebulous charges, like Suez fee, Deep Water, administration and registration charges for weight and volume, customs and enviromental charges.
This led to a short and angry discussion, I told the agent they could keep the bike, and said I would send them an owner registration. They asked for an hour to discuss the matter with head office, when I came back they had a deal ready. Pay for handling and drop all the other charges. OK, this I accepted. Added onto the initial shipping fee it was an expensive project.
Interested to hear if you have the same problems with airfreight.

Peter, in Oslo

My experience with airfreight has been a lot more positive than seafreight both of which I have done on several occasions, after the initial charge prior to departure one more smaller one on arrival and that is it, although I have never flown into Australia where there is always the quarantine inspection as well as other fees.

Okay, thanks for your answers. Seems like the hardest thing will be to clean the damn thing before sending it :) I'll let you know anyways.

I think your biigest issue is shipping out of India. I am well travelled having ridden through more than 80 country's on my current RTW journey, so have gathered a lot of info. All too aften I've read of reports and talked to a number of people that have had a nightmare getting their vehicle out of India. Friends of mine currently have a Toyota Land Cruiser stuck there and has been for 4 months. They were of course assured that everything would be OK, clearly it hasn't been. It seems that the arrival and departure destination of choice is Nepal. Having ridden through both country's I can understand that. Do consider flying out of Nepal, i think that would be a better choice.

Hey,

India, what a nightmare......

Well, I think you're right. I left my bike in India, was supposed to get it shipped to Australia, that's where I am now.

The bike never got sent there after all, I'm now planning on having it shipped to Chile in a few weeks. I hope this will go well.

thanks anyways

Shipping bike by boat.
 

Hi Kiki,

Oh No!

Consider flying to India to personally follow up the shipping, just instructing a handling agent to actually do what you paid them to do from the other side of the world probably won't cut it.
Sounds very like someone simply hasn't had their palm greased. Unfortunately corruption is a huge problem in most of the world. They have your bike, and are probably running up warehousing charges, and will try to extort the max. Your handling agent knows the system and who to go to, but I am thinking it's going to cost.

What a bummer.

Good luck

Peter, in Oslo

I shipped my bike from Mumbai, India to Sydney, Australia

I handed it over in India on January 15th and had it at my home on 3rd April

Throughout the process, I was not in India as I continued traveling onwards to South America without the bike

Went fairly smoothly, but not cheap