We left Australia in November 2004 with our bikes and carnet. We visited Sth East Asia and then onto UKand back to Thailand in feb 2008. We didn't extend our carnet, didn't know we could or had to. Just shipped our bikes back to Brisbane, Australia and got a quote from freight forwarders of $AUD 1320/ bike. To say we were stunned would be an understatement. Carnets have expired, customs not interested in them, will stamp so we can get money back from AAA. We thought it would be easy as the bikes were originally from Australia, so make sure you keep your carnets active, I guess this applies to all countries?
Below is an outline of the fees:

Port fees $450 / bike
Custom clearance $385 /bike
Quarantine clearance and fees $485/bike
Total: $1320/bike

Some of these fees are unavoidable:some port fees and customs/AQIS fees.

We have cleared the bikes ourselves today, with a lot of help from both customs and a company in Sydney,(details I will give in Transport forum).

Port fees: $450/bike
Customs Clearance: @$48/bike
AQIS: @$51/bike

Total: $550/bike

How do the companies justify charging such sums, customs clearance was 4 forms.

We used the customs office in Brisbane city, they were extremely helpful. We had had a not so good experience at customs at the airport.

BEWARE: Freight Forwarders

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“… all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men (and women) to do nothing ...”.

So is/was it a problem not having your carnet active when you got back to Oz? The costs you've listed don't mention anything re extra carnet costs. Let us know if you have any issues getting your carnet released from AAA.

We are currently travelling with an AAA carnet, and intend to renew it after the first 12 months, but not sure if we will do it again after that, because we would've travelled through the countries requiring a carnet.

Thanks

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www.seeyouwhenwegetthere.com

We took our bike (Finland registered) by air to Perth. Airport handling fees were about 150 AUD, customs cleared by carnet 0 AUD, quarantine inspection was ~110 AUD total, and roadworthiness-test plus mandatory 3rd party insurance was around 120 (including a temporary permit to allow you to ride to the inspection centre, this was about 20).

No-one actually said anything about any insurance at the airport, and we hadnt yet found out where to get it from, so we ended up riding a couple of days in Perth without any. Didnt get stopped by the police the whole time we spent in Oz, but I still think its better to have it just in case. As a foreigner, information about the whole thing was a bit hard to find, though.

Andrew, yes, please do elaborate on your export/import experience(s). I look forward to reading about it in the Transport Forum.

Thanks

KEITH

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Right Way Round ...

Customs agents try it on every time, couple of years ago I got caught with some air freight parts that were worth less than $1000 so I could n't clear them myself. BUT I could buy access to Customs Gateway for about $180 for two years or get a Customs Agent to type the info into the Gateway for $180............the ex Prime Minister Howard's dream of a totally capitalist world I guess.

I dealt with the Brisbane Customs/AQIS office on a couple of private vehicle imports and they are really very good - helpful, keep promises, on time, etc. On the Customs website there is a "comments" section I'd give them some positive feedback, there are at least a hundred other government departments who should have customer service training from Customs!!

yeah, nothing much has changed. I traveled the world on a bike from 1999 to 2005 and I shiped into Sydney port in 2001.

They overcharged me big times with all kinds of port fees, I ended up paying four times more than the shipping costs and port charges in Malaysia.

I went to the general manager of the company and asked him what the fees are for and what his company had done for it.

His only answer to my questions was: If you dont pay you dont get your bike, thats so easy.

My answer was only: Welcome to Australia. And I paid.

I nearly left OZ again after only three days ....

Flying the bike out of Sydney airport was fairly easy and cheap with customs, even my carnet had expired four months.

Just a few of my memories

Mika

I think all shipping agents have the "very small print" about paying port fees in the country of destination. The problem for most of us is that we dont understand how the ports work until we are confronted with the issue and how much it costs.

The company that owns the port, charges the ship to dock and unload, plus any other fees the ship incurs (pilots, tugs), you pay a % of that to the shipping company, they then give you a release form so that the Stevedores will give you your goods.

The company that unloads the ship and operates the freight side of the wharf (stevedores, wharfies, dock workers, security, port police) charge to move the container from the ship to the container stack, you pay.

They then charge to move from the stack to the back of a truck, you pay.

The trucking company charge for delivering the container into a customs bond store, you pay.

Before Customs will look at your goods you must have "cleared" them into the Customs Gateway - quite easy, but if you owe duty then you pay, plus GST as well.

Customs inspect the goods, you pay as part of the Gateway entry fee.

Quarantine inspect, you pay. If you are unlucky they insist on a clean and then you really pay, especially if your goods have been moved off the wharf and have to be taken to a Quarantine approved cleaning station.

I did the sums a few years ago about using shipping containers to bring in vehicles versus using RoRo ships and by the time you add all the additional handling fees to the shipping containers RoRo wins out by a few hundred dollars - probably more now.

All sounds well and good and you have obviously done a lot of research on the subject. I take my hat off to you.

However, nobody will tell you reliably beforehand how much the charges are, plus they vary by several hundred percent and that can only be a ripoff.

Cheers,
Peter.

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Well the bikes have been cleared and collected. There were more fees to pay to the container warehouse, $60/ bike.

Quarantine were very good. We had heard all sorts of stories but we opened one side of the crate, they had a look and said they were OK. They did however, go through all the bags we had packed in the crates with the bikes.

Customs stamped the carnet for us so we could get back our deposit from AAA, no problems, but would not recognise it from a customs point of view.

Not sure if sea is the cheaper option when you consider the costs at the port of arrival???

Any questions I will answer as best I can

Andrew

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“… all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men (and women) to do nothing ...”.

Im very interested in this thread, as I'm shipping my bike from Malaysia to Darwin in December/early January.It UK registered and has a valid current carnet.Im wondering how much Ill need to budget for when I go to collect the bike in Darwin.Any ideas?I know the actual shipping cost is probably the cheap bit.

Hi Andy. If this interests you, go to the bike shipping section and look up the Australia to Asia thread. Everything you need to know, with some usefull contacts....
Cheers, Boot.