I am hoping that Air Canada resumes their shipping program this year as promised. Any news lately?

Shridhar

I emailed AC's air cargo staff in Toronto asking about the program for 2016. That was a couple weeks ago. No response from them.

2 days ago I sent a similar request for information to Air Canada's air cargo department in Frankfurt. I received a reply from them the next day.

My inquiry:

I am looking for information about the resumption this year of the motorcycle shipping option you offered last year to and from selected points in Canada and Europe. Will this program be resumed in 2016? Any specific information you can provide will be appreciated. If that information is limited to a statement that the program will not be offered this year, while unfortunate, that will allow me to look to other options. If there is an upcoming date that information will be available, that also will be useful. My desire would be to ship from either Toronto, Calgary, Montreal or Vancouver, to Frankfurt, and then to return ship my motorcycle from Frankfurt to one of the mentioned destinations in Canada.

*

Thank you in advance for your reply

Their response:

thank you very much for your Email, but unfortunately till now we did not received any information from headquarter.

We kindly request you to keep on checking our website to see for any update.

*
Thank you and best regards

Gabriela Vaclavik

Cargo Sales Agent

Pretty sure I'm not the only one anxiously awaiting news on this. Looks like we're still waiting.
cheers

Now showing 2016 program will resume May 1:
AC DGR for the shipment of dangerous goods - Air Canada Cargo

Says 'check back for updated information.'

Hi, I'm New to the site and wanted to add my two cents. It is true that Air Canada have or HAD great rates on "naked" uncrated bikes. As a freight forwarder who is just next door to AC and who recommends their clients to use...
1) what they may not tell you at the time of your call to the 1-800 line is that all motor cycles that have contained gas at one point are considered DG for Air transport. You will need to employ a company to create the DG declaration and labeling for the bike.
2) The Air Canada routes that you can send the Naked bikes are routes in which they fly directly and with the larger size aircrafts.
3) To make sure the bikes are safe while in the aircraft the batteries will have to be disconnected and the fuel drained to less than 25% of the tank allowance.

Hope that will help anyone who may be thinking shipping directly with AC.

If shipping from Vancouver you are welcome to contact me. We can also can crate bikes for transport.

Sorry if this repeats any of the other 6 pages of messages.

Bob

Hey Bob,

I am in the process of booking my flight with AC and have had a pretty good experience so far. They were very clear around the DG part and even told me were to get it and all kinds of information. Very quick replies by both mail and over the phone.

Regarding the battery, agreeing with Bob and maybe confusing some of the above statements, I was also explicitly told that the battery needs to be disconnected. This was repeated on multiple occasions. Fuel tank needs to be near empty as per your statement.

Thomas

Oh and regarding personal items - anything that is allowed to go on a plane and is within your panniers will be fine. I was really happy to find out about that. But it is panniers and/or top boxes only. I was informed that a duffel on the back of your bike will not be accepted.

Hope that helps.

Uh, not necessarily. Strictly speaking (meaning, if the cargo acceptance agent interprets the DG regulations very literally), you can't have a 'mixed shipment' that contains both DGs and non DGs in the same 'packaging' (the 'packaging', in this context, being the motorcycle itself). This is why the airlines typically say that you can ship associated equipment with the motorcycle (tools, etc.), but not personal effects.

In reality, most cargo acceptance agents will cut the shipper a bit of slack when it comes to what they put in the panniers. But, to be on the safe side, and to avoid disappointment when dropping off the motorcycle, it's best to only load the panniers with personal effects that could reasonably be interpreted as being 'associated equipment' for the motorcycle, for example, riding suits, helmets, rainsuits, boots, stuff like that.

I'm going to guess - based on personal experience - that the majority of cargo acceptance agents will be pretty tolerant of stuff shipped in the panniers - but give both yourself and the cargo acceptance agent every possible reason to deem the contents of the panniers to be 'associated equipment'. And, finally, be aware that if the cargo acceptance agent does refuse to allow personal effects to be shipped in the panniers, they are within their rights to do so - because a very strict, literal interpretation of the DGRs does not permit personal effects to be shipped with the 'DG' (the motorcycle).

Michael

Good hints, thanks.

Battery is confusing, I was told explicitly it needs to be disconnected. Guess I will see when I get there, just a couple of boltes on the F800GS so not too worried...

This morning I dropped off my motorcycle at the Air Canada Cargo facility in Montreal. My BMW is being shipped over to Dublin Ireland.

It was a pretty simple and painless ordeal

I received my dangerous goods form for the bike

Presented that to Air Canada personnel.

I drove my bike into their warehouse facility

The bike was weighed

I was instructed to ensure that the fuel tank was less that 1/4 full, which it was.

I was not questioned about my the state of my battery. The DG rep I was dealing with who has been in the business for decades said that so long as the battery is secured in its tray, everything is fine. No need to disconnect anything.

Once the bike was weighed, someone came by and performed a security inspection on the motorcycle, checking items in the panniers and top case. They took some swaps of my gear in the panniers and had a sniffer device, looks like they were checking for explosives. They asked if I had anything flammable on the bike or had any sort of pressurized containers, which I did not. Aside from that, they didn't seem to care what other items I choose to pack in my panniers. I left my motorcycle helmet attached to the side of the bike. The keys had to be left in the ignition.

They did express concern about a MSR fuel bottle that I had attached to the outside of one of my panniers. I told them that the bottle was new and had not yet been used. They recommended that the bottle be stored in one of the side cases, out of sight, fuel bottles tend to freak out the safety people.

The DG rep warned me that once I used the MSR fuel bottle I would not be about to ship the bike back with it. He said if you have any items, i.e. fuel bottle, camp stove that even has scent of gasoline on it, they will block the shipment.

Hopefully my bike will arrive on the other side of the pond in one piece.

Hello Bob:

I'm sorry to have to call you out on your ignorance and self-promotion, but:

1) Motorcycle shippers absolutely, positively DO NOT have to pay anyone to fill out a DG declaration. It is a simple form that the shipper can fill out themselves. See post #78 a bit earlier in this same discussion, it contains detailed instructions for filling out the (very simple to fill out) DG declaration.

2) It is not necessary to disconnect the battery on a motorcycle. Go read packing instruction 900, and pay attention this time when you read it.

The incorrect information you have published in your post does a disservice to the freight forwarding industry.

Michael

Regarding the battery. AC now told me that as long as you don't have an alarm the battery does not need to be disconnected.

The AC deal is not so great to South America, but I was told today that they may start going to Bogota, but it hasn't happened yet. I am giving up and will buy a motobike in Colombia.

__________________
motomon at pobox dot com
Have returned to Latin America ... again in 2024/2025. +15179800336 WhatsApp

Hi Ride4Adventure,

Very curious to hear how you turned out on the other side?

I am thinking of doing the same trip but from Toronto to Dublin.

Thanks

I thought I'd share my experience at the moment of trying to air freight from YVR to LHR. I live in the UK and used Moto Freight to fly the bikes from LHR to YVR, and all went very smoothly. Moto Frieght handled all the paperwork.

I'm currently in correspondence with Air Canada about getting the bikes back from YVR to LHR. They have told me that I am not permitted to do the paperwork myself, including the Dangerous Goods Declaration, and that I must use a specialist agent to do it. They have said they will reject the shipment otherwise.

So regardless of what the DG regulations might be, Air Canada are putting additional requirements in place, at least from YVR and at least for me.

Hey All-

I shipped my bike from Montreal to Frankfurt and stored it with Knopf. Whole process was very easy. I had a lot of friends asking for details so ended up writing an article with step-by-step instructions that some of yo may find useful. So here it is. Hope it helps!

https://www.bikeminds.com/thethrottl...e-us-to-europe

If you end up using the info drop a comment on the article and let me know how it went.

Cheers
Malcolm