Hi all,

Right now I am in Delhi and it seems that my China/Tibet tour will not happen..... So I need to ship to Thailand to continue my travels..

The way I see it, I should head for Mumbai or Chennai... Anybody got suggestions on where and whom i should ship with... Contact names and numbers would be great... Ive never shipped a vehicle like this, so some practical advice would also be advisable... I have emailed "Boxcoworld" without response...

Any help is great

Cheers all

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I have sourced a company Sadikally Esoofally & Co. (Seco).... That has RoRo services from Mumbai to Leam Chabang Thailand.... Anybody heard of or even better used these guys.... What you think?

Cheers

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Hi Andrew,

Myself and a friend used Sadikally Esoofally & Company to ship our bikes from Mumbai to Dubai. I can strongly advise AGAINST using them.

Any dates and prices given by them are bogus. They'll give you a quote at first, mine was for a 3.5cbm crate for an Enfield (seems a little large) and they won't go lower than that amount. Then they priced everything for my bike at 5cbm which I knew was wrong, this was only another $100 over the original quote but all the shipping documents at the other end state 2.7cbm.

Very very dodgy at every step of the way. After we paid they finally gave us the container number and vessel name so I could check online when our shipment was due to arrive. It turns out the vessel didn't even dock in Mumbai until 5 days after what they said, and then it turned up in Dubai two weeks later than what they quoted. They used excuses like the vessel was delayed, but it was a set shipment, the dates were in place before the vessel docked.

On the invoice they gave us there was some bogus amount which I questioned. They said this amount was for bribing the customs officers to get the shipment through quicker. I only picked it up because the crate for my bike was slightly larger than my friends bike so this amount was 50% higher on my invoice. The crating charges were inflated too, $300-400US for a crate. The invoice they gave was the original quote with numbers added to each line to make it look random.

And of course as soon as money changed hands they go silent.

Unfortunately we had no time to shop around as our visas were expiring and used this place because it was mentioned here. We had no time to argue and just wanted out of India!


At the other end they put us in contact with another agent who ripped us off again. We tried finding a few other agents in Dubai but none of them had seen a Carnet before. We reluctantly used them. At the port they threatened to tear up the carnets when we wouldn't hand over money before seeing the bikes (Cambay Shipping in case anyone wants to avoid them). We did manage to get ourselves to the bikes before we handed over money though after a long fight (physical at one point). When we were standing in front of the crates we got their assurance that all fees had been paid to get the bikes out. We handed over the bogus amount they demanded, and then of course the warehousing fee appeared, $100US/day for 9 days. They were just as surprised as us of course, but this happened just after everything was paid.

Horrible experience at both ends.

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Hi rbslime,
wow sounds like a horrible experience.... Im actually in Mumbai now... Is there another agent that you would suggest? Or should I just turn up at the docks and start asking around and see who seems the best... Ive got no other alternatives in mind at this stage, so would be good to do some shopping around as you say.... I do have a little time up my sleeve

Cheers

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I haven´t shipped in or out of Mumbai, but almost everyone who has, reports it was terrible. Me, I´d probably go somewhere else to send the vehicle!

I have shipped a bike, by air, out of Chennai to Bangkok 4,5 years ago, and yeah, it was a big hassle (I remember we spent roughly about one working WEEK in Chennai just running around the city sorting out all paperwork, packing and customs clearance stuff, which was actually handled by an agent, but nevertheless kept us busy, too!)...

But for us, it was otherwise okay, no hidden costs, and generally everything went the way it was planned, it flew on the correct flight, and arrived in Bangkok without any damage. Just a lot of work, even when using an agent (and in India I wouldn´t want to try without one!) The freight agent we used in Chennai was Shell Air – I have no idea, if they even exist any more, but if you want, I can look up, if I still have their e-mail address?

Do note, that freight agents didn´t seem to return e-mails very quickly, and generally didn´t get the wheels rolling, until we showed up with the bike at their office.


ps. I think during the time of our trip, there was a big cargo ship with 5-6 cabins going from Singapore (maybe, or could have been Pt.Klang, Malaysia) to Chennai... for us it would have been more expensive than airfreight and our own flight tickets, but sending a car, maybe it could be an option, if it is still going. Remember, it´s not a car ferry, there are no ferries on that route. Sorry, I can´t remember more about it.

In that area where the Sadikally office is are lots of other shipping agents. I think all the doors on that floor are for agents and down each street you'll find more. We were just limited on time, only 6 days to organise it and get out.

There was another random person that came up to me on the street and told me he does shipping of enfields out of Goa because it's a lot cheaper. Unfortunately he walked off in the middle of talking and I never got his name, but I guess there are others out there that have seen a carnet.

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