Question Concerning Shipping Motorcycle (US Customs)
 

Hello everyone. Hope someone can answer a quick question for me. Background first. I'm looking at shipping a motorcycle from the US east coast to Italy or UK. A shipper just advised me that US Customs only clears vehicles going and coming to Europe through LAX port on the west coast. Does anyone know if that is correct? Seems strange.

Hope to meet some of you at the Virginia HU Event in April.

Thanks to all my fellow travelers in advance!

Sam

If this is true (extremely doubtful), it's something relatively new. Unless your shipper is a known quantity, I'd look elsewhere.

Conventional wisdom these days says shipping out of Canada is far easier, so a day's ride to Toronto, Montreal, or Halifax might be in order. A site search will turn up various threads about this, and there's a shipping section at https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ge...he-bike#AirSea. You could also check with Stefan Knopf. He's had regular, cheap, containerized shipping to and from Florida.

Finally, you might say whether you're looking at air or surface shipments, what time of year, and why England or Italy (but not Germany, which I've found straightforward).

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Also check with our regular shipping company advertisers, Motofreight and James Cargo, they both know ALL about it and are recommended.

There have been several posts in the past from people trying to temporarily import into Hamburg and they have been asked for a carnet or large cash bond and they have ended up going elsewhere, not sure if this is still the case but something to be aware of.

Mark thanks so much for the reply. I agree with you. I've been talking with numerious individuals about shipping. Thanks so much for Stefen Knopf's info. I've already dropped him a line.
No real reason for looking at UK or Italy only. Just planning on spending a few months in Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. Of course Germany would be included in the mix.
I've finally retired and this is my first plunge into riding outside the US and Canada. I'm in the process of moving back to the east coast from Fairbanks AK so I'd definitely be sending bikes out from the east coast.
Covid has devistated the tourist industry here and 2021 will be no better in AK. I'm really not holding out much hope for travel in Europe for 2021 either but we will see. Always appreciate any advise.

Thanks Again!
Sam

DONE! Thanks you!

Thanks for the info. I will verify.

As always, I'm going to mention that it is entirely possible to buy a motorcycle in Europe (even for a non-EU resident). Not in every country, but in multiple. Ride it around for a season, sell it, almost certainly lose less money than the cost of transatlantic shipping two ways.

https://tulli.fi/private-persons/tra...emporary-basis

"A traveller who resides outside the EU is allowed to bring a means of transport to the customs territory of the EU without paying customs duty or value added tax."

All eu countries has the same eu rules in this cases.
Hamburg is one city in Germany, so they can absolutely not have there own rules.


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Hi Sam:

Generally speaking, customs authorities in fully developed countries (North America, Europe, Australia & New Zealand, etc.) have no interest at all in vehicles being shipped out of the country - they have no reason to be interested.

It is possible that a random check might be carried out to determine if the vehicle has been stolen, but that is unlikely.

I have shipped my motorcycle back and forth between Canada & Europe several times - the customs officials at each end always look at the paperwork when the moto is arriving, but have never had any involvement when the moto is departing.

Be aware that ground handling costs (port charges at destination) vary considerably from country to country. I don't have recent experience, but in the past, the UK & Switzerland were kind of expensive, and France & Germany were less expensive. So do inquire about port charges when you make your arrangements. Anticipate that even in a best-case situation, you will probably have to pay about $150 USD to the warehouse that handles the incoming shipment.

Lastly, be aware that the incoming port will charge you storage on a daily basis. This can be very expensive because of the cubic size of the motorcycle. So plan to be at your destination to pick up the motorcycle the same day that it arrives (you will get dinged for one day of storage, even if the moto is only in the warehouse for an hour).

Lastly, although it is not "officially" necessary, it is a good idea to have your European insurance certificate (the "green card") with you when you go to the customs office to clear the motorcycle out of customs. You can't legally ride it without insurance. In theory, you could clear it out of the warehouse & leave it in the warehouse parking lot without insurance... but if you have the green card with you when you go to customs, it tells the customs folks that you know what you are doing, and makes it more likely that they will just stamp the papers and send you back to the warehouse without needing to make a visual inspection of the motorcycle before releasing it.

Michael

PS: In past years, Air Canada has run promotions to ship motorcycles back and forth between Canada & Europe. You can buy a seat on the same flight as your moto, and just take a taxi from the destination airport to the freight handler on the other side of the runway (no, the motorcycle does not come down the baggage chute like a suitcase).

Here's a link to Air Canada's motorcycle shipping page: Air Canada - Fly Your Bike. They usually put up the details for each year around March or April. I'm pretty sure they will be offering very attractive deals during the summer of 2021.

Mark...

Thanks so much for Stefan's info. Have spoken and corresponded with him several times. After looking at numerious other agents I need look no further! He seems to have a great setup and loyal following.

And as a side note. I discovered that my wife grew up only 30 mins from his place! LOL! Fate?

Thanks Again!

Sam

Michael ...

Thanks so much for the info. I believe I have settled on an agent for shipping. You can see who in the post on this thread.
As a side note do you know how much of a hasle or not it is to take US registered bike into Canada if you were to take advantage of Air Canada's shipping offers? I do know that Canada's borders are for all intent closed due to Covid but then again almost everywhere is! UG! Thanks Again!

I know that but it seems the customs officers in Hamburg do not, this is one of several people who have had a problem there.

https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...-hamburg-94563

I'm going to suggest that you do some research on your own, rather than asking the very basic questions here. You might get answers, but in the end you'll wear out your respondents on the easy stuff before you even get to the thorny matters.

I'm prompted to say this by your questions about the Canadian border. Yes it's closed--although as an Alaskan you can get permission to transit directly to the US, you'll be reported and heavily fined if you so much as stop to see the sights along the way. You can't currently enter Canada except enroute to and from Alaska.

Furthermore, under normal circumstances your US registration and insurance are valid in Canada. If you've got a criminal record, including drunk driving, you'll have difficulties, but that's about you, not the bike.

You can take the Alaska ferry without crossing the border, although cross-gulf ferries are limited. You'll end up in Bellingham, WA.

Hope that's helpful, and hope you'll start reading up on your own. Either Google, or search on this site.

Mark

I know all about the border issues and how it has been working recently. Not as cut and dry as you describe. FYI...Ferry service is prohibitively costly and may very well cease operations soon due to budget issues. For shipping currently to Alaska the much more cost effective method is with Tote Maritime on one of their twice weekly sailings. Actually I'm not sure how we got started on shipping to and from Alaska. My concern was with shipping from the east coast. Hope I didn't take up too much of your time. I'll get it figured out. Thanks Again

Really strange. My impression of Germany and german people is that they do everything by the book.


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You should take in to consideration that the uk is leaving eu so even if you get yourself and your bike to the uk you will have a real border crossing to get to the continent. When you are inside eu you don't even notice the border crossings.


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The UK was never in the Schengen region and there has always been passport control, as the OP is an American Brexit will make no difference at all.

The UK was not in Schengen but was in a customs union and single market. There was always passport control, but not restrictions on movement of goods; if a vehicle had been legally brought into the UK and legal to drive on UK public roads, it could be equivalently driven on any EU/EEA public roads.

Now there will be a customs border between the UK and EU, possibly with separate TIPs.

Don't tell me we're going to have to put those beam diverters back on our headlights - the ones no one's bothered with for years despite the best efforts of the ferry companies to flog them to us on the quayside.

And a GB plate as presumably the old EU ones on the numberplate will no longer be good enough. Maybe some tape over the EU flag bit might do it :rofl:

truck it
 

Lynden ground Tranport will get your stuff to Seattle fast

Disregarding the current COVID-19 restrictions that apply to the Canada-US border, it's really a non-event for an American citizen to enter Canada with a vehicle.

Just tell the border guard that you are riding to Montreal (or Toronto, or wherever) to drop the motorcycle off at Air Canada, and then you and the motorcycle will travel to Europe. The border staff won't have any further interest in you.

Another forum member mentioned concerns such as criminal records, etc. in a previous post. If that might apply to you, do some investigation ahead of time to see what if any other actions you might need to take prior to crossing the border.

An American can enter Canada without a passport, but an American can't get back into the USA from Canada without a passport. Obviously, you'll need the passport for Europe.

Don't bring any guns, or more than one bottle of alcohol or one carton of 200 cigarettes. That's pretty much it.

Michael

That's pretty much our experience when we travelled around Canada from the US a couple of years ago. Five minutes (most which was queuing) and only a few brief questions on the way into Canada (at Niagara) but the best part of an hour and a complete life history to get back into the US at a border post in Maine. The guard was friendly enough but he obviously had a checklist of suspicion to get through. The issue of explaining why two Brits were riding a New Jersey registered bike definately raised the alert level.

Uh... How does that work?

It's more complicated than that. Each of the two countries makes their own rules, so there have been times when Canada didn't require a passport but the US did for re-entry. At the moment, I believe that so-called trusted traveler ID is accepted in both directions (Nexus, enhanced drivers licenses, etc.) for overland travel, but passports are required for air crossings. But I might be out of date already.

Note that land and air journeys have different requirements. For all I know, sea journeys might be different from either of the above. There's almost no concern in either direction when it comes to vehicles; if it's legal in one country, it's legal for use in the other. Of course this applies to temporary, not permanent imports.

Note also that even if you follow all the rules, each country can refuse entry for whatever reason they want, whenever they choose. The US in particular is perfectly capable of putting you through all sorts of indignities at the border, even if you're a citizen.

In any case, none of this applies at the moment unless you can satisfy some pretty strict restrictions. I have this idea that I may be able to cross the border to spread my mother's ashes by summertime 2021, but I had the identical idea prior to summer 2020, so we'll see.

I think it's the overland version of having to live in the airport :rofl:

Re asymmetric borders, I've gone into France from the UK several times without anybody being bothered whether I have a passport or not. You turn up and they wave you through all the 'checkpoints', often without even looking at you. But in 51 yrs of going to France I've never got back into the UK like that. In recent years, with the ramping up of the 'illegal immigration crisis', the miles of razor wire fencing and armed French soldiers strip searching your car when you arrive in Calais makes it feels more like North Korea (or 70's Albania at least) than a liberal western democracy. It may be at 'something must be done' Defcon 1 level at present but to a greater or lesser extent there's always been an element similar to cold war paranoia on the British side. Since Schengen especially the French have been far more relaxed.

I suspect that the rules regarding UK citizens staying only up to 90 days in 180 may be applied quite rigorously in Spain and France come 1 January 2021 so they may be much more interested in our passports all of a sudden.