Hello there!
I need urgent information on any shipping company in South Africa to shipp my bike back to the UK, I'm in Cape Town at the moment & I need to ship it as soon as posible. Thaks for the info.

jav

Hi Jav

If you need speed, you should plan to fly the bike to the UK. In general, sea shipping is somewhat cheaper but much more hassle at both ends.

Although you can use an agent, we found that dealing directly with the air cargo division of South African Airways worked best. We were shipping to Buenos Aires rather than UK, but process should be the same. You should be able to fly yourself on the same flight as the bike, which is a plus. See the Shipping pages for some details on bike prep. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tri...nToBuenosAires

Other travellers have used Malaysian Airways (Capetown to Buenos Aires), so you can check with them - not sure if they will fly to the UK.

South African Airways now have a website, but don't quote international rates on it. There may be other useful info there. http://www.saa.co.za/800.html

Contact details are: Customer Service Centre on (011) 978-1119 (** 27 11 978-1119 for international callers) or Toll Free 0800 002 689. The centre is open weekdays: 7am to 9pm and weekends: 9am to 8pm. There is also a Cape Town number which may not be open on weekends. (021) 936-3333.

Good luck, let us know how it works out.


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Susan Johnson
Share the Dream at <A HREF="http://www.HorizonsUnlimited.com/index.shtml" TARGET=_blank>www.HorizonsUnlimited.com
</A>

__________________
Susan Johnson

Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Try bufflerp@rennies.co.za
Tel. 214198550

Hello Susan!

Thanks for the shipping information. I finally used South Africa Airlines Cargo, on the Cape Town number that you provided. It was easier and cheaper to use them that any other shipping company (and the bike was in London in two days).
They charged 23.78 (£2.2) rands per kg; they didn't weighted the bike at all, believing the rather optimistic oficial weight given by KTM on the owners manual of 154 kg dry; on top of that they charged 220 (£20.2) rands for dangerous goods and 184 (£17.1) rands for handling charges. The total came to 3662.12 rands (about £350).
Because I had a Carnet for the bike the paperwork was minimal, they only checked that the frame number on the bike matched that of the carnet and them stamped it, nothing to be paid.
The bike wasn't crated as they say it was not necessary; only the petrol have to be drained and the battery disconected.
When I when to collect the bike at the London cargo office in Heathrow, I have to have it cleared through customs, that took half an hour (EU registered vehicles do not pay duty), then back to the cargo office where I paid £25 for handling at this end and £8 pounds for the customs entry document; collect the bike, fill it with petrol on the petrol station opposite the cargo office (how convinient!) and ride into London.

Once again thanks a lot!

jav