Just back from a UK 2 Cape Town (CT) adventure (wow..but that's another story).

Decided to ship bikes back from CT as similar to Jo'burg. Spoke to Martin Upton (+27219362253) at SAA Cargo in CT and learned the following:

1) Bike can be on pallet OR crated. Battery IN place. Fuel at <=25% of the bike's capacity (incl. aftermarket tanks). Panniers OK but not tents on racks.
2) A company called MMA (contact:Bradley 0842092586) will pallet your bike outside the SAAc office for 500rand (£35) once you give them the dimensions. Pallets weigh approx.40-50Kgs usually and are added to bike weight later in this list. Get quote in advance.
3) SAAc will allow you to put two bike pallets onto one of their airwaypallets and charge you only once for both bikes (read on..).
4) Get SAAc to agree to ship bikes based on weight NOT volume in advance - speak to the guy Minnie (yes) on the shop floor as his decision is final.
5) Book a slot for the bikes say a week in advance (it may be fruit shipping season). They fly usually on a weds or sun night but will allow you to drop off anytime in the week before and not charge you.
5.1) Once confirmed BOOK YOUR AIRFARE as storage is charged at Heathrow every 24hrs so you want to turn up at the same time as the bikes.
6) Walk over to customs and book an inspection appointment (free) for the day when you drop off the bike. Just in case they're busy.
7) You do NOT need any other forms than a carnet and they will sign off your bike for free in the customs office past the tunnel from SAAc.
8) Customs may not even need to inspect the bike as it's your fault if the VIN doesn't match when you get the bike home!
9) On the day you drop the bikes off, get the bikes palleted, start the SAAc guys on creating your airwaybill and then they will get a forklift to collect both bikes and weigh them.
10) Pay at the window for the airwaybill and take that with your carnet to customs (office to the left of the corridor of the customs building).
11) After they stamp your carnet, get your airwaybill stamped at the middle window of the customs counters.Take it back to SAAc and you're all done!

I just shipped a '81 BMW R80 and a '98 Africa Twin home for £630 each at the CT end. Cheap as they together were over 600kg incl.pallets and we didn't even have to disassemble any part of the bikes to ship them.

On arrival at Heathrow we went to Menzies in the Cargo Village near Terminal4. It costs £75 to move the airpallet off the plane and then £150 to clear customs. OUR CARNET DIDN'T WORK IN THE UK (not a valid customs document here). Two bikes on the crate mean you only pay one set of fees here and they even let you write both bike VINs on the C101 form (I think) they make you fill in.

Overall - excellent experience.
Any questions - pm me.

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
www.brighton2expeditions.co.uk

Thanks - your timing is perfect - we're just looking into shipping from SA.

Could you perhaps also post it on the "Shipping" section...?? http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tri...t/shipping.php

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Thanks for the feedback. I realised on my trip that the HUBB is only as good as the info you put back into it.

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
www.brighton2expeditions.co.uk

Thanks for the excellent post.

Very, very useful info

MMA was my choice from SA to Oz as well. Good service.

The carnet is no document for customs at home. Correct. BUT: To get your deposit refunded from the carnet-issuer, you need to present some sort of document stamped by the customs office that your vehicle has arrived. Whith that document you can return the carnet and get the deposit back.

Hans

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Only when we pause to wonder
do we go beyond the limits of our little lives.
(Rod McKuen)

Paul at the RAC said to me on Thursday that as long as it's stamped out of South Africa (on it's way back to the UK) it doesn't need to be stamped back into the UK. After all, if it's stamped out of the last country that stamped it in - who is there to claim?

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
www.brighton2expeditions.co.uk

Now, that's what I'd think as well, but our German ADAC claims that according to international agreements the entry stamp by customs is necessary before they release the deposit. So I had to wait several weeks until my bike arrived by ship.

German bureaucracy :-((

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Only when we pause to wonder
do we go beyond the limits of our little lives.
(Rod McKuen)

Absolutely precise and spot on information!

I had initially contacted Lufthansa, who directed me to a company called Jonen Freight. Their quote on my bike was 28000 ZAR (approx 2400 Euro). And that's before crating! They could however ship it to Denmark (instead of Frankfurt Germany) for 8500 ZAR (725 Euro). But this would take between 30-37 days.

Followed your "step by step" write-up and will get my bike shipped to Frankfurt for 9500 ZAR (810 Euro) on tuesday 0750. Unbelievable difference. The guy I talked to remembered you guys and was pleased that you had helped direct me, and possibly others, to this "obvious" solution. When I initially called the phone number you listed, they directed me to a company called Cape Crating, for the crating of the bike. Cape crating wanted 2500 for the crating and 500 more for delivery to the airport (its on the other side of town). But when I showed up in person, the guy I talked to said that he had a pallet in the warehouse that he would be happy to lend to me. It's only 28 kg's and limits the price even more.

So Edteamslr, you just saved me around 20000 ZAR (1706 Euro). Ok ok...maybe if I'd put a little more effort into shopping around, I'd come up with something less pricy. But your post realy lead me in the right direction. Thanks a bunch. If I ever run into you, s will definately be on me.

Best regards

Torsten

Very helpful post. Thanks, Ed.

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Where is Julian?