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Motorcycle transport
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Motorcycle transport
If you want to take your motorcycle to a holiday destination far away, you have to use tried and tested means of transport such as airplanes, ships or trains.
02/25/2003
If you want to take your motorcycle to a holiday destination far away, you have to use tried and tested means of transport such as airplanes, ships or trains. A quick look at the advertisements in the motorcycle magazines is usually enough to obtain initial information and offers from various organizers about the transport of motorcycles.
Within Europe, rail transport by car train is the ideal way to cover longer journeys without stress and in a way that is gentle on tires. From various cities you can travel by motorcycle to Italy, Austria, France and Bulgaria. The price of a motorcycle is usually half what a car would cost. For the return trip from Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt to Narbonne in southern France, for example, around 680 marks only have to be paid for the motorcycle in the main season. The driver’s ticket costs another 476 marks. It only gets cheaper when four motorcyclists rent their own compartment. Then the transport for the same distance of four machines and their drivers costs a total of 1500 marks. A detailed brochure on motorail trains is available from the Deutsche Bahn travel centers.
With the Trans-Siberian Railway, the motorcycle can be transported to the corresponding destination stations in the CIS countries. Transporting the bike in a steel container from Stuttgart to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, costs around 800 marks. The southern German forwarding company Militzer und Munch takes on the customs and travel formalities required for this transport.
Otherwise, only shipping by plane or ship is possible for long-term destinations. Apart from the money factor, air transport offers only advantages over sea. It starts with the fact that you can use the vehicle until immediately before departure, without having to pack it in a box. There are also simplified customs formalities in the respective destination country. At airports there is usually express cargo handling, which means that bulky cargo is passed on as quickly as possible due to the small storage capacity. Only in third world countries does it often take a good deal of negotiating skills and a small, careful gift to speed up the formalities.
Everyone can organize the air transport of their motorcycle themselves. Every airline transports freight as well as passengers and is therefore able to take the two-wheeler with them to the holiday destination. The conditions and packaging regulations for the transport can be obtained from the cargo departments of the respective airlines that fly to the respective country. The numbers of the individual freight departments can be found out via the headquarters of the airports. However, as a private customer, you have to take care of the customs clearance of the machine on both sides and the issuing of the required papers – on the one hand, the air waybill (AWB) and on the other hand, the necessary declaration of the motorcycle as dangerous goods (because of the battery and gasoline ).
If you don’t have the time and don’t want to waste paperwork, you can hire a company for this. Competent providers are the company based in Bielefeld “fly & bike” and the Geislinger travel agency (Big Bike Tours). Both companies relieve the customer of creating documents for outward and return flights to the USA and Canada, but also to South America and Africa. The motorcycle can be handed in ready to drive at most German airports. There it is lashed to a special flight pallet, only the battery has to be disconnected and the petrol tank has to be emptied up to a quarter. If you want to take advantage of this service, you have to book the passenger flights with the mentioned tour operators.
At the Geislinger travel agency, for example, the complete motorcycle transport including the return ticket for the driver from Frankfurt to Los Angeles (with Lufthansa) costs from 4,850 marks, depending on the travel time. The company also takes on all work during customs clearance. At fly & bike (KLM, LTU, Swiss Air and Air Canada) costs the same route for the return transport of the motorcycle 2499 Marks, if booked before the upcoming price increase by March 31st. In addition, depending on the travel time, between 1,030 and 1,600 marks are to be paid for the driver’s flight ticket. In the destination country, customers of fly & bike will take care of the customs clearance itself. This procedure only takes a short time to complete in the USA or Canada. So the vacation can begin right away.
Shipping by ship is usually 40 percent cheaper, but a lot more time must be allowed for. Depending on the distance and route, the crossing can take three to seven weeks. In Germany, the expedition outfitters Darr in Munich and Woik in Stuttgart have specialized in shipping cars and motorcycles. Another possibility is the offer of the large forwarding agents (Zufall, Schenker, Kuhne & Nagel, Kruger, etc.). They are usually represented in every major city, the addresses can be found in the business directory.
Measured against the pure fees for sea transport per cubic meter, the additional costs are utopian. For shipping you need a box for the motorcycle. Since the cost of sea transport is calculated by volume, it makes sense to at least partially disassemble the motorcycle. If you don’t want to test your carpentry skills, you can look around at motorcycle dealers for an old shipping box. In most cases, dealers are happy not to have to dispose of them. Once the motorcycle has disappeared into the box, it is transported to the port.
It is advisable to outsource the paperwork and the entire transport from your home to the port in the holiday destination to a forwarding agent. For transport within Germany to the port in Hamburg, around one mark per kilometer is due. You not only save the time of arrival and departure, but also the search and waiting in the responsible authorities in the Port of Hamburg. Additional costs such as quay handling, quay fees and handling in the port are different in each country, but are usually between 200 and 350 marks.
In the port of the destination country, you have to take care of the disposal or storage of the shipping box. The latter does not apply if you do not want to ship back from the same port. Some countries (Australia, New Zealand) have regulations that you can only use certain, very expensive woods to build the boxes if you want to enter there. The aim here is to prevent the spread of certain types of insects that could occur in the wood. This regulation can be circumvented by using chipboard for the construction of the box or by using steel structures (original shipping boxes from Japan) from motorcycle dealers. Sea transport therefore requires a good deal of extra work and organization in order to save 40 percent of the shipping costs compared to air transport.
It is absolutely advisable to take out insurance for transport by sea. The amount to be paid is 1.25 percent of the vehicle’s value as new. It covers damage, theft or total loss in the event of ship sinking. In this case, the specified new value will be paid out in full. For flights, the motorcycles are automatically insured at 43 marks per kilogram, which does not always correspond to the value of the vehicle. Here, too, it is worthwhile to take out extra insurance with the respective company.
The last building block in the mosaic of motorcycle shipping is the customs document, the “carnet de passage”. It enables a vehicle to be temporarily imported into a non-European country without having to pay customs at the border. It is issued after depositing 3,000 marks or a guarantee credit of the same amount with the ADAC. The sum doubles if you want to enter Egypt, India, Iran or Pakistan. The cost of the exhibition is 210 marks for members of the ADAC and 330 marks for non-members. The document should be requested no later than six weeks before the start of the journey.
A sea transport, for example from Hamburg to Windhoek in Namibia, costs including all incidental and transport costs (sea freight, insurance, customs documents, quay fees, packaging material, clearance) for the forwarding company International Freight Namibia based in Hamburg for a motorcycle (value 12,500 marks) with a load volume of 1.5 cubic meters there and back around 2800 marks. By air freight, the cost of motorcycle transport including all ancillary costs (additional insurance, customs documents, customs fees), depending on the organizer, is between around 4500 marks (fly & bike) and 7,000 marks (Geislinger Reisburo). For all three variants mentioned, the amount for the driver’s flight ticket must be added.
For all globetrotters with a lot of time, it is advisable to place advertisements in the relevant travel magazines. With a little luck, there is the possibility of renting a whole sea container with several travelers or of sending your motorcycle together in a container with an off-road vehicle for an appropriate contribution.
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