Shipping bike from Stans tot Europe?

[bijsterbosch]

Hello,

Next spring 2010 i'm driving my bike from The Netherlands to the Stans. Turkey, Iran, Stans towards Kyrgystan. I would like to fly the bike (and myself) back home to Europe (Amsterdam).
Now looking for a suitable country/town for shipping (aircargo) my bike.
Suitable in terms of costs en local regulations.

Simply looking for advice/experience on this. Circumnavigation around the area is no problems for a 1,000 kms. So any suggestion is welcome.

Info on taking the Trans Siberia express to Moscow with bike is alo appreciated.

Looking forward to hear from you,

Kind regards,
Guido

[Miquel-Silvestre]

Try here:

James Cargo Services Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0)1753 687722 ext. 216
Fax: +44 (0)1753 687723
email: giles <AATT> jamescargo <DDOTT> com
web: www.jamescargobikes.com

They ship bikes from Almaty.

[colebatch]

Well in Almaty now where the onset of cold weather forced me to consider this very issue a week or so ago.

James cargo can definately do it, but they are about 100% more expensive than a quote I got locally in Almaty. Tthey quoted me about £2600

Local quote was from Julia Kraft at Global Link freight forwarders in Almaty ... they are the main agents for Lufthansa air cargo. j.kraft <AATT> globalinkllc <DDOTT> com
All up their price was just about 2300 USD.

[bijsterbosch]

Thanks for the replies,

Surprising how costs may vary. A few years earliers I shipped (aircargo) back from Nepal for about USD 1500,- including a crate.

Also surprised by the lack of information about shipping from any of the Stans.

Or may I found here the reason why many bikers drive back to Europe after visiting the Stans...

Any other suggestions are welcome, since this costs pressing the budget down.


Guido

[Miquel-Silvestre]

I didn´t ship the bike, I rode the way back visiting Middle East (my suggestion: ride first Ukrain and Russia and ride back through Turkey).

But there is also another person who could ship your bike, and I think they can put her in a truck, so it could be cheaper.

ALarina <AATT> eu.go2uti <DOTT>com

[george t]

I was looking (Jan. 2009) for airfreight TO and BACK around Stams / russia / mongolia..

James Cargo came up with a quote for shipping TO Novosibirsk and had a contact of a Russian chap who could arrange shipping BACK (I had to arrange that myself when I got there) .


got a quote something around GBP 1750 to Novo for an BMw HP2.

and a lot more if I wanted to ship to U-B (mongolia)..(I think GBP 2,400 per bike)

I am sure shipping back will be cheaper although trickier and more time consuming which doesn't work very well if you HAVE to be back home / office by a certain date.

[Sambor]

I will have a jeep+trailer in Stans next year. Maybe I will be able to transport the bikes to Europe, drop me PM if you would be interesting to do it that way...

[bijsterbosch]

Sambor,

You got a PM,

Regards,

Guido

[george t]

Sambor

you got a PM



george

[honey rider]

Hi, we shipped the bikes from Rome to Tashkent (Uzbekistan), last time in august 2008 and we paid about 1000 € for a BMW GS 1200, and 150 usd for shipping company in Tashkent - it is very imortant to find a good and fast shipping company, we had our bikes in only 1 day - I guess doing from Tashkent to Rome is a little more expensive, and you can get the bike there 3 days before, you can contact:
Diana Tomena
General Manager
Ahlers, Tashkent
Uzbekistan
998 97 333 95 48 mobile
998 71 152 17 76 direct line
998 71 140 08 81 fax

Ahlers :: ahlers.creators of opportunity.

getting back from Mongolia, we shipped the bikes from Irkutsk to Moscow by plane, we tried to get them with us on the transiberian train, but was impossible due to safety reasons, so we took the train (3 days to Moscow) and bikes by plane (1 day, but we had to pay for deposit for 2 extra days, so be careful), if you have time, there are trains that take 5 days and take the bikes - we arranged everything with Yuri from Baikalcomplex in Irkutsk

hope this can help

ciao

[bijsterbosch]

Thanks all of you above,

The suggestion of Sambor seems to be the most fitting (location) and cost-effective so I've contacted him. Since information on this topic is very rare I will provide you with a contact which I found. It is Andreas Koenig from Germany who runs an business on transportation that might be usefull for those considering shipping their bike from Mongolia tot Europe. He agreed on publishing his details on the HUBB.
Note that this offer is a reply to my specific situation. I do NOT have experience with this company. I do not recommend it other than a contact for further information.

His (shortened) quote is here below, hope it helps for them in need,

Guido

- quote Andreas Koenig -

Pls. note that the combined rail/seaservice is much cheaper than airfreight.
We can offer you two options :
1. Full-Container from Ulan Bator to Hamburg or Rotterdam 3.350,- Euro (Transittime approxm. 55 days)
or
2. LCL (Groupage Container) from our depot in Ulan Bator to Hamburg (Transittime approxm. 55 days -
all 3 months we have planned a consol from Ulan Bator to Hamburg in 2010)
Freight-charges 365,- Euro per cbm

It is important that the bikes will be packed in strong wooden cases.
To avoid customs deposit in Mongolia it will be important to use Carnet-Ata which you must organize from your chamber of commerce in the Netherlands.
The Carnet-ATA must be filled in from you and it must be opened from your customs office.

Extra charges :

Outgoing customs formalities 65,- Euro for each motorbike (if Carnet ATA will be used)

Manufacturing cases 145,- Euro for each case

Our offer does not include any charges for customs-inspection in Hamburg and trucking occured due to the customs inspection.

I travelled with my own motorbike ten years ago already thrrough the Mongolian steppes.
You can be sure if you book with us your bikes are in best hands.
Pls. feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

kind regards

Andreas König
Pan Europa Transport (Süd) GmbH
Bietigheimer Str. 62
71732 Tamm
Tel: +49 7141 97487 35
Fax: +49 7141 97487 29
Pan-Europa Transport - Spedition für internationale Transporte in Ost- und Westeuropa sowie Zentralasien

- unquoute Andreas Koenig -

[ialbizu]

Two years ago I must to abort my trip over Mongolia for a import tax in Ulaanbataar (2200 euros). It's a great new the ATA carnet and the Pan European transport. I'm thinking to go to UB this spring thanks for yours news. I wite now to Pan European Transport to get information about this and perhaps I see you in UB, Who now?

I thik about this route UlaanBaatar-Zaragoza'08 - Google Maps

[bijsterbosch]

Last summer I shipped two bikes from Almaty KZ to The Netherlands. Here is my report.

Two bikes, an Africa Twin and a Kawasaki KLE500.

I went for the cheapest option I could find in advance: Sambor from advfactory.com could bring the bikes from Almaty tot Europe on his trailer. I paid him almost EURO 600,- in advance and I went driving through Eastern Europe,Turkey, Iran and the Stans’ northbound to Almaty., Kazakhstan.
Sambor was delayed and could not make it the agreeed date. Suggesting te leave the bikes and papers on a safe parking and leave the country by plane as sceduled.
Without the paperwork on clearing the bikes from custom duties this is not possible. Local information on both legal advice and the Dutch embassy confirmed this.

So with little panic we looked for other options. In two days the plane will leave.
We found DHL prepared to do the shipping.
After a day of negotiation we agreed on a price of around EURO 3000,- for a package.

There was some hassle since they did not have experience with shipping motorbikes. Their first quote was around EURO 6000,- since the bikes where considered dangerous goods because of the fuell tanks. We offered to remove them and send them seperatly for higher price. The bike itself could be send as regular ‘cheap’ aircargo.
Next day we went again to DHL office for final contract signing and hand over cash money (DHL Almaty will not accept plastic).
The general manager spoke to us:’Tomorow at 0800 report at the airport, remove your engines an crate the bike’.
WTF!? We said fuell tanks, not engines. Rules of the aircompany, language confusion of DHL.
Half a day of renewed negotiation with all the patience, help and help of DHL staff who did a lot of serious work to get a better option from one off the cargo brokers around since DHL is not operating their own airfleet in this area.
Just after lunchtime we agreed on EURO 3000,- for the crate with two bikes including the crating by a carpenter.
Next morning we drove to the airport where the carpenter and the paperwork man where present and did an excellent job on both. We had to be present for signing all custompapers and clearing the bikes from the passports. We downsised the bikes by removing handlebars, frontwheels, windshields, protectionbars etc.
We flew back tot The Netherlands and collected the bikes a few days later.

The hangover came from Sambor (Krzysztof Samborski), except from the stress to arrange the shipment in very limited time since he did not show up, he also refused the pay back the money I transferred to him. In his view there was no problem: ‘Just leave the bikes and go’.
I will not recomment depending on his services.

Contact details of DHL Almaty
Karlygash ABUOVA (sales manager)
32a, Manas str.
050057, Almaty, Kazakhstan
tel +7/727/311 2432/34
email: Karlygash.Abuova@dhl.com

The adres of the office is in an outskirt of Almaty, taxi drivers do not know it. We got the adres from a very helpfull local office in center of town who wrote driving directions on a paper to be shown to the cab driver.

Hope it will help people who want to ship from central Asia.

Guido Bijsterbosch

[khpostma]

Hello Guido, Sounds about in line with what I paid to have my bike shipped this summer from Tashkent. I found a local freight forwarder with the help of some of the local customs guys at the airport. The freighforwarder got it on a Malaysia Freight plane for about 1200 euro's (BMW Dakar) to Amsteram. The key to shipping a bike by plane and keeping the cost as low as possible (at least in my case) was getting the box volume down. You pay by either weight or volume with some weird formula. In my case volume was easiy the determining factor, although I had made the bike box as small as possible by taking off the wheels and turning the handlebars down.

I hand carried my panniers to keep the box as light as possble, but that was wasted effort. I could have stuffed the bike box full of heavy things and it would not have made a difference in the cost of shipping the bike. I also would not have had to deal with the idiotic rules that Baltic Air had for my carry on luggage. My personal ticket was something like $550 and those bastards wanted to charge me $600 for excess carry-on weights (30 pounds or kg's too much). The Uzbek solution came to the rescue and it "only" cost me $100 extra by dropping the money off in a little office to the side.

KP

[Sambor]

I agreed to transport bikes for 2 guys form Holland last year. They changed their schedule due to Kyrgyz riots and deceided to make trip shorter and arrived to Almaty earlier. I even suggested them to meet in Almaty and travel together to Kyrgyzstan.
I was on my way to Almaty, stucked in the middle of nowhere between Russia and Kazakhstan. I informed them about situation and asked to leave bikes in my friend in the city and visit notary and prepare papers. Guys deceided to visit Dutch embassy where they were informed that they have to leave the country with bikes.
I entered Kazakhstan and had no GSM connections in the step. So they deceided to take bikes to the plane with them. That is all.I had space for them on my trailer. I was in Almaty on June 22 and in my opinion I lost part of money I should earn (I asked 30 percent in advance). That is my story...

I transported many bikes to and from Stans. Sometimes I had problems but only these bikes of these 2 guys weren't transported as we agreed. Because they deceided to do it their way, I don't know how many bikes trasported Dutch embassy per year but I suppose I am more experienced in this field. Sometimes people from Western europe believe that countries in Asia, especially former Soviet countries have procedures similiar to european countries.
No they have not.

best regards

Sambor