Shipping/Fly BIke from AUK, NZ to Thailand
 

Hi,

We need to ship or fly our bike from Auckland to Thailand somehow beginning January. I have read somewhere here that Quantas has a special programm to fly bikes over so I contacted them, the offer was not good. They gave me something like 10.000 NZD in total, excluding the charges in Thailand... Thats far too much for us...

We got a crate and carnet.


Any other idea?


Cheers Sascha

Talk to Nikki Everest nikki@everestglobal.co.nz I'm sure she can help you with either Air or Sea - sea will be cheaper, but air much quicker, obviously.
Nikki is actually on maternity leave, but will answer emails within a day.
Make sure you mention the Carnet to her.

Thx Dave, will drop her an email...


cheers Sascha

bad news:

the above local charge for for "general cargo " only
incase of you cargo motorbike as see blw detail
We don't suggest to import any used motorcycle or any used vehicle to Thailand no matter for personal used or commercial used. The reason is too many duplicate system and wl take long time for all process in custom Dept. with also wl be concerned of our Ministry of Commerce and Land Transportation Department for their approval all import of the vehicle to Thailand which must be done before the cargo are arrival. Otherwise, the consignee will face serious problem and will not be able to release their shipment from Thai Custom Custody and finally get hold by them in order to sell on auction. All process has to be done by the importer/consignee. It is very expensive cost to get all document and approval done. Normally for custom clearance service for this kind of shipment will start from USD 3,000 or more per shpt. (didn't inclusive of import duty & tax ~ 400-500 %). Really expensive and take long long time to finish. So, it needs to check with the consignee before import this kind of shipment to Thailand that they have completed every document and have permission license to import it. For your consideration.”


but a lot of people did it or not?

Where´s that quote from? Note that it does not mention TEMPORARY import. I guess that´s what you´re planning to do, right – you don´t plan to keep the vehicle in Thailand permanently, do you?

Permanent import could be harder and very expensive to do... But if you´re arriving by air to BKK Suvarnabhumi, it should be relatively straightforward to get a temporary import permit on arrival. At least that´s exactly what we got 4 yrs ago, and following this site, many others have done the same, some just lately. I was warned not to ship by sea to BKK seaport, not sure if things might have changed by now, but by sea I´d still consider Port Klang in Malaysia.

Thailand is not in the carnet system BTW, so if you have it, it is ok to have this document with you, when importing the vehicle. But to possibly avoid unnecessary problems later on, I would not have them stamp it (in that region, only see that you get it properly stamped in, and out, if you take your vehicle to Malaysia or Indonesia).

A tip: ask Tradelanes (located in Melbourne), if they would be able to arrange the shipping also from NZ. I shipped with them by sea from Australia to Europe, and they seemed to know their stuff, and price was reasonable. I actually sent the crate from Sydney, but they used their agent there, and everything including payments was handled through them, so I never had to go to Melbourne to arrange anything.

Our experiences importing to Thailand in 2008 here:
MOTO1 - Matkalla