Shipping two bikes from Australia to Canada
 

I've just posted some info on the shipping forum here, so I thought I'd have a go at writing up the full process. I'll add a few photos in now and again to make it less painful, and feel free to email me if you have any questions you think I could help with! Also check out https://followingtarmac.com/ where my girlfriend posts our travel stories and pictures.

We were about three years into our grand world trip. India was behind us; we'd been in Australia for about eight months; and we had our sights set on Canada next. We'd been taking an extended break from the road in Alice Springs, partially because we'd been chewing dust for four months, and partially because we'd found a cozy little corner in a cheap campsite full of stoner backpackers and hippie families living off grid, and were in no hurry to move on.

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The reality that our Australian visa was coming to an end was bleeding in at the edges of our fun though, so it was time to research shipping options. I grabbed a pint in the nearby pub and used their wifi to start the search. I uploaded our details on U-ship and reached out to a few of the bigger companies directly. By the end of the day I'd contacted about a dozen shippers. There are a few guys who I didn't end up using, but I'd like to mention here because their quote was really good, or they were extra helpful, or both: Dave at getrouted; cargotech; bikesabroad; and Josh from shipmybike.com.au. If you're looking for a quote they're all worth having a chat with.

After a few days I'd whittled the choices down. The cheapest by far was MAH Logistics, who were coming in about $1000 below the average. This posed a dilemma. Any of you who have experience of shopping around for a big expense while on a traveller's budget know that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. Coupled with the fact that I couldn't find any online reviews or details about the company, I was suspicious. Over the next few days (and a few more pints) I eliminated more companies, collected more information, and I finally got around to speaking to Marc of MAH on the phone.

I got an instant good vibe from Marc. He admitted that he didn't know too much about the technicalities of shipping the bike, but he had contacts in the industry, and was more of a fixer/middle man. He gave me the details of his bike shipper, Dallas, and promised I'd hear from him soon. After a bit of getting to know you chat, we hung up and a few days later, in a pub in the outback, I got the call from Dallas. We talked for a while about the little details: the pros and cons of shipping insurance; whether or not I'd handle the customs release in Canada; the paperwork we'd need etc. By the end of the call I was convinced. The guys knew their stuff, and the reason for the low quote was that they were still building up their own client base, but they had plenty of experience in the field. I was happy to take a punt, and get a good deal in the process! It was a risk, and it gave me a few sleepless nights, but that's all a part of overland travel.

We left Alice Springs and travelled through Katherine to Darwin.

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Marc kept us abreast of progress. He favoured skype calls between the four of us, so that we could all throw out any questions that were bugging us. Since we were on the road we weren't always available (and when we did have wifi it usually meant we were in a pub so the conversations were a bit slurred) but it worked OK. We handed over the dimensions of the bikes for the craters, a list of all our tools, accessories etc for the customs forms and various other bits of info for the Bill of Lading.

Before long we found ourselves in Perth, and at the end of our Australia trip. We'd given ourselves two weeks to clean the bikes - rigorously enough to pass quarantine - and get all our gear in order before shipping out and heading for Canada.

If you've never prepared a bike for a quarantine test, it's a bit of an endeavour. Any bit of dirt, grime, in some cases even a brown watermark, can cause you to fail and pay a huge fine, and when you're on a budget that's something to avoid. Saying that, we've been told even by quarantine officers that we'd overdone it with the bike cleaning - but better that than the alternative. We start by riding to a carwash place and hosing the bikes down with bug remover (being careful to avoid the delicate electronics). Then we give them a good scrub with any brushes lying around, before pumping a few more coins into the machine till the bikes are looking shiny. Then we ride home, strip the fairing off, and go at them with toothbrushes. Everything in sight needs to be cleaned; the radiator grills, underside of the fairing, battery housing, under the seat, basically if you can see dirt anywhere, you're not done.

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There are people who'll say they put in much less effort than that and still passed, but whenever I think about the effect of that fine on my travel budget, it sends me straight back outside with my toothbrush!
By now we'd been given the ship's name, date of sailing, location of the crating warehouse and the customs office where we'd get our carnets stamped out. After confirming that we'd be allowed to have our bikes 'stamped out' of the country before riding to the warehouse, we set off. All we had to do then was disconnect the batteries and empty the fuel to comply with a dangerous good cert we'd signed. Emptying the fuel from the BMW wasn't so easy since there isn't an accessible fuel line, but there's always a way. There was even a biker at the warehouse willing to take our extra fuel. Waste not, want not!

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It was a strange sensation to leave the bikes sitting there and just walk away. Time for a pint to drown our sorrows, and a week of exploring Perth on foot.

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I Arrived in Canada about a week before the bikes, giving me time to find a job and a place to live. Unfortunately that also meant I had to deal with all the red tape and running around during my lunch hours. And once the bikes arrived at the warehouse I had five days to get them out before I had to start paying storage fees, so it was going to be a stressful week.

A company called Shipco were handling the shipping crate on the Canadian side, and once my vesseltracker app alerted me that the boat had docked, I called them every day for an update. About four days later, the crate had been taken to the warehouse and unloaded, and my pallets had been listed as ready for collection. I paid Shipco their handling fee and headed to the customs office on Main St to fill out the vehicle import forms.

I had to fudge the paperwork a bit and leave lots of fields blank since the European registration info didn’t quite fit the forms. The customs officers were really understanding about that though and they got that things are done differently in every country so we worked around it till they were happy they had what they needed. I’d been warned that since I was travelling on my Canadian passport and didn’t have a visa, it’d be very difficult to convince them I was importing the bikes temporarily and I might have to pay huge import fees, so I’d come armed with reams of paper proving I was a resident of Berlin, but actually, they just asked if I was planning to stay permanently, and when I said no, they took me at my word.

Since I was importing my partner’s bike on her behalf, I needed a notarised letter giving me power of attorney , but we’d sorted that out back in Berlin; she typed up a page giving me authority to import and transport her bike and luggage as I saw fit, then we took it to a notary and for a small fee got an official stamp on it. A further stamp from the Canadian embassy in Berlin declared the document officially and legally acceptable in Canada. Back at the customs office, I handed over copies of the registration, my passport, Maria’s invitation to apply for work visa (to prove she was on her way) and that was almost it.

I discovered that I was supposed to have organised the quarantine check myself before arriving at the customs office. Since they knew the officer they agreed to call him up and book it on my behalf but as it was now Tursday evening, I’d probably have to wait until Monday before finishing my paperwork. Good thing I’d started the process as soon as the bikes were cleared – that was going to eat into my five free days! I went back on Monday morning, where my quarantine release form was waiting for me, and that was it. I was given my release form and all my other paperwork back, and I was free to go collect the girls.

Next lunchtime, I ran to the nearest truck rental place and drove south to the warehouse. (Luckily I’d had the foresight to get a credit card when I opened my bank account, since you need one to rent a vehicle). I was informed I’d need to pay the $85 handling fee in cash, so I drove back to the nearby auction house, which had an atm, and once I’d paid I backed my truck up to the warehouse gate and waited around till the bikes got forklifted out to the yard.

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It was clear the crates wouldn’t fit in the truck, but luckily the guys working the warehouse were happy to help and we set to work with screwdrivers and crowbars till we had the top and sides off. Then we used the forklift to slide the bikes into the truck and tie them down. It was company policy to make me take the leftover wood with me – they weren’t allowed to keep it on site – so we started loading a few bits in around the bikes. We filled up the truck and still had two thirds of the crate left, but luckily the guys said they could make use of the rest.

I drove back as quickly as I could, parked up in an alley behind my house, and ran to work in the rain to finish my shift. That evening I unloaded the bikes, dropped the wood off at a spot a friend recommended, and had the truck back by about 10pm.

The whole thing was fairly straightforward – the customs officers were helpful and open to solving problems (very unlike bureaucrats in most parts of the world) and the guys at the warehouse were willing to give up their time to help me get the bikes out of crates. Big thumbs up to the Canadians for making life really easy! The total cost was $3500 for shipping the bikes, $165 for Shipco, $80 for warehouse fees and $45 for the quarantine test (Canadian Dollars)