Yes, I agree. As Michael also suggested, I will probably have to take a cab up to Tan Med, get the insurance and come back to customs to have the bike released. I am awaiting a reply to a few emails that I have sent to the suggested insurance companies first. I will also call the Moroccan embassy in Montreal in the morning to see if I can get some help.

Thanks!

It's nearly an 800km round trip so I'd expect take all day one way in shared taxis.
You can get a train to Tangier ville in half the time for the same price, and then another train to Ksar el Seghir which is a couple of kms from Tan Med port.
So plan on overnighting - maybe in Tangiers ville . Might be a fun place to enjoy without the hassle of bike parking.

I had to do the same to get insurance years ago – from Figuig to Oujda, coming from Algeria.

And you can get your TVIP at Tan Med too, if it can't be issued at Casa airport for some reason.

__________________
Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

The new TGV Train looks to be a quick and reasonably priced way of getting about, probably cheaper and faster than a taxi. If I recall Marrakech to Casa was around 15euro in November

Al:

Now that I see that Compagnie d'Assurance Transport (CAT) has many agents in Casablanca, as well as their own head office in Casablanca, I can't imagine that it would be necessary for you to travel up to Tanger Med port to purchase the insurance.

Best case situation, which you should be able to accomplish via written communication with CAT's head office, is to have them identify an agent in Casablanca - ideally not too far away from where you plan to stay the first night when you arrive - who can sell you the insurance.

Next best case is that you just go to their head office and buy it there.

CAT and their agents are fully computerized, as you can see from the image of the insurance certificate that Peter posted. Although it is likely that few of their agents inside the country are familiar with issuing frontier insurance to visitors, it's not as if an agent can't do it if they know how.

Write the head office, explain your situation and what you want (to buy frontier insurance in Casablanca), and ask them to recommend an agent to you. They will either tell you the name of an agent who is already familiar with the process (you're not the first person to fly a moto into CMN), or, they will call an agent, explain to the agent what they have to do, then you go to that agent.

Michael

OK, an update...

CAT insurance co.: I emailed CAT insurance twice and still no response.

Casablanca Harley Davidson:
"We are very sorry for the delay in the answer ; We understand you want to ship your motorcycle from Canada to Morocco however to our knowledge there is no such requirement as to have a Moroccan insurance. International insurance is acceptable plus customs will ask you to pay duty and taxes and the bike.

We do not sell insurances however if you want to inquire more on the subject you can contact aciassurances@hotmail.fr they will be able to give you more details."

I have emailed the suggested insurance company and will update all.

Moroccan embassy:
They have a direct 1-800 line to Rabat. I spoke with them and he referred me to their website...douane.gov.ma....which is consistently down. I got on their site once and when I got the page translated to English, you guessed it, crashed again!

Calling CAT might be more productive than emailing; getting someone to show up in person more productive still.

OK, today I secured motorcycle insurance for Morocco...in advance. I called Tour Insure in Germany and while the rate was more than CAT, I will have the insurance "in hand" when I arrive in Casablanca. The cost was 208 Euros for 30 days.

I called AXA in Casa but, they only covered health/travel. So, rather than call each office in Casa area, i came across Tour Insure. Luckily i found them, and they also provide green card for Europe for the same price. Funny thing though, the insurance is under written by AXA.

If anyone is interested, here are the contact details:

Tour Insure
Andreas Albers
Telefon +49 (0) 40 25 17 21 - 50
Telefax +49 (0) 40 25 17 21 - 21
E-Mail service@tourinsure.de
Internet www.tourinsure.de

Thanks,
Al

Fantastic info! Am aiming to do a similar trip in two years time. Please let us know how it went. Happy trails.

I arrived in Casablanca Thursday morning 5:30 a.m. I immediately went over to the cargo freight office which was closed untill 8 am. So I waited until they opened. To make a long story short, I went through 11 levels of bureaucracy to get the bike out which took 3 1/2 hours.
I would go from one office to another office, back to the first office, back to the second office and on and on. and each time they would sit and analyse a piece of paper and my ownership. It would literally stare at it for 15-20 minutes. then they would enter some information on a piece of paper and asked me to take it to another office where I would go through the same routine again. Waiting in line for my turn, then 15 to 20 minutes of staring at paper.

when planning this trip, I was very concerned about getting insurance for my motorcycle in Morocco. To the point that I paid double and purchased it in advance from tour insure of Germany. None of the inspectors even looked at it. To say that they took a glance would be suggesting that they spent 30 minutes on it. They could care less?! Couldn't believe it! Anyway I'm very happy I got my bike out in a reasonable amount of time and was well on my way.

In the big picture, I think I got lucky based on ride reports where people are waiting six plus hours or more.

A big thank you to everybody who replied to my initial post and gave me some great suggestions and advice! I couldn't have done this on my own and I'm very grateful for all the people who contributed to it.!

All things considered, getting your moto out of customs the same day it arrived, with only half a day's work on your part, is pretty damn good for Africa.

It could have been a hell of a lot worse. Before I retired, I worked in lots of delightful places such as Angola, Mozambique, Libya, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and similar.

Even though I worked for a humanitarian organization, getting urgently needed aircraft parts out of customs was a friggin' nightmare... despite having worked in the countries for many years and having a full-time employee who did nothing but try and clear stuff through customs, it often took weeks to get goods released.

Wait till you fly the bike back to Canada. My guess is that it will take you longer than half a day to get it out of Canadian customs - at which point you will be grateful that at least the Moroccans "took you seriously" - by that I mean that although they might not have been paragons of efficiency, at least they paid attention to you and did what they could to get you on the road.

Michael