African carnet for vehicles
 

I have been trying to follow the various threads with regards to needing a carnet, but most seem to be for bikes. Having just had a price from the RAC there is no way I can afford a carnet so has anyone had any recent experience of travelling through Africa, specifically South Africa, using TIPs in an overland truck?
I have also just contacted ADAC with the RAC blessing to see if they will issue. I will let you know.

I too would like to travel in Southern Africa without a Carnet. Did you find out if it was possible?

We take a small border between namibia and SA, we had to ask for a carnet stamp, it had been possible without.


I would suggests to aks the SA automobile club, or someone who is in the transport/shipping business in SA for a really valid answer.

Surfy

After having contacted the RAC about using the ADAC to get a carnet they suddenly dropped their valuation of my vehicle by 78%. Yes that is correct 78%. This then meant that I would be able to afford the carnet and so that is what I am now going with.

Carnet
 

My travel mate had the same problem in Austria some years back. My bike was already in Australia on a Swiss Carnet with minimum deposit. The plan was for her to join me six months later. Since she has a Austrian registration she had to organize the carnet over there. The first answer was that she will have to deposit the full value of the bike. This would have meant that she cant go on with the trip since she didn't have the money. I then sent her all the documents from the Swiss Automobile Club, where it's perfectly explained how the carnet works and how the deposit is calculated. She then went back to her agent and told him the story; the result was that she got a carnet without paying a deposit at all...

It's always worth trying a second time.

Greets from Kinshasa

Claudio

As South Africa and Namibia are part of the same customs union you shouldn't get your carnet stamped when crossing from one to the other.

For the OP travelling in Southern Africa is definitely possible without a carnet. Further north is where it gets more difficult. It doesn't make any difference whether you're on 2 wheels or 4 either.

Thank you much for the update! Did you clear that stuff with an Automobile-Club or where you had this informations?

It make sence that car or bike is handled by the same way - on the other hand it ist too bad when you had to optain the carnet on the way!

We have here at HuBB Issac (2013) and John (2012) who did a Roundtrip by bike through africa recently - just in eqypt they had both to optain the carnet on the way. All other country it was possible to get a tip. Far i remember they spent more money there as a carnet ususally cost at home.

Surfy

Look at sample at this statement from today @ Hubb about:

Therefore it would be fine to be able to check which opposition work in the real world.

Surfy

In 2007, when we were on the ferry from Egypt to Jordan, we got talking to a Swiss chap in a Kenyan-reg Peugeot 504. He had been working on some sort of VSO-like medical project in Kenya and was driving back to Switzerland at the end. He’d crossed Sudan and had been stopped at the Egyptian border because his Kenyan Carnet didn’t cover Egypt. After 10 or so days in bureaucratic limbo, he eventually managed to negotiate with Egyptian Customs that if he was able to get a letter of no objection from the Kenyan AA, they would let him in. A quick hunt on the internet turned up the logo and address of the Kenyan AA. He then constructed a fake letter of no objection from the Kenyan AA, complete with their letterhead, and emailed it to his girlfriend, who was luckily still in Kenya. She printed it out and faxed it to the Egyptians at the Sudan border, who could see that it came from a Kenyan number. It worked!

thanks for sharing your experience! And you have a nice homepage with a lot of helpful stuff. I should have read some parts of it, before we start our travels.

Overland Travel Tips | Mark's trip halfway around the world and back in a Toyota Landcruiser

We travel too with 2 Passports and often the Visa of the next country in the other passport. You can guess what discussions we had in africa ;-)

Surfy

The information is from personal experience.

And I meant that in Southern Africa it doesn't make any difference whether you're travelling on 2 wheels or 4 as to whether you can use a TIP or not. :thumbup1: