Ok, long story short: I made a trip from Europe to Oz via India +7 years ago, right now I´m not going, but just trying to help out a friend, who plans to leave in August (he´s with a group of four riders total), and we seem to have hit an unexpected wall... The Finnish AA no longer issues carnets, we have to go to the Swedish AA (I asked ADAC already, and the answer was the same -> go to Sweden).

For their routing (which currently goes Turkey-Iran-Pakistan-India-Burma-Thailand-Cambodia), the Swedish AA told me this:

“The deposit for Pakistan is 300% of the value of the vehicle, for Iran, India and Burma 125% of the value.
So there is a huge difference with or without Pakistan.
“

And then I specifically then asked them, does this mean, that if my vehicle is valued at 20.000 Euros, then I would have to post a bond of 60.000 Euros. The answer was YES. That is outrageous money. Could not swallow that, so did a bit of googling, and in no time, I stumbled upon this, from RAC in the UK (their example is not from Asia, but the country in question does have a 250% “security risk rate”):

“Country specific payment (50% refundable on discharge of your Carnet as detailed above): Vehicle value x Security Risk Rate x 10.6%”

“For example, a vehicle valued at £3,000 travelling to South Africa will be: £3,000 x 250% = £7,500 (You pay 10.6% of this amount = £795“

Link:
http://www.rac.co.uk/pdfs/driving-ab...et-prices.aspx


The whole procedure seems a bit different with RAC, as it seems like they will not return the entire carnet bond, only 50% of it. But still, the numbers are suddenly FAR more tolerable. I have not asked RAC yet, but their answer will probably be the same as the one ADAC gave me.

It blows my mind, that within the EU, one AA demands, that you leave a bond based on the ENTIRE percentage of the highest valued carnet country, in this case it would be three times the value of the vehicle.

But another AA will calculate this amount, and THEN multiply it by 0,106 (10.6%), so the outcome is totally different. The group probably will not go with bikes, that are worth 20.000 Euro, not even half of that, but still – this is simply not making any sense to me!

And as if I´m not baffled enough by this already................
Almost 8 years ago, the Finnish AA issued me a carnet de passages, that was valid, and I used it, in Iran, Pakistan and India, for example. My bike was valued at 9000 Euros back then, and the bond, that I had to put on a bank account, which only the Finnish AA had access to, was 5000 euros. I thought it was a lot. But now I think it could have been a bargain! On the list of multiple things, that I probably do not “get” here, is the fact, that my carnet bond was only a bit more than 50% of the vehicle´s value. I doubt those country percentages were that low back then, in fact I am quite certain, that they were not.

Could someone please explain, why the difference could be so huge, are the Swedes mistaken here (I do hope so!), or what are the things, that I am not getting here..? Thank you kindly for any and all answers in advance! Pekka