Good work Will...how about a copy and paste generic letter that we could all send to all involved?? One minute to click and a headache for them.

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Facebook " Kevin Heike " come and say Hello as we travel around the world.

No worries, good idea, we need to shout about this as much as we can

I have just had this reply from the RAC, its basically a long winded way to say 'Yes were stuffing you all, but tough'

What they mention a few times is the fact there a 'club' and it's up to them what to do with the Carnet issuing, how about this........
We set up our own club and apply for the Carnets to be ran through us as well as the RAC. The AA and RAC used to do it so why cant we but only for adventure folk like us

Anyway here's the email i received;

Dear Mr Downs,
Thank you for your email addressed to our Carnet Department. I have been asked to look into and respond to your concerns.

We have been issuing Carnet de Passage en Douanes (CPDs) for more than 20 years and we have been the only issuer in the UK since the withdrawal of the other issuing club a number of years ago. We are committed to maintaining this service for the benefit of anyone wanting to take their vehicle to countries outside of Europe and we have taken steps to ensure the service is fairly priced for the risks involved.

The risk of a vehicle not being re exported can be costly to the club issuing the CPD and the amount of financial security needed to guard against re exportation not happening varies dramatically. Following a business review at the beginning of 2013 a decision was made to only offer insurance indemnity as security for CPDs due to the risk factors of the other security options. On average only 4% of CPDs issued were secured by bank guarantee, so it was withdrawn because of low take up and the difficulties associated with administration and legal requirements, which varied from bank to bank. Additionally the bank guarantee does not give the vehicle owner the same level of security that an insurance indemnity offers. Full cash deposits were also withdrawn for similar reasons and whilst we recognise this may be a disappointment the changes were necessary to reduce risk and to allow us to invest in our service and improve efficiency.

Other issuing organisations may have different attitudes to the financial risks, however, we have taken the necessary steps to ensure we can meet any financial obligations in respect of a claim arising through the use of a CPD.
As per the AIT/FIA CPD Handbook CPDs must not be issued to foreign registered vehicles, but exclusively to vehicles with license plates of the country of the issuing club. This is a rule set down in the AIT/FIA Guarantee Agreement. There are exceptions i.e. CPDs may be issued to residents of countries where there is no issuing club and also if written authorisation is received from the issuing club in which the vehicle is licensed. We would only grant permission in exceptional circumstances and we would not consider the varying costs between issuing clubs as an exception.
The AIT/FIA Information Centre, based in London, collects and distributes information on 65 countries for the AIT and FIA clubs. As per the guidelines in the CPD Handbook we, as an issuing club, must ensure that all necessary steps have been taken to meet financial obligations in the event of a claim. We determine the amount of security deposit and bearing in mind that duty rates are quite high in certain countries we follow the recommendation of the AIT/FIA by taking an adequate deposit.

I'm sorry as I know it won't be the answer you hoped for but our decision not to grant permission to the ADAC stands, however, I do hope I have been able to explain the reasoning behind it. If you would like to discuss this further please contact me on 0********.

Yours sincerely
Louise Campbell
Customer Care Officer

Perhaps we should start a campaign to get the RAC to stop issuing CDPs. That way there would be no issuing club in the UK and we could all go to ADAC.

Politely put, I am annoyed the CDP is becoming something only rich people can afford!

The insurance option is a bit of a self-fulfilling vicious circle really. Of course the risk of people not bringing their vehicle back home is a lot higher when they're not going to get much money back! It's a sunk cost, so what's to stop you selling the bike abroad? Most of your cash goes to the insurance and RAC (225 GBP for a pre-printed booklet?!?) and you only get a tiny fraction back.

If I knew I would stand to get most of my money back, I might make much more of an effort to bring my vehicle home!

Sadly its a money making thing for them and the insurances, not as the letter above would have you believe, an effort to make continuation of the CPD service possible for us travelers.

Sorry to rant! I hope the RAC read these things too!

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http://followingtarmac.com/

I have been reading this thread with interest.

I have just received my bike back from Dubai (I rode there from London in September) and am about to submit my completed CPD to the RAC.

I was travelling with a group of German registered bikes and my co-adventurers were bemused to hear that I did not receive the full amount of deposit back once I reimported my bike.
They all thought it sounded like a complete rip off that I only received 50% of my deposit when ADAC issued them with 100%.

I spoke to the RAC today and am waiting for a manager to call me back to explain this but the underling I spoke to kept telling me that it is an insurance policy that I am paying for.
Having done some research on this matter and reading through the ADAC website, it would appear that the same insurance company, Millers Insurance, provides insurance for both the RAC and ADAC so I cannot see why as European citizens, there is one rule for the Germans and another for us British. Why do we get ripped off?
I am happy to pay for the costs of providing the CPD and administrative costs but why do I have to pay £3200 (50% of the deposit) to the RAC when German, fellow EU citizens, do not get penalised the same? Surely this is a case for the Monopolies Commission?

If any of you have encountered a simmilar situation I would be interested in starting a petition to bring the RAC in line with other EU organisations which offer the same service.
This stinks and something should be done about it.

I don't understand how this can happen.

I was living in the Netherlands, with an NL registered bike, and got my Carnet from ADAC because NL AA doesn't issue carnets, and they have arranged with ADAC to do that.

I had to send the money to ADAC: Euro 3150.
I got the full Euro 3,000 deposit back.

The actual Carnet is issued by a Swiss organization: FIA Federation Internationale de l'Automobile.

The Carnet that I got was described as a guarantee for a foreign company that a vehicle will be re-exported within a time limit. However in the fine print it says that it is an insurance, backed by a Lloyds of London company (R.L. Davison & Co. Ltd).

What did the paperwork say was supposed to happen?
The informal info from ADAC very clearly stated that I'd get a full 100% refund of my deposit: see attached.

HOWEVER, now that I've seen your posting I've gone back to read the fine print on the ADAC issued carnet (see attached).
And in THAT, see Section 8, it says "Upon return of the definitively canceled customs document ADAC is entitled, but not obliged to pay out the cash deposit to the recipient listed on receipt...."

BUT in the ADAC webpage info (in a pdf) they DO say (Section 9: Return) that the deposit will be refunded. That's what I saw, I never even saw the part where it says they are "entitled but not obliged". Very strange.

Why would RAC not refund it, and yet ADAC would?

I would also contact FIA and ask them what their policy is.

Do your homework and then consider getting a lawyer and presenting that to them.
But do the work yourself, don't ask them to do that: you wll get chaged more.
You paid for a service that should be pretty straight-forward.
A lawyer's letter to RAC might work wonders.
It's definitely worth at least half of the amount you think you should get back.

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