Carnet - new question?
 

Hi everyone

I have done a lot of searching on here to find my answer but I can't see the question asked anywhere. I have also written to Paul at RAC, using his email address that I got from this site, just over two weeks ago and have still not received a response.


Myself and a friend are planning on riding from the UK to our home town of Cape Town. Obviously we will be needing a carnet for some of the countries in Africa, however we are not planning on returning the bikes to the UK. They would be left at our houses in SA.
Of course we would do all of the relevant importing requirements for SA, but I do not understand how the carnet would work. From my understanding the 'deposit' for the carnet gets reimbursed when the vehicle returns to UK shores, but what happens if it is not going to be returning?
Is there such a thing as a one way carnet? Of course I would not want to pay the huge excess of the full carnet to not get any of it back in the end!

Looking forward to any response!

Regards,

Chris :scooter:

Permanent Importation
 

In your case it would be better not to use the Carnet and go for permanent importation. Check with SA traffic authority and customs to get the required documentation.

The problem with the Carnet is that if you don't return it duly completed then you are liable for part if not the whole of the deposit. The purpose of the Carnet is to ensure temporary importation only garanteed by a deposit.

Which route will you take through Africa? If you are not riding through Egypt and Libya then you can most probably get through the rest of Africa without a Carnet... Can someone please confirm?

The last page of the carnet is "Location of vehicle". In case you import your bike to another country you have to get this filled out by customs and should get your deposit back when you return your carnet.

Hey mate.
I did something similar we went from the UK to AUS, get a carnet. it will make the trip easier. if you leagally import the bike to ZA, you will get your carnet refuned with no worries. Just send RAC the import approval papers (copy) with the carnet and you are done.

Paul got my money back from the uk to AUS in just a couple of weeks. it would have been faster if i kept a uk account and then brought the money over myself.
People will tell you that you do not need a carnet for africa.. that may be true but for us it made the trip that much more easy.

If you are going west coast the only issue my be the Namibia/ZA border you will already be in the customs zone, so you have already gotten it stamped on the carnet. WE got ours stamped out of Namibia and then back in to ZA you may have to do this too or something else. Just check with ZA customs.
Good luck mate.

Thanks for the replies guys, its cleared things up quite a bit for me.

Now we just need to wait for Paul to get back to me so that we can get to the next stage!

We just imported an Oz registered Landcruiser into SA. We originally came in on a carnet and when the importation was complete, we emailed a scanned copy to the Oz carnet people as well as send original carnet to them. All they're interested in is to see that you've paid import duties on the import.

Vehicles on a UK carnet don't have to be returned to the UK
( RAC provide information on the carnet de passage & check the info link) only stamped out of the country. Maybe the ZA customs would do this with your permanent import. Or as suggested by pumbaa & xander the import paperwork should count as proof no customs liability is outstanding