Is a Carnet de Passage necessary?
 

I have been doing some research recently relating to the number of countries that require a Carnet when entering a country with a vehicle- in my case a motorcycle. It appears that only a handful of countries actually require it. My information is dated 3/2/2020. I gather that some countries will still insist on provision of fees (some refundable when leaving) -they are called TIP charges in many instances- even though a Carnet is not required. The question I'm asking myself as a potential first-time user of the Carnet (never travelled with a vehicle previously) is I guess-is a Carnet necessary after all, if you plan to avoid the countries requiring one? Thoughts and opinions folks?

You will probably get a better reply by telling us where you plan to visit, your question is too general and people with actual experience will need to know before we can answer.

+1 to Mark's comment - tell us where you plan to go, then we can give you more precise information.

In general terms, you don't need a carnet for Western & Central European countries, or for Canada or the USA.

Michael

Or Central or South America.

Carnet
 

Apologies folks for not providing enough details of the places I want to visit in my earlier post. South America, Central America, USA, Europe (quite a few countries), Middle East and a number of African countries is where I plan to go. As you can see, most of the areas I plan to visit don't require a Carnet.
Kenya, Mali, Senegal,South Sudan, Sudan (I doubt that I will visit these last two) and one or two other countries (newly established ones possibly) are the only ones I can find that require Carnets. Carnets are not required in Europe, Sth America or Nth America apparently. Nevertheless, I have read that the USA can require some form of payment and Germany can as well (depending where in Germany you enter, I think). I gleaned this info. from a site where overland travellers had taken vehicles into a number of countries.
Did anybody (taking a vehicle into a country) find that they had to pay charges into any countries where officially a Carnet was not required? If so, if you had a Carnet, would it have made things easier?

I have not heard of the USA requiring any kind of bond, I have crossed by a land border twice without any such issue and it has been mentioned here a couple of times that if you ship into Hamburg they ask for one so the solution is do not ship to Hamburg and enter Germany by a land border.
Hopefully other will have the latest on Africa, I had one for southern and east Africa and it made border crossings quick and hassle free but I understand many coutries are possible without.
Also consider the length of your trip which sounds like it could be more than 12 months, if so do not get a carnet until you need one to save the hassle and expense of renewing it.

Some additional information about North Africa:

You don't need a carnet for either Morocco or Tunisia. It's generally considered to be not possible to enter Algeria (the country between Morocco & Tunisia) as a tourist either with or without a carnet... Algeria is not tourist-oriented.

Libya, the country to the east of Tunisia, is in a state of civil war right now and it would not be advisable to travel there, which makes the whole carnet question moot.

Michael

Carnet necessity
 

Thanks for your help everyone. I thought I read that Hamburg was an issue when entering Germany. I'll take on board the info. supplied. Cheers