Air shipment from Cape Town to North America
 

Hi all. Nothing in the database on this, so I'm wondering ..

... anyone have any info on air shipment / shippers from Cape Town to somewhere in North America, preferably Toronto or NYC area? For a DR650.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

USA/CapeTown
 

I am trying to figure out how to get my 800 from USA to Cape Town Ill let you know if i find a shipper pls do likewise

thanks

check these folks out International Shipping Worldwide Moving Company Air Ocean Cargo International Shipping Quotes

Thanks Jack. I'm awaiting some more info from a HUBB member who emailed me and will share when I receive it. Meanwhile I requested a quote from the company mentioned.

i got a quote for USD4,000 ONE WAY Washington to Cape Town! hoping there is a cheaper way....

Hi Jack,

Should be cheaper option. I fowarded some info passed onto me to Mark. Interesting ride you have planned. What are your plans when you get to Uganda? Drop me an email if you want to chat about routes and stuff. If you get a chance, you may want to enable the email option on your profile, you won't be able to pm until you get to 8 as a new user. Cheers.

Mountainman thanks for the note. I enabled the email option (i think?)
Northern leg of the trip including Uganda is a bit open we are hoping to head up through Burundi and Rwanda into Uganda. There is a charity called ISIS based out of Bermuda I want to visit if possible. Have you been before?

thanks

Thanks guys. So Mountain Man told me in an email that a Canadian couple in 2008 had bikes shipped from Cape Town to NYC for about $1200 USD per bike, if I have my rand/USD conversion correct.

Shipper was British Airways Cargo. So I'll be checking them ... :)

Mountain Man, if you happen to have contact info for the agent Bradley you mentioned that could be a big help.

Thanks again, ride safe.

I spoke with Lufthansa cargo and they quoted me $14 p/kg versuss $4 from the int shipping fwder.

shipping worldwide
 

So the folks at shipping-worldwide.com have been very helpful (if not as cheap as I had hoped) below is a quote for shiiping the bike using a bmw factory crate. $3,600 still seems much higher than I had thought?? Any advice on how to get the cost down? thanks

Yo Jack, where does that "total volume weight" of 1321 pounds come from? I don't even know what "total volume weight" means vs. gross weight (500 lbs). :confused1: Anyhow, agreed, $3600 seems high, maybe it's pinned to that 1321 pounds?

FWIW, I shipped my bike in late September from Toronto to Lisbon with Motorcycle Express for $1500. Smooth, efficient and no crating required -- just drain fuel, disconnect battery, tie down on pallet.

Mark

best I can figure its an estimate based on dimensions.

thanks

It's airfreight industry-standard "volumetric weight" = (length x width x height in inches / 166).

See https://www.freight-calculator.com/c..._bconfirm.html
"Air Volume in lbs. is calculated by dividing the cubic inches by 166. If air volume exceeds actual weight in pounds volume weight will be applied. Ocean cargo is rated by Cubic Meter (CBM). 1 Cubic Meter equals 35.314 cubic feet. 1 kilo is equal to 2.2046 pounds"

(or any of several Google references under "air cargo volumetric weight")

It's "industry-standard" practice and typical of most aircargo carriers. But it's also a matter of company policy & market conditions, not law. Not all carriers charge it for all customers; some will charge "actual" weight; in some markets, unders some conditions, you can "negotiate".

If a particular carrier (always) charges volumetric weight, the only way to reduce the cost is to reduce the dimensions, e.g., remove wheels, screens, bags,etc. But if the carrier requires or you choose to crate, rather than palletize, the bike, then you'll wind up paying for the full dimensions of the crate.

Air cargo that is "palletized,"/ tied-down & "shrink-wrapped," rather than crated, tends to be cheaper. Crating vs palletizing is also determined by company policy & practice, not law. Among international air cargo carriers, Lufthansa is best-known for almost always palletizing, rather than crating, bikes.

Berklay
 

CourtFisher:
Thank you for the info.


Mark

I have been speaking to GREG@BERKLAY.COM and he has been incredibly helpful with arranging dc to Cape town and then kenya back to DC. If you have not been in touch highly recommend he also offered the folloing v useful tip:

There is no problem leaving the saddle bags and a spare tire BUT I would not recommend any other items. This is because they will not be covered under the insurance since the airline is only listing the bike. Personal items other than the bike are not insurable since they are used and under $100.00

Also the customs officers will tax you on everything that is shipped with the bike, even if they are personal items with little value

So I would suggest that you take the other stuff with you when you fly -- even if it costs you an additional $50-100 because it will be covered and there will be no tax.

Thanks to both you guys. :thumbup1:

Interesting information Lucky Jack thanks for the heads up

Hi guys, just added some info on another thread, here: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ht-xt600-41061

For what it's worth, air freight of a (318kg laden Africa Twin, stripped as per photo added to thread above) from Cape Town International to London Heathrow cost me just shy of R8000 last March. That was about £600 at the time I think, so approx $900-1000 US. Freight forwarders were MMA, contact details in the shipping database on here.

Recommended, but for pete's sake make sure they fill in the hazardous goods declaration properly, or the airline WILL refuse the consignment until they get it right. Don't ask me how I know. Or how I got home from heathrow while waiting for my bike to turn up a couple of days later... :eek3:

You'll get some crazy quotes from some forwarders, we got some absolute howlers from various UK-based airfreight companies until we settled on doing as much as possible ourselves - afterall, we'd handled all the customs ourselves all across Africa, why pay some agent in RSA to do it there??

thanks mate,

Just took a look at your site very cool.

To follow up on this ...

For air shipment from Cape Town to New York City, I had estimates of $2100 USD from MMA and another company, and one for $4100 USD!

The best quote of four quotes I secured was $1800 USD with a small outfit called United Freight Logistics and I went with that. Universal Freight Logistics cargo shipper in cape town. Service was excellent. They even visited my hotel to measure the bike and gave me rides around Cape Town. The managing director is a fellow named Peter Schultz.

Peter may seem a bit disorganized, but he's been in the business a long time and stuck by his estimate of $1800. Maybe I could have found a cheaper quote but overall I was satisfied, and Peter's man Kirk was particularly helpful and fun to hang around with throughout the process.

My Suzuki DR650 was crated in a BMW box. I removed the front wheel and rear top box and mirrors, nothing else. No significant problems either in Cape Town or NYC.

Mark