Shipped Cheaply and Easily from Port Elizabeth, South Africa
 

I recently crated and shipped my bike from my hometown of Port ELizabeth,South Africa to Tilbury in the UK.
After calling a few shipping and clearing agents, I decided that the cost of doing everything myself was worth 2 days of my time.
I used Ecu-Line as the shipper, got a crate from the bike shop and crated it where the container was being loaded.
I booked Mr Els, the customs man, at a cost of R50 (Eculine gave me the Customs number) for the following day and he happily signed off my Carnet after checking my bike's serial numbers.

The total cost from the SA side:
Shipping at $60/cubic meter (1.3 cubes total)
+ 11% of total handling charges +R250 total loss insurance through Global Economovers + 2 days of my time.

My bike should arrive in the UK within 3weeks of shipping, where the costs are roughly £80 (handling charges etc)

Compared to Cape Town prices, this seems to have cost me about half of what it does there.