Shipping from either Japan or Korea to Vancouver Canada
 

Hello all !

First post on the HUBB, after so many hours exploring the vastness of it...
Unfortunately, I haven't yet found answers to my transportation questions.

We are soon leaving on a RTW with two bikes, from France to Canada, through Ukraine, Russia, the -Stans, Mongolia, Japan, Canada and the US. Nothing much original so far :), but so many things to plan.

I've arranged the ferry from Vladivostok to Sakaiminato, with the help or Yuri. This far everything is good, just waiting for the confirmation.

Then we want to fly the bikes (2 x 250 kgs approx) to Vancouver, initially from Japan but air freight is more than the prices of the bike, so not an option (quote from Air Sea Express).
We have a quote for a boat shipping, with Air Sea Express Limited (approx. 4 000 $ USD + estimated 1000 $ USD fee on arrival) for a 10 day crossing.

So we though, why not try from Korea by air, so I asked Wendy and she gave me this answer :

Approx cost will be USD2500-USD3500/BIKE
(Airline will charge base on kg, so if you make it small, you can save huge cost)
Base on size, cost may changeable.

The cost doesn't include import fee from japan to korea
To move bike from ferry port to crating company, you may need to take an insurance for driving, etc.
This process will follow by ferry company

which is unfortunately not very detailed. And I then inquired about the cost of a ferry crossing to Korea (to get an idea of the global shipping cost), and as it would be an excuse to visit an other country, so why not ? But I realized that it was almost impossible to get a quote for a vehicle online (just even knowing which company allows vehicles is complicated..) So i contacted three of them (Pukwan, Camelia Lines and Kampu Ferry. Only two answered so far :

Thank you for your inquiry about our ferry.
We are so sorry, you can not board on the ferry the motorcycle one way.
Only round trip use is possible for people living in Japan.

Many thanks.
KAMPUFERRY

and :

You must be registered bike in Japan for temporary import/export a bike from Shimonoseki to Busan.

Unfortunately, your bike is registered in France, so you cannot travel from Shimonoseki to busan with your bike.

Thank you for your inquiry.

So, now, I don't know what to think anymore. I wanted to fly, knowing it would be more expensive, but to be sure to enjoy our bikes straightaway in Canada.

So, my interrogation now is the following, does anyone have done the crossing from Japan to Korea by ferry with a non-japanese/korean motorcyle ? If yes, any tips are welcome, prices, formalities etc.. ! I don't know if they say no by mail just to be dissuasive of if it's going to be a concrete no once there.

And if you have any more suggestions/contacts on how to do the crossing between Japan or Korea to Canada, reducing the global cost, they will be more than welcomed.

I've also contacted Interfracht Japan, and two Import agencies in Korea in order to obtain quotations as close of reality as possible, to make the best decision.

Sorry about the long post, but if you have fresh news/infos, I'm all listening ! :)

Thanks for you help !

Boo

Maybe you can transport the bikes by a car from harbor to Sheol.
In November 2017 I transported my BMW 1200GSA from Sheol to Vancouver by Air Canada arranged by:

Jiny Lee
Manager/ Air Export & Import
BORG Air Sea Transport Inc.
1-1209, Hanhwa Bizmetro, 551-17 Yangcheon-Ro,
Gangseo-Gu, Seoul, 157-804, Republic of Korea
TEL: 82-2-756-0600(Rep.)
TEL: 82-70-7459-6009(Direct)
FAX: 82-2-337-1426
Cellular: 82-10-2590-4197
E-mail: jinylee@borgairsea.co.kr
Web Site: :::BORG AIR SEA TRANSPORT INC:::

This was the cost:
Based on volume weight of 460kg, total cost will be as below.

TOTAL COST TO YVR(VAT included)
2,983,400 Korean money

And then less than 100 $ Canadian in Vancouver

This my story: https://advrider.com/f/threads/going...-late.1223265/

With a Carne de passe you can travel through Japan. And maybe also S-Korea

Round trip price with Camellia Line is 40,000 yen and 48,000 yen with Kampu ferry.
I have heard of travelers being able to use the ferry before, but the official policy is only round trip with Japanese registered vehicles. You may have better luck in person. They will tell you it is Korean rules, so ask (demand) that they check with Busan customs. Busan customs will probably say it is OK.
If you take this way, I would recommend you go straight to the ferry once when you get to Japan to make your reservations. You don't want to be stuck having to look for alternative transportation with a tight schedule if they won't budge.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Borg air sea transport was actually one of the company I got in touch and I was expecting their answer. I've had it this morning ! Very efficient and also the quote is understandable, which is rare & appreciable :)
It would be a total price of KRW 4,041,880 with crating, so about 3 150 € per bike, which is more than what you paid for a bigger bike. And we would have to had the ferry/insurances to get to Korea.
But then it's always an estimation. You only know what you pay once you're there, which is a bit frustrating when you have to make choices before :)

We do have a carnet, so no troubles on this aspect.

I'll have a look at your story, thanks.

Thanks Chris. Camellia is the third company I've tried to contact but they did not give me an answer yet. However, I've had some info from other fellow travelers this morning (they did the crossing with a van), and they effectively used Camellia Line 2 years ago I think. I'll try to get more info from them and share it here.

Going straight to the ferry is a good advice, even if it implies quite a detour :s

Is there a particular reason you want to go to Japan and then back to Korea? The Vladivostok ferry stops in South Korea on its way to Japan, and you could get off there.

Yes it would seem more logical. First Korea then Japan.

These prices are pretty high. The basic cost of getting a container from Japan to Vancouver cannot be so high, so it should be cheaper including loading I would think, but I could be wrong.

We used RoRo ferry for our campervan from Japan all the way to Netherlands and that was cheaper, it was under $2000
I think the bikes cannot go on RoRo? I thought there was a RoRo ferry to North-America?

Hi there !
Japan is part of the trip, I'm going to see a friend there and discover the country.
The main and only reason to get back to Korea would be to air ship our bike for a lesser price than from Japan, ideally. That's all the point of the post :) To get info, and be able to see how much it would cost total from Korea (including the ferry), or if we take our time and ship it from Japan by boat (but it would mean no bikes for a couple of weeks :( )

Regarding RoRo, I relied on this post from last year :

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...anada-us-93825

So I assumed it was not an option anymore.

Given the price disparity, I would strongly consider getting off in Korea and shipping the bike onwards, and while that's happening (especially if you are waiting for a container to arrive), take a cheap flight or the Busan-Fukuoka passenger ferry to Japan, get a JR Pass and see it that way. Japan is really an extraordinarily public-transport-friendly country, and if you have a friend there, they can always rent a car at a train station if you are going somewhere with bad public transport access.

The main thing is to make the bike small. I had to pay for 460 kg as the volume was larger than the actual weight. Borg air sea transport, had calculated much bigger box and there for their estimate was 1000 to 1500 us$ higher in the beginning.

The size of the box:
Height 111 cm
Width 108 cm
Length 230 cm
Weight 426 kg

Volume kg = 111 x 108 x 230 / 6000 = 460kg

You confirm what I was thinking, the quotes are very very variable until the bike is packed and weighted. Makes it hard to anticipate.
Thanks a lot for this added information

Hi BancoBoo,

I am also intending to take the ferry from Japan to Busan and then ship the bike back to the UK ( in my case ) for the same reason as you - it seems much cheaper! I am not intending to ride in South Korea at all and I'm hoping to go from the ferry straight to the crating company/container and shipper without ever leaving the customs zone and therefore avoiding any import/customs duties on arrival.
This will be in July 2020.
I was curious as to what decisions you made in the end? Perhaps you are not in Japan yet.
If you are on the road now, I hope it's going well and would be grateful to hear what you have decided on for the shipping.

GPZ

Hello,

I was planning to do a debrief after our return, but I'll do it now instead. It's always frustrating to find the questions only on the forums and so little answers ^^

So, we arrived in Japan with DBS ferry from Vladivostock and then drove around for a month. I found only one company willing to sail us one way from Japan with a foreign plate (Fukuoka on Kyushu Island) to Korea (Busan) : Camelia Lines. This is the detail of the contacts & prices :


Thank you for your email.

It is possible to go to Busan with your moterbikes(250CC～）.

About the neccesary documents as follows.

----------------------------------------------------------
●Driver's licence
●Registered warrant(Issued by france)
●Automobile inspection certificate(Issued by france)
●passport(copy)
●Return Ticket(It is not need If you live in korea.)

●Carnet book

※if you make a reservation, please send necessary documents until one week before departure date.


About the price as follows.

------------------------------------
●The transpotion charge is ⇒¥35,000(round trip price)

⇒¥25,000(one way price)

※This price is inculds 2nd class room fare.

●A customs clearance fee : ¥5,000（CASH ONLY）
●Oil charge : ¥500

●Port tax : ¥500（CASH ONLY)

●Passenger tourist tax : ¥1,000（CASH ONLY)
※Vehicle insurance and guarantee fee must be paid at Busan Port.


In addition, could you tell me when do you go to busan?(one way or round trip?)


Please comfirm details and please reply.


Best regads,


Thank you.


/7
＿＿/三三三三三三三三F＿＿ Passenger DIV : Satomi Fukunaga
＼ゝ Camellia Line Co.,Ltd. / s.fukunaga AT camellia-line.co.jp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
092-262-2323
open weekdays 09:00-17:00(weekends and holidays 09:00-13:00)
http://www.camellia-line.co.jp


Our ferries service operate every day, but we have holiday onece or twice every month.

●Leaves Hakata at 12:30 p.m,and arrives Busan at 6:00p.m.

※Please check the details from attached document.


- The schedules of holiday -

The holidays are in september 8th , 29th.

※July and August are every day run.





Hope it helps.
The prices were respected, it was just a bit strange as we boarded very last minute. I really thought there was a problem but they didn't say anything when we asked. Anyway we boarded !

Once we arrived, we had a very friendly agent on site from the company Camelia that helped us through all the custom/insurance process, it took overall 2 hours. South Korea is the "Pali-pali country", things usually go fast and smooth ! At least it went like this for us.

Now, we wanted to drive to Seoul, and we spent 9 days in the country, so we had to pay approx 100 USD (in korean won) per bike for the guarantee fee, and about the same for 2 weeks insurance. Which was a bit painful to be honest :D

Then before rejoining Seoul, we contacted Wendy Choi, which contact I found here, to take care of the bike transport from Seoul to Vancouver.

Wendy.choi/aero int'l/sel
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#303 12, MORAENAE-RO 7-GIL, MAPO-GU SEOUL, KOREA
TEL:82-2-372-6181 FAX:82-2-375-8145
E-MAIL:wendy AT aerointl.kr

We had an appointment to the crating company the day before the flight, and then she sent us the airline bill with the final price (which depend on the weight and/or volume of the bike once crated). We made an international payment when we arrived in Canada.

We paid 2260 USD per bike, and about 100 CAD of fees once we arrived in Vancouver.

Now, if you want to avoid the fees in South Korea, i don't know what would be the best option. Maybe ask Wendy, but I doubt she can help because when I asked initially for the boat between Japan to Korea, she didn't help much.

We are traveling with two Versys-X 300, approx 250 kilos total. So it might be more expensive for the boat/flight regarding the cylinder/weight/size of your bike.
This is based on our experience in July/August 2019.

I'll by happy to answer any question here or in PM.

Cheers,
Boo

Etonaditbanco.world

Hello BancoBoo,

Thank you for such a comprehensive response - really very much appreciated.
All the information I need is therein.
Just one question: In the documents required section, what is the 'registered warrant'? Is it the bike's logbook / registration document?

Thanks again.