From Montreal, Canada to Paris, France - June, 2022

This was the best experience I could have imagined. I was shipping a Ural motorcycle sidecar so it was considered a small car for freight shipping and would have cost $2,000+ and a 5-12 week delivery timeline. Instead I shipped the bike on the same plane with me for even less with Air Transat. Carrie handled all the paperwork and details and sent me over final copies that I needed to print in color. Because the bike is a sidecar, the only route available for me was Montreal to Paris which worked great. I believe motorcycles have more options but in North America, you must use Canada instead of USA if you want to ship it easily as dangerous goods.

At the airport, I got there ~12 hours early to the cargo department and handed them my paperwork. Everything Carrie prepared was there and properly filled out. I was told beforehand I wouldn't be able to have any items on the bike so I brought cardboard boxes to ship my personal bags / gear in with the bike (this cost roughly an additional $150). However, the guys at the cargo drop off didn't seem to care that I left all 3 of my empty jerry cans and mounts on the bike even though the airline states they must be removed. All I had to do was have < 1 gallon of gas and disconnect my battery and tape the terminals. They wheeled the bike onto a pallet (more of a large sheet of plywood than a traditional wooden pallet) and we strapped the bike down secure. 

Upon arrival, the bike came to the cargo station a couple hours after I touched down. I paid the import taxes which were ~$120 for the bike and another ~$120 for my personal cargo. I was happy to see the bike seemed to be well taken care of and in good shape. I connected the battery, packed the bike and took off! I was nervous about the 1 gallon gas limit so I had about 1/10 of a gallon and sure enough ran out of gas a few miles from the airport haha.