Anyone here has any experience with shipping Motorcycle across the ocean? I live in Toronto, ON and want to ship my Motorcycle to London, UK as I will be moving there for good.
any advice???
any advice???
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Shipping Motorcycle from Toronto, CA to London, UK
- Thread starter xX-GMan-Xx
- Start date
Check out http://www.ridedot.com/euro/ and how they shipped their bikes to Europe (via Air Transat Cargo at the time)
Crate the **** out of it, and make sure it's secured well inside the crate. I work in a freight environment and see what happens to freight as it moves through the system, and trust me, if it's not crated and well secured it's not going to arrive in the same number of parts it departed in.
Roadghost
Well-known member
Best advice so far. Make the sure the bike is completely inside the crate and it is designed to be moved with a forklift. Wrap the bike in bubble wrap or something and all the fuel is drained. Dockworkers don't care about your bike, and you'll never get what the damages cost out of the transporter.
Good advice in addition.
Some of us do care about what we're moving, but keep this in mind:
- Some don't.
- Once it's on a trailer it doesn't matter anyways - potholes, getting cut off and having to mash the brakes, other freight falling over, etc all jostles things around back there.
- Going overseas it'll be moved countless times, in and out of sea-cans, and at the mercy of crane operators while that sea can is being loaded on/off a ship.
- Rough sea conditions moves crap around, a lot.
- It could be weeks or more from the time you ship it until the time it arrives. It'll likely be moving that entire time. If it's not secured 110% it's GOING to get damaged.
And yes, make sure your crate has fork slots in it otherwise us guys will smack the crate around trying to get our forks underneath the edge lip. That results in your crate getting bumped and skidded around, pushed up against hard objects to try to force the forks under, or worse yet...accidentally busting the crate up.
Make sure the lid is strong as well. Stuff WILL get stacked on top of it unless you take measures to specifically prevent it..see below. Don't think writing "please don't stack" will stop that - high end carriers like mine will just charge you more for extra cube and respect your sign, but cheap-assed companies WILL just stack **** on crates anyways to maximize cube in the trailer or can...and even if you ship with a high end carrier there are agent carriers and freight handling companies often mixed into the chain that might not be so respectful. You can always try sticking a bunch (not just one, multiple, make sure there's no surface bigger than 3x3 or so) of these on top of the crate - most dock guys won't squash them.
Just a bit more info.
We used a company called Motorcycle Express. Their role in all of this was to prepare the dangerous goods documentation, organize crating and engage the carrier (Air Transat in our case). I suspect that they just subbed out all these tasks, since they are a US company and it was all CDN organizations that we dealt with on the ground at Pearson.
All in all, it was hassle-free on the shipping end. The only thing they didn't take care of was customs on the receiving end. From reading Air Canada's blurbs, they don't do Dangerous Goods documentation (they give you an e-mail address of a guy that does), and they also don't handle customs for you on the other end either.
A big tip for customs is to have cash on hand in the local currency. The freight companies are only used to dealing with other companies that they invoice for shipping services and duty collection. They're not used to private individuals walking up and taking delivery of goods. So they won't take credit cards, only cash. And when you're in the middle of a cargo complex beside runways and warehouses, there aren't a lot of ATM machines around. So bring lots of € or £ (wherever you are shipping to) with you to pay the duty when you collect your bike.
Riceburner
Well-known member
If you're moving there for good, why not sell the bike here and buy another in the UK? They have a lot more choice and you won't have to deal with MOT with your "foreign" bike. For example the CDN version of mine has the speedo only in km/h while the US and Euro versions have it in both MPH and KM/H.
Might be wise to check what it might cost to purchase a bike there and sell yours vs shipping beforehand.
Wait, you're not inreb?!? They ride on the left over there.
Edit: Oh yeah, I guess the headlight beams would have to be adjusted.
Wait, you're not inreb?!? They ride on the left over there.
Edit: Oh yeah, I guess the headlight beams would have to be adjusted.
Troll status achieved! My work is done here. ?
OP, I don’t think that you mentioned what bike it is. Is it something that is rare? A lot if work has been put into it? I think that would be the only argument against selling it here and buying one there.
As far as those cones that sit atop the crates go, I ship product all day, never seen one person not crush them by stacking something on top. Bosses would have our @$$€$ if we shipped sailboat fuel on top of them.
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Riceburner
Well-known member
how rare could it be if he's willing to ride it in the UK?
hmmmm....my bike is right hand to drive.....did I get scammed???????
hmmmm....my bike is right hand to drive.....did I get scammed???????
In hindsight that might be the best advice of all.
Since you're moving there permanently you are going to have to import the vehicle and licence/insure it there. When you look at things in reverse and see some of the hoops people importing vehicles from overseas have to jump through here to get them switched over, you might decide it's not worth the hassle. Emissions, safety, conspicuousy markings/reflectors, indicators....everything will have to adhere to their standards before they will certify it for operation over there. That could be easy, could be hard. Lots of "it was hard" horror stories when it comes to cars crossing the pond both ways.
Even importing a vehicle across the Canada / USA border is a challenge. Not sure I'd want to try across the pond.
Just carrying the cash to buy a new one upon arrival would probably be a lot less hassle.
You guys are making this all too complicated for the original poster. I shipped my Hayabusa to Europe last summer. I built the crate myself, strapped it down, closed it up. I found a private company shipping containers to Croatia and put my crate in one of their containers.
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So you did everything several of us here posted as advice to the OP, and you had a good experience as a result.
Too complicated how?
Drove ours to Air Canada Cargo. They strapped them down. Picked them up in BC the next day. No big whup. $650.
Air Canada has the same program for Europe but not all airports..for $850.
Agent says there will be a deal this year as well.
This was last years and we were very happy with the results.
http://canadamotoguide.com/2015/03/03/air-canadas-new-motorcycle-cargo-options/
It doesn't get handled the way some are claiming here. It's in a standard air freight container with tie downs. The only thing you need is to keep the gas to 1/4 tank.
YOU ride it to and into the air freight dock at Air Canada....YOU pick up at the Air Freight dock at the other end and ride it out of the facility. You are there to help remove the bike from the tie-downs.
My sense of bike prices in the UK ....I'd be flying any of mine over.
A used 2010 CBF1000 goes for 4500 pounds - thats $9100 Cnd then there is VAT on that. That's 50% more than the average value here.
Ship your own, no VAT
OP - check your bike value -
http://www.motorcyclesupermarket.com/for-sale/Honda-Cbf1000
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/bikes/motorcycles/honda/cbf1000
Same bike I bought -same year simiilar mileage and luggage
That's over $10k Cdn. - can't understand why anyone would want to live in the UK.
Air Canada has the same program for Europe but not all airports..for $850.
Agent says there will be a deal this year as well.
This was last years and we were very happy with the results.
http://canadamotoguide.com/2015/03/03/air-canadas-new-motorcycle-cargo-options/
It doesn't get handled the way some are claiming here. It's in a standard air freight container with tie downs. The only thing you need is to keep the gas to 1/4 tank.
YOU ride it to and into the air freight dock at Air Canada....YOU pick up at the Air Freight dock at the other end and ride it out of the facility. You are there to help remove the bike from the tie-downs.
My sense of bike prices in the UK ....I'd be flying any of mine over.
A used 2010 CBF1000 goes for 4500 pounds - thats $9100 Cnd then there is VAT on that. That's 50% more than the average value here.
Ship your own, no VAT
OP - check your bike value -
http://www.motorcyclesupermarket.com/for-sale/Honda-Cbf1000
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/bikes/motorcycles/honda/cbf1000
Same bike I bought -same year simiilar mileage and luggage
That's over $10k Cdn. - can't understand why anyone would want to live in the UK.
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They don't get paid in CAD $.
Prices look different when you're paid in £.
Riceburner
Well-known member
'zactly. When you get paid in pounds, and spend in pounds, it's good. Shipping the bike over for temp use is one thing, but what about importing it permanently? MOT details need to be at UK specs?
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