Air freighting a bike?

[Yamarin]

Aha, so nothing I need to worry too much about just yet then...

By the way I've been reading the "silk riders" which is interesting reading by the way. And it seems they chose to ship by ship. I'm guessing NZ - Germany was done by MAERSK as they practically have monopoly in NZ as far as I've been told?

Does anyone know what costs we are talking here (im interested in US - Sweden), and would you have to pay for a full container or just your boxed bike?

[alanzs]

MAF = Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries

They will check imports to make sure there is no soil (or living organisms e.g. moss, mildew, insects) attached to your bike.

Had a 40 foot container of stuff shipped over when we moved back here. MAF came to our house three days later, looked at a bicycle I had by tearing some of the paper it was in and left. She was gone in literally two minutes and all the while she was texting on her phone. TOTAL JOKE!
Never even looked at the 200 kilos of pure blow we had...

[Forest]

Aha, so nothing I need to worry too much about just yet then...

By the way I've been reading the "silk riders" which is interesting reading by the way. And it seems they chose to ship by ship. I'm guessing NZ - Germany was done by MAERSK as they practically have monopoly in NZ as far as I've been told?

Does anyone know what costs we are talking here (im interested in US - Sweden), and would you have to pay for a full container or just your boxed bike?

If you go through a freight forwarder, you'll only have to pay for your boxed bike.

They'll consolidate other freight loads into the same container to fill up the empt space.

[The Joka]

I agree would be a lot cheaper by seafreight - alot slower too.

What you would have to do is again call a freight forwarder, someone that specialises in personal effects or automobiles or special projects and ask them to do an LCL shipment. (LCL = loose cargo load)

What this means is that they will have a container already booked on a vessel and will find smaller amounts of freight to fill it with.

Again be cautious and make sure that you have all the charges upfront including the fuel bunker charge which changes with the price of fuel. the cartage charges for moving the container around NZ and all the charges I mentioned before.

If you are looking to ship something out of Germany, might be worth giving Kuehne & Nagel a call they are a German owned Freight Forwarder.

Let me know if you have any more questions

[Wired1]

Who have you used for shipping a bike out of Japan?

[Big Dave]

Whan I came over h'yar I air freighted the T'bird. It was slightly more expensive than sea, but I thought at least I'd have a bike when i got here.

It took so long to get through the customs bullshit that the sea freight was available and delivered before the bike was.

[cs363]

If its a used bike, forget air freight - especially out of the US. As it has had petrol run through it and despite whether you drain the tank/carbs etc it is now classed as DG (dangerous goods) so you are in for a huge surcharge.
Sea freight out of LA is not too bad - sailing time is approx 2 weeks, plus a week - 10 days with all the BS at either end with customs/MAF etc.
Final freight cost will depend on the weight and the dimensions of the crate you intend to ship it in. Shop around - ring a bunch of different freight forwarders and tell them you want a quote for door to door (assuming that you want it collected in the US and delivered to your place in NZ), other options are door to port, port to port etc depending on your situation. Freight business is competitive and quotes will vary wildly, probably easiest if you use one that has an in house customs brokerage service as this should make things easier. Make sure they give you an all inclusive quote too as some outfits will quote you freight only, exclusive of other charges which will give you an unpleasant surprise come bill time, as someone else pointed out above!
For the bike you'll need a clear title signed over to you and an invoice from the seller. You may need the seller to fill out some forms from the shipping company as well as he will effectively act as the shipper.
Make sure you get a good crate too, not one of the dealer type crates as they are not strong enough for international shipping.

[jafar]

Just curious (after reading a Tardeme advert)

Has anyone here ever air freighted a bike from the US?

If so would they be happy to give an idea on price.

And yes - I have emailed a couple of companies - I'm just impatient waiting for them to come back to me.

I had a quote done & airfreight was over twice the price of sea.