Another North American Trip

Sorry for the delay in updating. It was only one doc each. A visa Waiver, CBP 1-94a(11/04)Departure Record.He charged us $12 and stapled it into our passports. I think it was something to do with us leaving the U.S overland into Canada , towards the end of the trip.
Cheers Andy
 
Hi. Last installment.
We booked the shipping back of the bike about 24 days before we were due to fly back. It was a straight forward process with Air Canada Cargo ,10 mins on the phone. They give you the price whilst giving them all the details. As we were flying back from Calgary, an extra 2100 miles flying, and a plane change at Toronto, I was expecting a substantial price increase. In fact it was £50 cheaper. The requirement for a Dangerous Goods Certificate was again fulfilled by Universal Packing, who email me the cert, which I then got printed in colour at a local shop in Golden Canada.
The main difference with shipping the bike back to England is that Air Canada Cargo require you to use the services of a Freight Forwarder to get the bike cleared through Customs. I used James Cargo. They require copies of the log book, Airway Bill , and a form completing/signing. Rather rather than copy/print/sign/re copy docs I used a free Adobe Acrobat App which allows you to scan/sign/forward docs just using your smart phone . I suspect most of you will be aware of these Apps but if not, they are great and save a lot of messing about.
Once the bike has gone through Customs, James Cargo email you a release document which you present at the Cargo Depot when you collect the bike . James Cargo charged me just under £200 for their services.

So it was still under £1000 to fly the bike from Calgary to Manchester.


The dropping the bike off in Calgary for shipping was straight forward, requiring booking ref, photo ID, Dangerous Goods Cert (3 colour copies) and of course, payment. they ask about how much fuel there is in the tank(requirement -less than 1/4 full), gas cannisters, alarms,etc. As with flying the bike to Canada, they allow you to ship items in your panniers(riding gear in our case). They did let me leave in place, under the fuel tank, the full emergency oil container(Nippy Norman). They ask you to ride your bike into the depot and then the guy who is going to strap your bike down talks you through how he's going to do it. The whole process, from start to finish would have taken about 20 minutes, but the guy who packing the bike had grandparents who had lived in my home town, Oldham. So due to us taking it took at least twice as long.

I picked the bike up from the Manchester Airport Cargo area the day after we got back to Manchester. The Air Canada service is operated by Swissport. I turned up, showed photo ID, gave them the release doc from James Cargo, 5 mins later I was shown through to the depot. The bike had been unpacked and intact, I used the key, that travels with the bike during shipping, to start the bike and rode it out. Once I'd put my riding gear on out of the pannier I set of home. Picking the bike up was a 15 mins process. Straight forward, with no problems.


So, even though I had been concerned that something might go wrong, nothing did, everything went very smoothly.

As always, if you are planning on doing it(once the insurance issue has been resolved), double check all the requirements as they will change and what individual officials require may vary.


Cheers Andy
 
That is great info, thanks for sharing.
I have not used the Air Canada but recommended it to a buddy and he bought a CBX in Canada and got it via Air Canada with no hassle.
 
Yes, ride report to follow, but it's more "small town America " than big name attractions. We covered 9500 miles with less than 100 miles on interstates. But more of that later.....


Cheers Andy
 
Thanks

Thanks for taking the time to do that Andy. I hope to do something similar in 2020.
 
Hi Andy,
My riding buddy and I are planning a similar trip next May - we found your explanation of shipping, customs, borders etc really useful - Many thanks.

We'd picked up bits and pieces from various forums, however yours was the most complete explanation we've come across so far.

As I'm a forum guest I can't PM you with a couple of additional questions we have - Could you please PM me if possible with an email address? Not sure if that would work but worth a try.

Many thanks again for an excellent summary

Howard and John
 
Hi Andy,
My riding buddy and I are planning a similar trip next May - we found your explanation of shipping, customs, borders etc really useful - Many thanks.

We'd picked up bits and pieces from various forums, however yours was the most complete explanation we've come across so far.

As I'm a forum guest I can't PM you with a couple of additional questions we have - Could you please PM me if possible with an email address? Not sure if that would work but worth a try.

Many thanks again for an excellent summary

Howard and John

You have to pay your £12 to access PM's old son.
 
Hi Andy,
My riding buddy and I are planning a similar trip next May - we found your explanation of shipping, customs, borders etc really useful - Many thanks.

We'd picked up bits and pieces from various forums, however yours was the most complete explanation we've come across so far.

As I'm a forum guest I can't PM you with a couple of additional questions we have - Could you please PM me if possible with an email address? Not sure if that would work but worth a try.

Many thanks again for an excellent summary

Howard and John

You have to pay your £12 to access PM's old son.
 
It’s just £12 to join, and for £12 you will get a wealth of information...

If you can afford your trip, you can afford £12......



Hi Andy,
My riding buddy and I are planning a similar trip next May - we found your explanation of shipping, customs, borders etc really useful - Many thanks.

We'd picked up bits and pieces from various forums, however yours was the most complete explanation we've come across so far.

As I'm a forum guest I can't PM you with a couple of additional questions we have - Could you please PM me if possible with an email address? Not sure if that would work but worth a try.

Many thanks again for an excellent summary

Howard and John
 


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