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Hi, my wife and I are travelling to Vancouver this summer for a year and have a large amount of outdoor gear we want to freight out including 4 bikes in total. Does anyone have any experience of sending things like this as air freight?
Any help would be very welcome,
Thanks,
Gareth
My girlfriend used [url= http://www.sevenseasworldwide.com/homepage/default.aspx ]Seven Seas Worldwide[/url] when she moved to Ottawa a year ago, sh had not problems with them. I'm hopefully moving also in a month or so and could do with some options for bikes etc...
I used Anglo Pacific for my shipping and it wasn't too bad - there was one guy in the UK that I dealt with; all the boxes and materials were delivered and taken away on time.
The only real issues come at the other end: I sent mine air courier (so that they were delivered to the door), and DHL had a fine old time smashing up one box that had several framed pictures in it. Insurance took a while, but paid up eventually.
I sent my bike in the second batch, and it worked out fine too. Overall cost wasn't cheap though.
For Canada, the options appear to be air freight (collect at the airport) or sea freight (collect at the port), with courier only offered by a handful of shipment companies. The issue is customs - they want a piece of the action, and they want you go to and get it released in person etc. So be aware that there's a big hassle factor if you don't have your own transport etc.
I'd definitely recommend taking as much as possible with you by plane (IMHO, of course) - depending who you're flying with, the cost for taking a bike should be around £30, which is cheaper than any freight options.
the cost for taking a bike should be around £30, which is cheaper than any freight options.
Is the conclusion i'm coming too, at least one bike is coming on the plane.
Actually, I should've said as well that in theory, this stuff is all used, it's all your own, you're not planning on selling it - so customs is a moot point. But it seems it doesn't quite work that way, and again, if it's going by air courier, the courier may well pay any customs charges (rightly or wrongly) as it enters the country and then bill you for them.