Bike Shipping
from the U.S.A.
Got a bike to bring in from the U.S ? -
RB's Generally can get the bike landed in England for less than £700 PLUS taxes
Please bear in mind that the bike you buy may
be up to 3,000 miles from my shipping location and even getting it to the point
of loading may be expensive, also it is VITAL that any bike you have MUST have a
U.S. title (Log Book).
A Cautionary tale - June 2009
I paid the seller $5,400 for the bike in late
March (£3,900 at the time with the dollar then at 1.38 to the pound, but would
'only' be £3,300 at the current rate of 1.64). I then paid "JS" $512 (£370 at
the time) to arrange through his contacts to get the bike moved all the way to
the sea port at Linden, New Jersey in a covered truck of some sort. In the mean
time I commissioned Jamie Richardson of RJJ Freight Ltd to arrange to get it
booked onto a container vessel and to take care of the associated fees, duties,
VAT and other taxes on my behalf. The shipping cost explicitly was $595 (£428 at
that time), and on top of that I paid £195 for 'UK Landed Costs' £45 for 'UK
Customs Clearance', £125 for 'Marine Insurance', £233 for 'UK Customs Duty' and
£618 for 'UK Customs VAT'. I should also add-on the £50 I paid for hiring the
van, and the £20 I had to pay to the Bonded Warehouse at Chatham Docks when I
turned up to collect the bike, as they said that as the bike had been cleared
for collection four days previously, I had run-up a bill of £20 for 'storage'!!!
(4 x £5 per day). - I had to chuckle at that one....
So, bottom line is it cost me £3,900 for the actual bike, plus a further £2,084
to get it to my door. Oh dear... That's an additional 53% over and above the
price of the actual bike! And, at just under £6,000 all-in, it's not exactly a
cheap H1F that I've aquired, is it?
