Shipping my Motorbike: Time to ship my motorbike Buenos Aires, Argentina. We took our bikes early in the morning to the Ezeiza International Airport where our bikes would be shipped from.
We also met (location map) a few days ago with the people at Dakar Motos, who would be shipping our bikes, mine to Miami and Eric’s to Capetown South Africa.
The process for this is quite easy but you must follow the three major steps carefully. Firstly you need to make contact with Dakar Motos months in advance and give them estimates of when you will be requiring their services.
The Process with Dakar Motos
- Contact Dakar Motos about a month in advance and let them know approximate dates. Phone: 54-11-4730-0586 Email: dakarmotos@hotmail.com
- Then contact them about a week before your arrival with more precise dates. They will send you a detailed email explaining the process.
- You will then meet with them with a deposit (I paid $100 USD) and get all paperwork in order. Detailed below!
- You will then need to go the following day into the city at a specific location and pay the balance (again cash), my balance was around $1700 USD.
- From there you will get all the paperwork you need and Dakar Motos will send you a further email with where you drop the bike off and remaining information.
Dakar Motos Shipping Motorbike Notes
- Dakar Motos only manage air freight to and from Buenos Aires to almost anywhere in the world (prices vary)
- Give them at least a two-week notice/confirmation
- The price of air freight for my bike (KTM 1290 Super Adventure) to Miami was around $1,800 USD.
- The price included booking, shipping organization, packaging, customs clearance, air freight and the entire local charges in Buenos Aires, it’s a whole package. No extra charges or fees, no surprises.
- The procedures in Buenos Aires took around 3 workdays (not Saturdays, Sundays or National Holidays that Cargo doesn’t operate). You must be staying in Buenos Aires, to be assured everything goes smoothly.
Dakar Motos – Shipping Motorbike from Buenos Aires
Day One: Meet at Dakar Motos, pay the deposit ($100 USD) and supply all paperwork. A second day for packing the bike that you must take to the airport, paperwork and customs formalities there (from the morning and can take until afternoon), a third if you will pay cash for final payment at downtown (part of the morning), could be good if you can stay for a fourth extra day for any imponderable that could appear. For all of this owners have to be present.
You Need to Bring to Day One:
For this first meeting you will have to bring:
- Argentinean Temporal import permit: original and 2 paper copies.
- Passport original and 2 paper copies of each: Details pages and last Argentinean entry stamp.
- Bike Registration or Title: original and 2 paper copies
- $100 USD cash or the equivalent in Argentinean Pesos on that day for the Booking (included in the quote)
Day Two: You will need to pay cash for final payment at a downtown location (took one hour), For this, the owner of the bike (you) must do this in person.
Day Three: For packing the bike that you must take to the airport, paperwork and customs formalities are taken care of there (this took around 4 hours total) For all of these days the owners (you) have to be present.
For all of this, the owners (you) have to be present. So you cannot get someone to do it for you!
What you can pack on your Shipping Motorbike for Transport
You can send only luggage relative to the bike and you as the rider, like all your riding gear, tools or your compressible spare-parts. You cannot carry any other personal belongs, camping equipment, liquids or sprays, flammable. I was able to have all cases, tank bag, riding gear (pants jackets, boots, socks etc) also all my tools etc.
You could take a chance like I should have, on batteries, they do scan the bike. But once it’s packed, you’re good! They will only tell you to remove it, so take a chance I say!
The bike will fly on the next available plane with space for normal cargo, some products such as perishable goods will have priority before our bikes.