Shipping motorbike from SA to Aus

[gbird]

Morning

My family and I are moving to Aus in 2016 and I want to take my motorbike with considering the prices of them in Aus. Has anyone done this that can give me some guidance. I already own it and have for more than 12 months. I have a UK and SA motorbike license so no issues there. I am trying to find out who is reliable that I can use and what needs to be done? I have read so much but it quite confusing and stuttaford van lines are not much help.

Thanks

Gareth

[Nev]

Dont have the detail but have read a few posts around moving vehicles over, they all seemed to end with the cost of taxes,

The cost will not simply be the cost of moving it, there is also vehicle import duties, re-registration...etc and they seemed to be a large portion of the cost of the cars, if it is not a vintage you will probably end up spending more than its value of the move.

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page4371.asp

Prior to making a decision to import a road vehicle you should take into account the likely costs you may incur during the importation process such as:

freight and insurance (for the transport of the goods to Australia);

customs duties, GST and LCT, if applicable;

storage and delivery charges;

logistic services providers' charges;

customs brokers' charges;

entry processing charges;

steam cleaning for quarantine purposes;

other wharf and transport charges; and

any costs involved in having your road vehicle meet State or Territory registration and insurance requirements.

Dont know this company but they seems to have a free quote service that might be worth checking:

http://tauruslogistics.com.au/motorcycle-shipping

[Willa]

We moved our bikes over and the cost wasn't a big issue, about a $1000 six years ago. Comparing what a BMW 1200GS and BMW 650GS cost. We moved with Elliot and they did the boxing for us. Wejust had to have the proper paperwork in place before the container arrived in the docks in Aus. We had to get an engineer to certify the bikes, this was the biggest cost as far as I could remember. If you can bring it over do it because it is way to expensive to buy it here.

Car licences you can just exchange, not sure about the motorbike licences. Had to do a day course prior getting our licences.

[Nev]

In Victoria i was able to do a direct conversion of bike licence

[Odendaal]

Hi all,

 

My husband wants to take his bike over. He still owes on it and the initial plan was that we would go over to Aus and pay the bike off (with money earned in Aus) over time then when it is paid off, he would organise for it to be taken over to Aus. However, he now heard somewhere that you actually have to own (it must be paid off) the bike before you emigrate before you can make plans to import it into Aus. Does anyone have any information regarding this? To me it does not make sense but then again, tax and stuff like that has never made sense to me anyway haha  

 

Thanks in advance

Mel

[Peterthe1]

On ‎25‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 11:17 PM, Odendaal said:

Hi all,

 

My husband wants to take his bike over. He still owes on it and the initial plan was that we would go over to Aus and pay the bike off (with money earned in Aus) over time then when it is paid off, he would organise for it to be taken over to Aus. However, he now heard somewhere that you actually have to own (it must be paid off) the bike before you emigrate before you can make plans to import it into Aus. Does anyone have any information regarding this? To me it does not make sense but then again, tax and stuff like that has never made sense to me anyway haha  

 

Thanks in advance

Mel

You have to pay the bike finished before bringing it here. This is to stop people from defaulting on their payments. SA Banks can't touch defaulters outside SA as defaulting on your payments is a civil matter and not criminal, so Australia wouldn't be concerned. This would have to be settled in the SA Civil Court, therefore once a perpetrator has left it would be very hard to get him back to SA to pay up. You can only get prosecuted if the Bank can prove that you deliberately defaulted. This would make it Fraud which is a criminal matter and Australia may step in.

[Odendaal]

Hi @Peterthe1! Thanks for the response. Yes, we do not plan on defaulting the payments at all and we are aware of the implications thereof. What I am asking is whether the bike has to be payed off before leaving South Africa in order to be granted an import permit?

 

Check out this government website that I came across - maybe someone can help me decipher it? https://infrastructure.gov.au/vehicles/imports/import_options/pis.aspx

 

thanks, Mel 

Edited February 29, 2016 by Odendaal
More clarification

[Peterthe1]

I didn't mean that you were going to default, I just explained one of the main reasons for having to own the vehicle and having to be fully paid. You also want to check your bike prices here as with the transport and tax costs it may work out more expensive to import. Have a look here and get an idea on prices. Good 2nd hand bikes can be found at good prices.

http://www.bikesales.com.au/ 

Also check that the model bike you are bringing is sold here. This way you will know if spares are available locally for your bike. Having to import spares can be expensive. Models may vary continent by continent and country by country, although I think, SA and Australian models may be similar or the same.

With regards to your  drivers licence, make sure that you get the right class when converting to the Australian one. There are different classes for bikes. They duffed mine up when I converted, luckily I picked it up. You can convert car and bike licence but a HR (Truck) licence you'll have to redo. This applied in QLD for me, the other states may be different.

[Caz]

Not quite on topic, but I know that a few years ago when we visited Botswana and crossed the border in our car we had to provide documents from the bank (as well as informing the bank of our intended border crossing) to state that the car is still "owned" by the bank and that we are not "stealing" it. This document had to have the VIN number, etc. on and the border patrol officers did a thorough check of the car to ensure that all details matched up.  This was of course just for a holiday.  I assume it's a whole different kettle of fish for importing / exporting on a more permanent basis.

[Odendaal]

Ok so the bike does not need to be fully paid up when we (not the bike) emigrate? We can live in Aus, pay the bike off while it sits in SA and then bring it over to Aus? 

 

Take a look at this, this is the criteria that must be met before we take the bike over: 

• own the vehicle when submitting the application; and
• have acquired ownership of the vehicle while overseas; and
• have owned the vehicle while overseas for a continuous period of at least 12 months. This is the “qualifying period”. The qualifying period must have occurred immediately before you (permanently) arrived in Australia.      
• Thank you very much for the input guys! 

Edited March 1, 2016 by Odendaal