It’s 2025 right?
Not in the world of commercial shipping for consumers it seems.
It would seem like a pretty straightforward process. You find a shipping company that will ship your motorcycle from port to port, location to port to port, or location to port to port to location (door to door).
Start by googling “Motorcycle shipping from USA to South Africa” then go through the list and first fill out the online form, wait a week, send an email, wait 3 days, then make a phone call. Yeah, right. You’ll end up with a list of about 10. Some companies who specialize in South African motorcycle adventure riding will also pop up – one of those was African Overlanders – https://africanoverlanders.com/. More (only great things) on them later!
Most of the companies you speak with won’t understand that you are an individual and not a commercial shipper, agent, or otherwise so they will just blow you off. That will be about half your list. I get it, why waste your time for one small load. I always make sure to ask for recommendations if they can’t do it, maybe the know someone who can? Others will start the process by requesting the full details of your motorcycle, including year, make, model, weight, width, and height as well as the crate dimensions. Not a big deal if you have your owner’s manual and can find a site that lists crates for sale that your motorcycle would actually fit in. Just pick one that will fit your dimensions, making sure to get it as tight as possible since you pay per cubic centimeter.
Then come the responses about how they don’t actually ship to South Africa, or specifically to Cape Town, so you’ll burn through half of the list again. Now you’re left with about 3. Of those 3 that I spoke with, one came up a surprisingly easy to deal with and offered a competitive rate. They said they did location to port to port to location (door to door), so great! The name of the company was AuctionExport – https://www.auctionexport.com/.
After some back and forth about paperwork and payment, everything was getting more and more real. The estimated days to ship from my house to Cape Town was 75 days, not too bad. Given that I had estimated the start of the trip for the first week of June, I had plenty of time.
Well… then shit started to happen. First, they just showed up at my house one day without any prior notification. I wasn’t prepared at all to load my bike because I still had to double-check the camera setup, chain, etc., but that wasn’t the issue. The main issue was that I had to remove all of my gear on the bike to make sure it would clear customs. Again, not a big deal when you have some notice. I managed to get an email through – at this point Auction Export was not responding to emails or phone calls in a timely manner – saying that I was not prepared and needed some more time and if they could PLEASE give me a date when the driver would show up again, that would be great. They responded with some bullshit and said they would try their best. So, whatever. I started prepping my bike just in case they showed up out of the blue again, and guess what, they did – literally the afternoon after I had my bike prepped. My wife came home one afternoon and told me there was a guy waiting with a giant truck and trailer outside to pick up my bike!
3/27 (Zero Day) – Loading up!
Some kid – a good one at least – rode around the block with long black trailer and loaded up my bike.
So, that was it. I signed some app on his phone, got a receipt:
I handed him a copy of the title and off he drove! At this point, I figured there was not much to do, but wait for status updates.
I email and called AuctionExport, and no response. Then I started getting emails about fees being charged due to “bidding” that I didn’t understand because I wasn’t auctioning my “vehicle”. These were: “Please complete the payment as soon as possible to avoid further fees and possible resale of your vehicle.” Not cool.
4/1 (+5 days) Payment Confirmation
I also received a response on 4/1 about my wire not going through because the account wouldn’t accept a USD transfer (not CAD) so I had to call the bank to find out why. Eventually it went through, but not before I somehow accumulated $28 dollars in additional bidding fees which I refused to pay because it wasn’t an auction! That would come back to haunt me later….
4/4 (+8 days) Container Confirmation
I was then asked on 4/4 if I would be putting anything else in the 20-foot container for some reason, but clearly responded that I would not be adding anything.
They also sent over “Please fill out the consingee release form in your profile since we will need consingee info for the booking.” We went back and forth for a day, because I was asking where the form was, and once I received the link, I promptly completed with Duncan’s information on 4/5 which clearly stated “Cape Town” as the location.
4/7 (+10 days) Consignee Confirmation
I received a response from AuctionExport stating:
“Thank you Sir.
There is nothing that needs to be done at this point.
In case we need some information, we will contact you.”
I asked for some tracking link or information of some kind, but never received anything.
4/8 (+12 days) Consignee Confirmation (AGAIN)
I received an email asking for the email address for Duncan, which was already in the form I completed 3 days ago. I promptly sent it over.
I also received a message from AuctionExport on this day – “Did you give the title to the driver? ” Keep in mind, they have had my bike for 11 days now and just realized they don’t have the title? Not a big deal as I had already acquired a “fresh” copy of my title from the DMV.
A the same time, I received a message from AuctionExport:
“Vehicle 2021 BMW F850GSA Shipping WB10K0300M6EXXXX
has arrived at the Exit Port warehouse.”
I called them and told them I handed a copy of the title to the driver, but he said they don’t have it at the Exit Port warehouse. But they were inquiring.
4/11 (+15 days) Title Lost
They then told me to send the title to “3220 Bordentown Avenue Unit # A, Old Bridge, NJ 08857”. So, I put the last copy of my title in a UPS envelope and sent it off. It arrived 2 days later due to the weekend. On Monday, I received a message from AucitonExport saying “thank you”. Now all I could do was wait.
4/14 (+18 days) Title Confirmation
I received a message from AuctionExport:
“Vehicle 2021 BMW F850GSA Shipping WB10K0300M6EXXXX
title has been delivered to the exit port.”
Yay.
5/5 (+39 days) Consignee Confirmation (AGAIN)
I received a message from AuctionExport:
“Please provide us with the email for the consignee:”
Whaaaa? I already sent this over twice before. I called and asked because I was worried now that the bike needed to be in Cape Town in 40 days… yeah, right. I sent it over and received a response the next day.
5/15 (+49 days) Container Loading Confirmation
Well, not good news. I receive this message from AuctionExport:
“Vehicle 2021 BMW F850GSA Shipping WB10K0300M6EXXXX
has been loaded
into the Container #:GLDU9694834
Vehicle was loaded at: 5/15/2025Estimated Time of Arrival to destination port: 08/08/2025″
Yikes, 8/8 put the travel time to 134 days. Oh well, in life you need to roll with the punches, so time to start planning again!
5/20 (+54 days) Request for Information
I sent an email asking:
“What other updates or tracking information will I receive?
How is the bike getting from Durban (I recall that being the port of entry?) to Cape Town (African Overlanders) since it’s door-to-door
Carnet de Passage – when does this need to be handed over to you, and who will be the actual receiving agent?”
Then I received the bad news:
“The container number and ETA are available in your profile.
The container will be delivered to Durban, where your consignee can pick up and clear the vehicle.
Original documents will be mailed out as soon as we have them from the line.”
I called and they told me they do not ship to Cape Town. What??? Here’s my original email which they confirmed:
“Wow, that was fast! Need some additional details before I send over payment.
- Dates – what’s the last possible date to have the bike picked up to guarantee delivery to CPT by 6/3/3025?
- Ground transportation – this is door-to-door, correct? I am using African Overlanders to take possession of the bike in CPT. What do you/they need to ensure there will be no issues?
- Customs – I have the carnet de passage (CDP) for South Africa, what else do I need to provide?
- Crating – when and where will the bike be crated? I am familiar with the process of emptying the gas tank and disconnecting/securing the battery, what else needs to be done?
Thank you again!
Tim”
Bottom line, I was lied to because they are a bunch of liars.
Tracking
I also started tracking my bike via shipgo.com. Interesting to see that my bike’s destination was Durban, but going right past it to India first and then returning.
8/18 (+144 days) Discharge Confirmation
Oh well. I was in Vienna visiting my son with my family, so I was able to book a flight last minute with Qatar Airways for less than $800 to Durban through Doha. Which turned out to be $800 less than flying from Chicago, which was good because I received this message from AuctionExport:
“We deliver the vehicle to the port in the destination country, where the consignee needs to pick up the vehicle.
Everything else is the client’s responsibility. “
Nowhere did it say anything about Durban until I saw the first container notification. So… the follow up to this – “Shipping Your Motorcycle from Chicago to Cape Town, er, Durban?“