Cargo, customs and clearance

Well, that wasn’t so bad. 

Looked up Air Canada Cargo on Dr Google and found an address out by the International Airport. A $35 taxi ride with a VERY talkative and impossible to understand Indian driver and by 2.00 pm I was there. No queue and a really helpful bloke behind the counter where I handed over my waybill (thanks Ivan) which he processed.  He said the bike was there (yehaaaaaaa) but I needed to take the paperwork to Canadian Customs – a 2 minute walk away. He said a lot of bikes had been sent back to their point of origin for being too dirty. Mostly UK bikes. The owners weren’t given the opportunity to clean them, just back on the next flight! I said I’d spent close to a day on it which impressed him. He said to make sure I reinforced that with Customs and that they usually don’t inspect them (didn’t make much sense after the earlier comments). But, he said, if they did, it would be a worst case scenario.

 I found the customs office easily enough and handed the paperwork to a serious young woman in a bullet proof vest with a revolver, pepper spray and a baton on her hip. Yeah, won’t be arguing with her. I informed her that I’d spent 2 days cleaning the bike (us Pidcock’s are known to exaggerate as well). Didn’t matter she said, everything gets inspected! Not a surprise really. She radioed a colleague and asked him ‘Do you have time to check out a bike today?’. Geeze – I didn’t like the sound of that! Apparently he didn’t have a lot on, so she said go next door to the Tim Hortons Coffee and Donut Bar and come back in half an hour. So, there I was, sitting with an average coffee, a stale donut (this is more like what I was expecting) and waiting. Half an hour huh? We’ll see! 

I shouldn’t have been so skeptical. Walked in exactly 30 mins later and she said OK sir, your bike is ready to go. It was spotless she said and they really appreciated it. Most are filthy and if they run a finger over them and pick up any dust all, they’re just turned around. No questions, no excuses, no chances – back on the plane at the owners expense. ‘It generally gets pretty ugly’ she said. No wonder they were armed. The inspection cost was $40.15 – a small price to pay!

So, back to Air Canada where they were very pleased to see me. Fixed them up with $94.37 for handling fee’s and they escorted me out the back where a guy turned up with the bike still packed up and on a forklift. He dumped it out in the entry bay and said ‘All yours buddy!’. Cool. Stripped off the plastic, pulled down the very solid metal Ducati crate, put the handlebars and mirrors back on, attached the panniers and reconnected the battery. It turned out that the front wheel hadn’t been taken off either! It wouldn’t have been a big deal if it had, but it was one less job needed before I could get on the road. I was so close I could taste it. I needed a hand to jump the bike out of the well that was the bottom of the crate. One of the bloke’s that helped me said his family had emigrated to a place called Dalby in 1962 and did I know it (it’s less than an hour from home)? They’d lasted 6 weeks before coming back! I grabbed the 2 empty fuel bottles I’d included in the luggage and hoofed it to the nearest ‘gas’ station about 400 meters away. Fuelled up the bike, turned the key, braaaaaaaaap, helmet, gloves and jacket on – ready to roll in exactly 3 hours. As had been promised, an easy clearance and no need for an agent. A big thanks to Ivan Smoljko from Bikes Abroad (www.bikesabroad.com.au) – awesome job mate! OK – back into town to my AirBnB and I’m on the road again! Bring on tomorrow!