CYYJ
Michael
In the air freight industry, Unit Load Devices (ULDs) are commonly referred to as 'cans'. ULDs are used for cargo that is shipped on the lower deck of wide-body (twin aisle) passenger aircraft, and on the main deck of cargo only aircraft.
Background Information about Shipping by Air
If you need to ship your motorcycle by air, there are two ways of 'packing' the motorcycle - you can either stuff it into a can, or you can crate it. Putting it into a can is the most common way of shipping the motorcycle from Europe to North America and vice-versa. Crating is much less common, and crating brings a lot of other headaches with it... besides having to disassemble the moto, the wood used needs to meet a very exacting specification for quarantine reasons (to prevent unintentional importation of insects), and you have to pay to ship the weight of the crate as well as the weight of the moto.
Each summer, some airlines offer very attractive summer sale prices for trans-Atlantic shipping. An example is Air Canada's Fly Your Bike program, which is advertised here: Air Canada - Motorcycle Shipping. The price varies depending on origin and destination, but typically, it's about $1,500 Canadian dollars ($1,150 USD) one way.
Air Canada can offer these attractive prices during the summer months because the upper deck of the aircraft tends to be 100% full of people, thus pushing the aircraft close to its maximum permitted take-off weight, but the lower deck is relatively empty because cargo sales drop off in the summer. Hence the aircraft is nearly full so far as weight is concerned, but quite empty so far as available cargo volume is concerned. Airlines need to move the empty ULDs from one airport to another to prevent all the empties from piling up at one area. The LD6 (lower deck 6) ULD you see in the photos below has a capacity of 7,000 pounds. If the airline puts a 700 pound motorcycle into a ULD that they would otherwise have to ship empty, it's only 10% full from a weight point of view (virtually negligible in the context of an aircraft with a 400,000 pound take-off weight), so, whatever money they can get for shipping the motorcycle is a windfall to them.
The economics of shipping your moto to Europe to ride there are such that if you plan to be in Europe for 3 weeks or more, it's cheaper to ship your own moto over, rather than rent one. For less than 3 weeks, it's usually cheaper to rent a bike in Europe.
Loading the Motorcycle
In the old days (before Sept 11 2001), we would just ride the motorcycle around to the airside of the freight building, ride it into the freight building where there is a level transition between the ramp and the floor of the freight building, then ride it into the can.
Nowadays, with much tighter security procedures in place, it can be a challenge to get the motorcycle from the 'roadside' entrance to the freight building into the freight building, because the roadside entrance usually has a truck dock that is about 3 feet high. I've learned to just wait around until a truck with a lift on the back of it shows up, and offer the driver a $20 bill if they are willing to lift my moto up to the loading dock level with the lift on the back of the truck. I've never had to ask twice.
Once you have the moto up on the loading dock, you just ride it into the freight warehouse and put it in the can. There will be lots of tie-downs at the freight warehouse, you don't have to bring your own. You do need to bring something with you to protect your seat from abrasion when you put the tie-down over the seat. An old pillow or cushion works just great.
1) Ride it into the can, put the sidestand down (NOT the center stand!)
Not much more difficult than parallel parking.
2) Secure the front and back wheels with straps connected to tie-downs in the can.
3) Put one strap over the seat, and snug it down (same as on a ferry boat)
In the photo below, you can see that I used an empty heavy duty paper tube to protect the seat.
The strap attached to the left tip-over wing wasn't really necessary - but it made the freight agent feel happier, so I installed it.
You can see a copy of the DG form taped to the handlebar.
It was not necessary to protect the windshield with the yellow jacket- I just didn't want to carry the jacket onto the airplane with me, so I put it there.
4) Close up the flap on the can, and it's all ready to go into the aircraft.
Paperwork Involved
There's not much paperwork that needs to be done. A vehicle with an internal combustion engine is considered 'dangerous goods' by UN and IATA regulations, so you have to fill out a DG form. A motorcycle is classified as UN3166 (vehicle, flammable liquid powered), and has to be packed in accordance with packing instruction 900. This packing instruction says that the fuel tank has to be 1/4 full or less, and if there is no possibility of the battery tipping over (meaning, if the battery is installed on the vehicle where the manufacturer put it in the first place), you don't have to disconnect or remove the battery.
I've attached an image of a DG form that I completed for my motorcycle. It's pretty simple.
Make sure you don't put anything in the panniers that might be considered dangerous goods, such as camping stoves, camping fuel, aerosol cans, etc. Most airlines allow you to put motorcycle-related stuff in the panniers (clothing, helmets, tools) when you ship the bike.
5) Here's what the DG form looks like when completed:
By law, the cargo acceptance agent is not permitted to fill out this for for you. So, you either have to know how to fill it out, or you wind up paying an intermediary $100 to do it for you.
6) Some airlines want you to provide a pallet, tie the moto to the pallet, and they then forklift the pallet into the can.
This is totally unnecessary, but, just for the record, here's what a motorcycle pallet looks like.
Regards,
Michael
Background Information about Shipping by Air
If you need to ship your motorcycle by air, there are two ways of 'packing' the motorcycle - you can either stuff it into a can, or you can crate it. Putting it into a can is the most common way of shipping the motorcycle from Europe to North America and vice-versa. Crating is much less common, and crating brings a lot of other headaches with it... besides having to disassemble the moto, the wood used needs to meet a very exacting specification for quarantine reasons (to prevent unintentional importation of insects), and you have to pay to ship the weight of the crate as well as the weight of the moto.
Each summer, some airlines offer very attractive summer sale prices for trans-Atlantic shipping. An example is Air Canada's Fly Your Bike program, which is advertised here: Air Canada - Motorcycle Shipping. The price varies depending on origin and destination, but typically, it's about $1,500 Canadian dollars ($1,150 USD) one way.
Air Canada can offer these attractive prices during the summer months because the upper deck of the aircraft tends to be 100% full of people, thus pushing the aircraft close to its maximum permitted take-off weight, but the lower deck is relatively empty because cargo sales drop off in the summer. Hence the aircraft is nearly full so far as weight is concerned, but quite empty so far as available cargo volume is concerned. Airlines need to move the empty ULDs from one airport to another to prevent all the empties from piling up at one area. The LD6 (lower deck 6) ULD you see in the photos below has a capacity of 7,000 pounds. If the airline puts a 700 pound motorcycle into a ULD that they would otherwise have to ship empty, it's only 10% full from a weight point of view (virtually negligible in the context of an aircraft with a 400,000 pound take-off weight), so, whatever money they can get for shipping the motorcycle is a windfall to them.
The economics of shipping your moto to Europe to ride there are such that if you plan to be in Europe for 3 weeks or more, it's cheaper to ship your own moto over, rather than rent one. For less than 3 weeks, it's usually cheaper to rent a bike in Europe.
Loading the Motorcycle
In the old days (before Sept 11 2001), we would just ride the motorcycle around to the airside of the freight building, ride it into the freight building where there is a level transition between the ramp and the floor of the freight building, then ride it into the can.
Nowadays, with much tighter security procedures in place, it can be a challenge to get the motorcycle from the 'roadside' entrance to the freight building into the freight building, because the roadside entrance usually has a truck dock that is about 3 feet high. I've learned to just wait around until a truck with a lift on the back of it shows up, and offer the driver a $20 bill if they are willing to lift my moto up to the loading dock level with the lift on the back of the truck. I've never had to ask twice.
Once you have the moto up on the loading dock, you just ride it into the freight warehouse and put it in the can. There will be lots of tie-downs at the freight warehouse, you don't have to bring your own. You do need to bring something with you to protect your seat from abrasion when you put the tie-down over the seat. An old pillow or cushion works just great.
1) Ride it into the can, put the sidestand down (NOT the center stand!)
Not much more difficult than parallel parking.
2) Secure the front and back wheels with straps connected to tie-downs in the can.
3) Put one strap over the seat, and snug it down (same as on a ferry boat)
In the photo below, you can see that I used an empty heavy duty paper tube to protect the seat.
The strap attached to the left tip-over wing wasn't really necessary - but it made the freight agent feel happier, so I installed it.
You can see a copy of the DG form taped to the handlebar.
It was not necessary to protect the windshield with the yellow jacket- I just didn't want to carry the jacket onto the airplane with me, so I put it there.
4) Close up the flap on the can, and it's all ready to go into the aircraft.
Paperwork Involved
There's not much paperwork that needs to be done. A vehicle with an internal combustion engine is considered 'dangerous goods' by UN and IATA regulations, so you have to fill out a DG form. A motorcycle is classified as UN3166 (vehicle, flammable liquid powered), and has to be packed in accordance with packing instruction 900. This packing instruction says that the fuel tank has to be 1/4 full or less, and if there is no possibility of the battery tipping over (meaning, if the battery is installed on the vehicle where the manufacturer put it in the first place), you don't have to disconnect or remove the battery.
I've attached an image of a DG form that I completed for my motorcycle. It's pretty simple.
Make sure you don't put anything in the panniers that might be considered dangerous goods, such as camping stoves, camping fuel, aerosol cans, etc. Most airlines allow you to put motorcycle-related stuff in the panniers (clothing, helmets, tools) when you ship the bike.
5) Here's what the DG form looks like when completed:
By law, the cargo acceptance agent is not permitted to fill out this for for you. So, you either have to know how to fill it out, or you wind up paying an intermediary $100 to do it for you.
6) Some airlines want you to provide a pallet, tie the moto to the pallet, and they then forklift the pallet into the can.
This is totally unnecessary, but, just for the record, here's what a motorcycle pallet looks like.
Regards,
Michael
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