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| Bernd from Dietrich shipping in Kuala Lumpur personally oversaw the shipping... when is the last time you've ever seen the owner of a shipping company being there on the floor to ensure everything goes perfect? Super service! |
Shipping in this part of the world can be a very time consuming process. For some unexplainable reason to me most operators don't even reply to the e-mails we send asking if they could ship two bikes for us. At the same time we had become used to it by now. From two Australians who went just before us, we heard about Dietrich Shipping. We send them an e-mail and Bernd replied promptly and to the point... I looked at the e-mail and said to Mike 'Wow, have look at this, not only does he reply, he has even read my e-mail and answered the questions I had!' I know this may seem somewhat sarcastic but up until that point we had, if any, only received standard replies.
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As Bernd was there personally we could simply ride the bikes over
the actual airport to the terminal... how good is that?
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Bernd is a motorcyclist, he rides an Aprilia Dorsoduro, which is always good as it means we're talking to someone who understand what needs to be done to ship a bike safely. Bernd said straight away that as we had two bikes, the best option would be to get a 20ft container for ourselves. This meant we didn't have to built crates or strip the bikes, just ride them in and strap them to the lashing eyes. We had already done so when we were in Costa Rica, see
here, so knew that would work fine. We put a message on Facebook to see if anyone else would be interested in shipping with us as that would lower the costs but didn't find anyone going, around the same time we were.
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| Yamaha being wrapped in cling foil. Luggage, bike jackets and clothing could all be left on the bike. |
The shipping quote for the 20ft container had already been good. But then Bernd suggested something else... 'you could try MASKargo and see if you can get a better deal there'. So here was a shipping agent who had already come up with a good price, now suggesting to try another company to see if that would work better for us...! I knew what the going rate was at MASKargo but had found them very unhelpful. In short they had not replied to any e-mail we had send them. Friends of ours had found the same thing. This not replying at all has cost them the shipping of at least 3 bikes in just one week.
In the end I'm glad they hadn't replied as we had been given an e-mail from someone who had just send his bike with MASKargo and paid a much higher kg rate than Dietrich offered us! Dietrich airfreights a lot via MASKargo and thus gets a better price. As Bernd likes to help fellow motorcyclists he passed that much lower rate on to us...! Now it started to become really interesting! But then things got even better... Bernd and his manager would meet us at the airport(!) and took care of everything. All we had to do was be there and ride the bikes to the various inspection points and disconnect the batteries.
The bikes were being glad-wrapped to protect them, no need for crates for this shipment and we didn't have to remove anything either as it was a direct flight. We weren't the only ones shipping bikes. Our bikes were in the same MASKargo warehouse as the MotoGP bikes we had seen just days earlier at the Sepang circuit (see our post on that
here). We could also see the actual weight of our bikes for the first time on accurate scales: 263 kg for the Yamaha and 305 kg for the Bonneville, which means both bikes are within factory limits, just. It was a long but easy process at the terminal, mostly waiting for the various customs and safety officials to arrive. Bernd took us for breakfast while we were waiting.
With Indonesia pricing itself completely out of the market both on the Sumatra and Java/Bali side, plus the horrible and expensive experiences suffered by many on the Dili-Darwin shipments, Kuala Lumpur to Australia is quickly becoming a popular route for motorcyclists. Kuala Lumpur airport is a good place to ship from, Dietrich shipping a very good agent to have on your side, the Formula One Bed and Breakfast is nearby (see next post), which is a good place to stay and they allowed us to clean our bikes on their premises (please keep this reasonable and clean up after yourself so that others can use this option in the future too) and with a little bit of luck there is something going on at the Sepang circuit too.
Please don't ask me for rates as these can change quickly. The only thing I can say is that Bernd offered us a much better rate than MASKargo did, while they go on the same plane and Bernd takes care of everything! For pricing contact Bernd at: Dietrich Logistics Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. Email :
BerndP@dietrich-logistic.com www.dietrich-logistic.com He prefers contact via e-mail
Shipping in this part of the world can be a very time consuming process. For some unexplainable reason to me most operators don't even reply to the e-mails we send asking if they could ship two bikes for us. At the same time we had become used to it by now. From two Australians who went just before us, we heard about Dietrich Shipping. We send them an e-mail and Bernd replied promptly and to the point... I looked at the e-mail and said to Mike 'Wow, have look at this, not only does he reply, he has even read my e-mail and answered the questions I had!' I know this may seem somewhat sarcastic but up until that point we had, if any, only received standard replies.
