Bordering on carnage
BREXIT Costly customs carnet confusion
‘The carnet for your bike could cost £250-£350’
Owners who take their machines into Europe will require a carnet in certain circumstances now that Britain has left the EU. Free movement of goods previously meant that people who took bikes to Europe not under their own power (i.e. on a trailer or in the back of a van) could do so without any paperwork. Now that arrangement has changed, some owners will need to get a carnet to prove they are not intending to sell the bike on the continent.
A carnet is a legal document that lists the value of goods you take into another country. An ATA carnet allows you to temporarily import goods for up to 12 months without incurring any duty. Costs for the carnet vary between £200-£350. On top of the carnet itself, you must either hand over 40% of the value of the items on the carnet as collateral or buy insurance to cover the 40% figure. The idea being if you return home without the items on the carnet, you forfeit the deposit. So who needs to get one? Official advice given by the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC), who have partnered with the ACU and Motorsport UK to provide discounted carnets, says that in very simple terms road-legal bikes (so that’s numberplate, V5, tax, MoT, insurance and green card) transported by the owner do not need a carnet while non road-legal bikes (such as track bikes or motocross bikes without numberplates or V5s) will need the document. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that confusion at the ports means that some customs officers are asking to see carnets for road-legal vehicles. If you turn up at the port without a carnet and the customs officers think you should have one and you can’t convince them otherwise, they have the right to turn you away, which could end your trip on the spot. GBCC are recommending that before you take a trip to Europe, you should give them a call (0121 725 8996) and they will advise if you need a carnet. But what about bike transports? Kevin Healy runs Focused Events, who transport hundreds of bikes to
Almeria, Spain, each year for sunbaked trackday action.
“As soon as you hand over your bike to someone else to transport, even if it’s road-legal, it becomes goods and requires a carnet,” says Healy. “But it also becomes much simpler. We only need one carnet for all the bikes we transport, which means the cost to the individual could be as little as £40 and there’s no paperwork for you to fill out. We can also obtain vouchers for people who want to leave their bikes with us at the circuit.”
And what about those of us who just ride over? That’s simple: you don’t need a carnet. Just a green card from your insurance firm to prove you’re covered.