Importing a Motorcycle into Cambodia - part two

I received an email on January 5 asking me to call in to SDV and sign some forms. On Friday, January 9,
I called into SDV only to be asked to "come back tomorrow please."
On Saturday, January 10 I returned in the morning and signed a small mountain of forms.
I also received the first “account payable” invoice. This invoice was for a total of $1578.65US. This was made up of 20 odd separate charges but can basically be broken into 3 main categories:

(1) Freight from Brisbane to Phnom Penh: 3.882 cubic metres x $135/cbm = $524.07

(2) Port/Wharf costs in Australia, ……………………………………………..$456.95

(3) Port/Wharf costs in Cambodia and trucking to dry port in Phnom Penh ….$597.65
Total to date ……$1578.67

The bike was now in Phnom Penh. I returned at lunchtime on the Monday and paid the account in full.

All that was now left to pay was the tax/duty, plus of course, the on road costs at a later date.
It was always my plan to have the bike 100% legal on the roads of Cambodia.

One week later I received a phone call from SDV telling me my bike was in their warehouse ready to be delivered. All I needed to do was pay the duty.

The amount required was a further $1214.82.
This comprised duty on the Harley $978.75.
Duty on spare parts included in the crate $107.66.
The Tec Srun Dry Port in Phnom Penh fee of $25.87.

The overall total I had to pay was $2793.49.
This included everything to get the bike from a bike shop in Brisbane, Australia, to Bernard at The Bike Shop on Street 302, Phnom Penh.

The one sour note came a few weeks after delivery of the Harley.
I had ordered a set of forward controls for my little Sportster Hugger. As these parts were out of stock in Australia, the dealer in Australia ordered the parts from the USA and had them delivered directly to Cambodia.

The package which weighed around 8 kilograms and cost me around $400 eventually arrived in Phnom Penh.
Customs were asking for over $650 to release the package. I informed customs I had no plans to ever pay them this money and they could do whatever they wanted with this package.

Importing a Motorcycle into Cambodia - part one

Murray Heath owns and operates Big Bike Tours Cambodia - BBTC (Formerly known as Harley Tours Cambodia)

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