Bike Club Carnet

We’re contemplating a club outing to the alps next year – x bikes in a transit, people on the train / plane.

We’re told we may need a carnet to aid smooth passage of the bicycles without their owners…

Anybody done this and got any good resources for how to do it? All I’ve found is more about companies rather than clubs…

Anybody just winged it with a bunch of bikes in a transit?

My group do exactly that trip. As I understand it, they prepare a very detailed carnet for the van.

Carnets are a **** peice of pooh.  Remember what goes out on the Carnet must come back otherwise you’ll get pinged for import duties and various other annoynaces.

You can be realtively vague – i.e. red specialized bike, you don’t even need a serial number unless they force you.  It’s only needed for commercial vehicles, if you can put 50000 bikes on your car roof like the tour does you can get away with it.  Allow extra time for customs checks as the Carnet will need stamping in and out both ends.  DONT LOSE IT!  If in doubt your local chambers of commerce can assit.

You can be realtively vague – i.e. red specialized bike, you don’t even need a serial number unless they force you

IIRC from prepping them for work, they need enough to be identifiable, which generally meant serial numbers.

Depends if you get chosen for a more detailed check as to whether it matters or not.  I know one client only sent the first page to the shipping company doing the carnet which must have been hundreds of items long, tens to a hundred grand of kit, for a job in Thailand.  Somehow they managed to get it there and across several other borders in SE asia without having to open more than the first few boxes.

If it’s needed, do it properly otherwise you’ll potentially end up paying VAT and duty on all the stuff you already own.

I certainly wouldn’t wing it.  There was a Welsh charity bike ride that got a van full of bikes impounded by the Spanish authorities iirc.

This was the original story

BBC News – Welsh charity cyclists in Spain get £7k bike customs charge

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62799594

I’m pretty sure there was a follow up and it was to do with carnets/paperwork.   Basically van + big load of bikes was a red flag.

I know with people taking regatta trailers (multiple racing dinghies) to Europe there’s been some advice about ownership paperwork and also letters of authority to bringing friends boats etc while they flew.

Spares in retail packaging also were a red flag (the top sailors often carry spare major components if they’re not easy to source at the event).

We sat next to a club group going out of Santander who were clearly having a long, deep conversation with Spanish border officers and offloading a dozen or so bikes between driver and pal. There were many heated phone conversations going on about paperwork/carnet and they didn’t get on the ferry…

This is another Brexit bonus, isn’t it? Saw some reportage in the context of touring musicians a while back.