We’ve missed our annual cycling work trip to Belgium for a couple of Covid years. The arrangement in the past has been I take the bikes and luggage in my van and get diesel money from the gang. Easy.

But presumably that’s not going to be the case next time due to bastarding Brexit. What’s the process now for transpoing a load of sports gear and undies in and out of Europe?

Why would you not be able to take them?

My assumption, (and it’s nothing more than this) is one bloke in a van with 8 or 9 bikes will look like some kind of export process, which would need paperwork, or some kind of form for booking them over and back across the border.

Be great if I’m wrong.

Presumably a van load of bikes may raise eyebrows when driven through the “nothing to declare” lane.

Edit:ah, too slow. Yes, that’s my thoughts as well.

You might perhaps need to show proof of purchase, but plenty of people are travelling to Europe with vans full of bikes – a mate, his family and his cycling group are out there now.

I’d be entirely relaxed if I was in a vehicle with one bike per passenger, or something close to that ratio but that’s not the case here.

I could probably get a bunch of reciepts, but that’ll just prove they aren’t new. Would the possibility of trading second hand goods not get me tugged?

Maybe get some copies of your mates flight tickets so you can show they’re going to the same place if you get asked any questions.

Don’t think I’d have given it much thought really, probably would have then got pulled….

Ive just driven my van with 7 bikes to Les gets. It was just me and one if my daughters in the van. No oroblem what so ever.

Ian

Just do it before Truss becomes PM

I got stopped at the Swiss border for this.
Convoy of us heading out to do a corporate guiding thing. Two small support vans, a minibus (empty cos we hadn’t picked the clients up by that point) and a Sprinter containing all the guides bikes plus about 6 bikes from the London contingent of the clients (they’d flown out to Geneva, we took their bikes). We were then meeting the Swiss and London contingent of the clients together.

Took a LOT of persuading that I was driving for a guiding company and not simply transporting stolen goods. I was on my own in the van, no receipts for any of the stuff, I didn’t even know the makes/models of the bikes.

We’d got spilt up going through the border as well so the other guides driving the other vehicles weren’t aware of any issues.

Took me 40 mins to get through as they finally accepted my explanation for driving a van with about £100,000 of bikes in the back! Next time, I’ll be taking some sort of signed contracts from the clients along with an itemised list of the bikes!

Unless they are brand new boxed bikes then proof of purchase won’t be needed. Proof of journey might be though so take details of all the riders, work details and the trip details so if anyone does stop you and query things, they can do some checks.
Aware you are basing all this on assumption – my assumption is that it would be fine but take evidence to corroborate your answers.

I drove solo to Finale with five bikes.
Newcastle to Amsterdam, then Dunkirk to Dover. Late May, early June.
No hassle whatsoever on that front.
Two were mine, three for mates who were flying.
They had an easier trip, but I had lunch with another friend in Arnhem and then got to ride in the Alps 🤷‍♂️

Thanks for your experiences everyone. It’s the range of feedback from breninbeer and andrewh at one end then crazy-legs at the other, (thought that’s Switzerland I suppose) that concerns me a bit.

If I manage to find out anything official, I’ll feed-back.

Switzerland: Option B could be pick a smaller and quieter border crossing. Our local German / Swiss one rarely has any patrols and is most used as a tax refund spot for Swiss shopping in Germany.

Have to say, it was just that one border crossing. We travelled UK – France – Switzerland and then did a tour that went through Italy and Austria and then back into Switzerland.

None of the other crossings had any issues at all. Doing Switzerland – France on the way home, straight through.

No hassle whatsoever on that front.
Two were mine, three for mates who were flying.

What constitutes no hassle?

Did no one look in your van as you went through? If so you could have had all sorts of ‘fun’ in there and got away with it!

Did someone look in your van and then wave you through without issue or further questions?

Examples of the former are what I’d imagine most people will experience but are largely irrelevant. Examples of the latter are more comforting.

https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/business/customs-procedures-import-and-export/what-importation/specific-use_en

What constitutes no hassle?

Did no one look in your van as you went through? If so you could have had all sorts of ‘fun’ in there and got away with it!

I meant no issues with being one person with lots of bikes.
Van was checked, briefly, at Newcastle. Quick glance, opena couple of tool boxes. Covid certificate was checked
Van checked very briefly at Amsterdam and I was breathalised.
Dunkirk was a pain as they checked much more thoroughly, had to take loads of stuff out and took ages, but no questions about why I had five bikes.
Dover was easy, quick look in the van, quick chat about where I had been.
I think they check most vans.
Also a thermal camera scanning the van before going into the Frejus tunnel between Italy and France, not seen that before but I’ve not been through since the Mont Blanc tunnel fire. No other checks.
So French customs can be a pain in the bottom but nothing to do with the number of bikes.

⬆ Oh right, well that is positive and sound like it’s hardly a unique proposition!

Also, thanks Greybeard, I did some research at lunch time and found the UK version of that webpage, but I interpreted it as a process for businesses not individuals. Also, it costs 300 quid!

Managed to find this page then, which is aimed at personal goods. I think, (again this is my quick understanding without really concentrating) officially I’d have to go through goods to declare red channel, but as goods for sports purposes and personal effects are listed on a linked list of applicable goods there should be no charges.

It was so much easier when I all had to do was lie about the fact I’d packed all the bags myself!