This guide is packed with information on shipping your motorcycle to and from South Korea by sea and air freight. And it also explains how to ferry your motorcycle or car from Russia to South Korea.
Contents
Shipping your motorcycle out of South Korea
Welcome to the South Korea Shipping and Ferry Guide. The aim of this guide is to provide you with information on shipping your motorcycle, car or overland vehicle in and out of South Korea by air and sea as well as a ferry service from Vladivostok. The guide is also filled with links to more in-depth articles on customs, ferry services and paperwork.
RUSSIA TO SOUTH KOREA FERRY
How to get the ferry from Vladivostok, Russia to Busan, South Korea
DuWon Ferry has started to accept all passengers on a service between Russia and South Korea. You can now also take your motorcycle or car on this ferry. This information has been updated on 06.09.2022.
You will need to sort customs in Vladivostok before sailing. We recommend contacting Yuri from Links Ltd. And you will also need to arrange customs and entry in South Korea. You can find Mr Youn’s details here.
How to book the ferry from Russia to South Korea
Customers can now book directly with Duwon Shipping. Previously, only freight forwarders could use Duwon as they only worked with bulk and containers. But you can now find passenger and vehicle prices and book your tickets directly on their website: dwship.co.kr
The ferry from Vladivostok, Russia to Japan
DBS Ferries used to run between Vladivostok, Japan and South Korea and were the main carrier. Unfortunately, the company has suspended all sailing, making getting from Russia to Japan difficult.
The Duwon ferry only sails from Russia to South Korea, but we expect it to also include a Japan sailing in future.
- For more information visit the How to Get the Ferry from Japan to South Korea Guide
- For more information on the customs agent in Vladivostok visit the DBS Ferries How to Get the Ferry from Russia to Japan Guide.
Doing it that way, you will have entered Japan by ferry, and so long as you exit by ferry back to South Korea, you can avoid using a Carnet de Passage for Japan and instead enter with a Temporary Import.
- For more information visit the Carnet vs Temporary Import Guide for Japan.
- For more information on paperwork visit Japan Paperwork Guide for Motorcycle Travellers.
Motorcycle paperwork in South Korea
Once you land in South Korea, you will need to take out insurance, get a guarantee (known as a Warranty Fee in South Korea) for your vehicle and a temporary import/export document.
Expect to pay 184,000 Won for one month of motorcycle insurance and 160,000 Won for the guarantee (which lasts the same amount of time as your insurance).
The Japan to South Korea Ferry Guide has tables displaying the cost of Guarantees for both cars and bikes and more detailed information on the paperwork involved.
You will need your passport, vehicle registration document, International Driver’s Permit and driver’s licence.
COVID-19: The current situation in South Korea is that you must self-isolate in a hotel as soon as you arrive. You must also install an application on your phone so the Korean government can monitor your movements.
SHIPPING TO AND FROM SOUTH KOREA
How to ship your vehicle to or from South Korea
Your car or motorcycle can be shipped from South Korea to nearly anywhere in the world by ro-ro, ship container, carrier or by airplane. The most common destinations to and from South Korea are: Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, Vancouver, Chile, Argentina and Colombia.
To get a shipping quote, Mr Youn will need the dimensions of your car or bike, the destination, your nationality and when you want to ship. A personal quote can then be issued to you via email. Whether you are shipping in or out, importing or exporting, Mr Youn’s services include helping with customs clearance.
Shipping a motorcycle via sea or air
Consider that port fees can be expensive when shipping by boat, but the initial cost of flying is more expensive.
Remember, when shipping via boat the crate cost is based on volume. When shipping via airplane, the crate cost is based on weight.
Book your shipment in advance and before arriving in South Korea. It will make customs run far more smoothly as you can prove how you will be exiting the country. This is important for customs.
Your agent can only handle the costs involved in South Korea and isn’t responsible for fees at the other end.
- For more information on the differences between air and sea freight and top tips check out The Ultimate International Motorcycle Shipping Guide
Crating your motorcycle in South Korea
The only tricky part is making sure your insurance, guarantee and temporary import are in effect until the crating date. Once your vehicle is crated, it will be taken to a custom bonded warehouse ready to be placed on the ship. Once it’s in the customs bonded warehouse, then it doesn’t matter if your insurance and temporary import expires (within reason of course).
If you are crating up a motorcycle:
- Disconnect the battery
- Drain most of the fuel (I usually leave one litre in the tank)
- Get your bike as small as possible.
In South Korea, the guys at the crating yard will pack your crate up for you. The price is usually included. You roll up, disconnect the battery, take what you want off the bike and then leave them to it. You will need to give them the Yellow sticker you received from customs and the paperwork. Get in touch with your agent to confirm all is well before leaving.
SOUTH KOREA SHIPPING AGENT
Assured Sea and Air with Mr Youn
Assured Sea and Air is a South Korean freight forwarder run by the very helpful Mr Youn. His company handles commercial cargo and help with importing and exporting cargo like motorcycles, cars, trucks and overlander vehicles.
Mr. Youn specialises in helping motorcycle travellers and overlanders transport their vehicles to and from South Korea and has been in this field since 2014.
His services are on our Recommended International Motorcycle Shipping Companies Finder page below.
Website: www.assured.co.kr
Email: uhy@assured.co.kr
WhatsApp: +821024742658
Note: At the Busan International Ferry Terminal, you can buy a prepaid South Korea SIM card for 60.000 Won for 20 days. This will make getting in touch with Mr Youn easier once you land.
Read more on Motorcycle Travel in South Korea and Japan
Thanks for checking out South Korea Motorcycle Shipping and Ferry Guide. We hope it helped. Here’s a few more articles on Motorcycle Shipping that we recommend you read next.
“insurance, guarantee and temporary import are in effect until the crating date ”
Here our experience differs (June 2023) due to a lack of reactivity by our shipper (despite the 10 weeks of discussion)-
Our shipping date was extended to the ‘next ship’ due to ‘availability’. We were required to extend our Insurance and TIP for the minimum 15days possible to cover the time the motorcycle was in country/not on the ship- even as our packing date was 3 days before insurance was expired (12 days before shipping)
Hi Chris,
Ah, that must have been very frustrating for you. Who was your shipper?
However, in the article it states: “The only tricky part is making sure your insurance, guarantee and temporary import are in effect until the crating date. Once your vehicle is crated, it will be taken to a custom bonded warehouse ready to be placed on the ship. Once it’s in the customs bonded warehouse, then it doesn’t matter if your insurance and temporary import expires (within reason of course).”
So are you saying you had your bike crated up, it was taken to a bonded warehouse and then you still had to reinsure and extend the TIP?
Cheers,
Andy
So, are you saying
Exactly. Crating before insurance/TIP expired. Still needed to pay for extension until container was loaded onboard the ship. The indult was minimum extension was 15 days. Fun!
Crated AND taken to a custom bonded warehouse? That’s incredibly strange – once taken to a bonded warehouse it shouldn’t need TIP/insurance. Either way, that must have been very annoying and difficult for you. Glad you got it sorted now though!
To clarify, the shipper required me to extend the TIP because the motorcycles would not exit before the end of the TIP date.
The Customs staff required that I extend the Insurance, fully understanding that the packing would occur BEFORE the expiration date of the insurance. They insisted that the insurance must cover the period ‘in country’ even if we were NOT driving the motorcycles as they were -in fact- packed in the container in the yard. No successful arguments to dissuade them.
All these arrangements and payments happened before packing the container – once packed we walked away so who knows what happened to the container after I put the seal on it.
Maybe it’s important to clarify the shipping situation post COVID- and how it is much more complicated in these early days of return to travel.
From our shared experience from Russia to Japan to Korea to elsewhere, it’s clear that things have changed over the last 3 years.
The break in continued transport services from all the lock-downs, the diminished travel and tourism affecting the quantity and availability of available modes of shipping have made the hurdles of motorcycle shipping regress to the olden days.
In 2019, before we decided to overwinter the bikes in Japan, we were in contact with Wendy Choi (like everyone else) who provided us an air shipping quotation to Vancouver for our two small bikes (advantage small bike) about 2000 USD each.
In the spring of 2023, after Japan finally let us back into the country to recover the motorcycles, we reconnected with Wendy Choi for another quotation to Vancouver. She is still in business in a new address so has survived COVID for better or worse. The estimated price in 2023 now was raised to slightly more than 7000 USD per motorcycle. She explained to us that COVID had changed the number and availability of planes, affected the amount of cargo being moved thus changed the price per kilogram and ultimately because of COVID probably the shipping systems and processes were changed (or at the very least atrophied from lack of use). Clearly she had a hard time connecting with her previous suppliers because it took a long time to get this information to us.
Well with this shocking information we decided to go to sea shipping route. In 2023 we contacted no less than 8 different shipping agencies that we have good sources of contact, and ultimately we only received one response.
The downside of sea shipping, as you understand well, is the transport time and the extra cost associated with recovery and customs clearance at the other side.
This additional time and expense to get us to Canada and then eventually to find transport from Canada back to Europe was just too big a problem, just too stressful for us, it is just not worth it and so we ship directly from Korea to Europe; we have lots of other plans to realize.
Coincidentally on the latest podcast from Adventure Rider Radio, the guest speakers made note of this additional complexity post COVID transport from their south -american perspective.
Hi Chris,
Thank you very much for posting this invaluable comment. I’m sure other travellers will find this information very useful.
Thank you,
Andy