We're now deep into the territory of get the vehicle papers sorted and it is proving to be rather stressful.  Applying for the Carnet is the easy bit - remaining legal and sorting yourself out with the DVLA is a completely different story.  Here's how its unfolded so far:

 

What is a Carnet?

Definition: "Carnet" aka "Carnet de Passage" aka "Carnet de Passage en Douane"

A Carnet de Passage (fully recognized as a Carnet de Passage en Douane and literally translated into "notebook for passing through customs") is an internationally recognised document that covers the temporary admission of a foreign registered vehicle into a country.

It is essentially a guarantee to foreign countries that you will not be permanently importing your vehicle and therefore are exempt from any import/export taxes or fees that may be applied otherwise. The document guarantees that if, for any reason, the vehicle fails to be re-exported following a temporary stay within a foreign country, the issuing motoring club i.e. the RAC will pay duties liable for payment. The RAC, in return for the Carnet de Passage en Douane book requires, from the vehicle owner, a security to cover the value of these duties in the form of a bank guarantee, insurance indemnity or full cash deposit, which is calculated according to the vehicle value and countries/region of visit if required.  The RAC is the only issuer of this document in UK. This document cannot be purchased anywhere other than the country of the vehicle registration.

A great contact for Carnet requirements is Paul Gowen of the RAC - he's a mine of information and one of the good people.  Here's a link to the RAC website for even more information on the Carnet.

 

What is a Guarantee?

So on to the money bits.  In return for a carnet, the owner of the vehicle must provide to the RAC a guarantee of a sum of money that is calculated on (a) the value of the vehicle without mods ie its base value and (b) the amount of duty required by the different countries you are visiting.  At the moment most African countries in the East are asking for 150% of the value.  So an example (and I'm trying to keep it simple) is £10 000 car value, £15 000 duties.  The exception by a l-o-n-g way is Egypt who are asking for 800% so in the same example £10 000 car value, £80 000 duties.  YES, £80 000!!!!  So if you dump your vehicle there and don't take it out ie you don't have your carnet stamped out of the country, the RAC has to pay Egypt that money. sigh. 'Course if your vehicle is valued any more than this, it becomes funny money.

To provide this guarantee to the RAC, you can either provide a cash deposit (yeah riiiggghhhtt), a bank guarantee or buy an insurance policy to cover this amount.  I have listed them in order from cheapest to most expensive that I have calculated on today's rates that I have to hand.

I have gone to our bank (Natwest) and have requested a bank guarantee which they can do for you a number of ways

(a) unsecured - but in this day and age, that isn't very realistic seeing that you are leaving the country for this time period

(b) cash - you deposit the cash in a fixed account for the time period that you require the carnet.  You still get interest on the money.

(c) property equity

(d) Life Insurance policy

There is a cost to the guarantee (of course!).  There is a one-off arrangement fee that comes in at around £300 to put this arrangement in place, then the cost of the guarantee is paid at approx 2% of the value of the guarantee quarterly in advance.  Remember you need to re-check this for the current rate for you at your bank. So in total in this example for a 1 year guarantee it costs £300 + £1600 (2% of £80 000) = £1900

The insurance costs you 10% of the total duty liable ie in this example £8 000 and then you get up to 50% back on your return if you don't use the policy.  Again, you need to check this with the insurance company.  But in my calculations this is a cost of £4 000 plus the interest you lose whilst they keep your money for a year.

 

What we've done

Now that I have bored you to tears with the money, here's what we've managed to arrange with our bank.   They, I must say, have been incredibly accommodating (I know!!! unreal isn't it??) and with the help of Paul from the RAC (didn't I say he was grand) we have come up with this plan.  We're taking out 1 guarantee but split into 2 with 2 end dates.  The first for the value of the duties to covers us till Egypt and once we exit Egypt and prove to RAC that we have done so (ie fax/email them a copy of our carnet stamped out of Egypt and into Sudan), the RAC will release the first guarantee and will notify our bank who will then release my security to that amount.  Then for the balance of the trip we pay the arrangement fee (remember 2% of the duty value paid quarterly in advance).  So, a MUCH cheaper option even and I am thrilled that we have been able to sort this out.  As I said on our home page, a load of people are due our never-ending thanks and gratitude.

 

DVLA

This is the fun bit - not!  What do you do about your vehicle whilst you are away.  Well, we are kicking the tyres off our sedan, filling the engine block with oil and declaring a SORN for the vehicle.  BUT... even this has a catch.  If you're going away for more than 1 year (and chances are, we're going to), you have to renew the SORN each year.  Now this can be done over the internet but what happens if you have no internet access for the month of renewal?  What do you do? 

What about road Tax?  Well this is a UK road tax and is only required for the vehicle to be used on UK roads so you don't need it for anywhere outside UK.

 If you go to the HUBB ie Horizons Unlimited (NB: This is a great website) and read these entries, you will note that as close as December 2008, a chap called David S Evans was quoted several times as responding to those queries, that all you need to do is send a letter to the DVLA to remain on file for all vehicles for the duration of your trip..  This will notify the DVLA of your intentions and will prevent any fines or unsolicited nagging mail.

I sent the letter.                       (click on Ollie to read it if you are still awake)

Only to be told in their response that I had mis-interpreted Mr Evans' responses and that I had to continue to pay my vehicle tax in order to keep my vehicle registered in the UK but that if we were going to be away for longer than a year, we had to go one step further and declare the vehicle as permanently exported.  NO!  Doing this means that your vehicle is no longer registered in the UK so therefore potentially legally invalidates the carnet. And I can't renew my road tax (why should I anyway??) whilst out of UK as I need the car to be MOT'ed and where do I get that done?  Several people later...... and they are saying the same thing although with an additional bit of a twist this time. Officially I must export the vehicle but "off the record", I've been recommended to SORN Sully.  When I said that I wanted to remain legal and that this was having to twist the truth somewhat, I was told that the DVLA would never find out.  The chap I spoke to (yes I have his name!) said that the law was incorrect and need a legislation change which would take at least a year so I was forced to do something contravening our law.

However, under the terms of the Geneva Convention that governs the Carnet, this must be adhered to even to the point of not having to comply with local laws if the rules are in conflict.  So my only option is to SORN Sully and deal with the issues of MOT, licensing and possible DVLA fallout when we get back.  We have a little time to think about it!