Getting a vehicle across an ocean is the easy part. Getting it registered and legally on the road at the other end is where people lose money, and in several countries a perfectly good British car simply cannot be imported at all. Check before you plan around it.
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A car is a straightforward thing to move. It either drives onto a vessel or it goes inside a container, and a few weeks later it comes off at the other end. Any freight company can arrange that.
What decides whether it was a good idea is the import regime at your destination, and those vary from mild to prohibitive. The United States will not admit a vehicle under twenty-five years old unless it meets American safety and emissions standards, which almost no British car does. Canada requires your exact model to be on an approved list, and most are not. The Emirates will not register right-hand drive at all. Singapore bans the import of anything over three years old.
So the first thing we do is not quote. It is check. If the answer is that your car cannot be registered where you are going, we will tell you that before you have spent anything.
Collected in the UK · Shipped · Delivered and cleared
Three questions, and a straight answer. This reflects the general position for a private import — your own circumstances can change it, which is why we confirm in writing before anything moves.
General guidance for a private import, not a ruling. Rules change, and concessions exist for returning residents, migrants, diplomats and collectors.
Cost, security and what else can travel with it are the trade-offs. We will price more than one and show you the difference.
Cheapest · running vehicles only
Your car is driven up the ramp of a purpose-built vessel and chained to the deck, the same way manufacturers move new stock. Usually the least expensive option and often the quickest, with frequent sailings. The vehicle must drive, and nothing may be left inside it — not a single box.
Two to four vehicles in a 40ft
Vehicles are secured on a racking frame so several travel in one container, and the cost is split. More protected than RoRo, available to destinations RoRo does not serve, and personal effects can travel with the car where customs allow it.
Your vehicle alone, or with your household
The most secure option, and the obvious one if you are already shipping a home. A car loaded into the same 40ft as your furniture usually costs far less than shipping it separately, because you have already bought the space.
Classics, competition and high value
Collection by covered transporter rather than driven, and a purpose-built timber crate inside the container. The right answer for anything irreplaceable, and the only one we will recommend for a car that has been restored.
Days rather than weeks
Genuinely available and genuinely expensive. Reserved for competition cars against an event date and for vehicles whose value makes the freight cost immaterial. Ask and we will price it, but we will also show you the sea figure.
Saloons, hatchbacks, estates
The bulk of what we move, usually alongside a household shipment. The question is rarely whether it will fit and almost always whether it can be registered when it lands.
Enclosed transport, crated
Often the easiest cars to import, because most countries relax their rules once a vehicle passes twenty-five years. Collected by covered transporter and crated inside the container.
Crated, shared container
Drained of fuel, battery disconnected, and crated to export standard. Several bikes share a container, which keeps the cost proportionate to what is a relatively small item.
RoRo, or a high cube container
Height is the constraint. Anything over about 2.6 metres will not go in a standard container, so most travel RoRo. Tell us the exact height, length and weight early.
Popular, and heavily inspected
The most common vehicle we ship to Australia, New Zealand and Africa, and the one quarantine officers look at hardest. Every trace of mud must be gone, including the chassis and the wheel arches.
Restricted, and getting stricter
Lithium batteries are dangerous goods at sea. Many carriers cap the state of charge, some refuse EVs on certain vessels, and charging standards differ at destination. Tell us at the outset, not at the port.
Most of this is straightforward and all of it matters. A car that fails a quarantine inspection is cleaned at your cost, at the port, on their timetable.
Your UK motor policy will not cover a vehicle on a ship. Marine cover is separate, and worth understanding before you choose it.
We arrange cover through specialist marine brokers rather than selling you a box to tick. These are the points that decide whether a claim pays out.
We will set out what is covered, what is excluded and what it costs in writing, and we are happy for you to arrange cover elsewhere if you prefer.
Route first, then method, then the size of the vehicle. RoRo to a well-served port is the cheapest; a crated classic in a sole-use container to an inland address is many times that. If you are already shipping a household, adding the car to that container is usually far cheaper than sending it separately, and that is the first thing we will check.
Often, honestly, no. Between the freight, the import duty, the compliance work and the local registration, you can end up paying more than the car is worth and more than an equivalent vehicle costs locally. Where that is true we will say so. It is a different calculation entirely for a classic, something rare, or a car you are attached to.
Not on RoRo — the vehicle must be completely empty, and terminals do check. In a container, often yes, but everything must be declared on the inventory and some countries prohibit it outright. Undeclared goods found in a car are the fastest way to turn a routine clearance into an examination.
Three to twelve weeks door to door depending on the route, plus whatever the approvals take at your end. Australia in particular requires import approval before the vehicle can be loaded, and that is measured in weeks. Start earlier than you think you need to.
You keep the registration number only if you retain it on a certificate before exporting, which has to be done while the vehicle is still UK-registered. Tax and insurance run until the car leaves, then you notify the DVLA using the export section of the V5C and any remaining tax is refunded.
Yes, in a container — it is winched in rather than driven. RoRo is not an option for a non-runner. Restoration projects, accident-damaged vehicles and barn finds all travel regularly, and they need crating and careful securing rather than anything exotic.
Considerably. The battery is classified as dangerous goods, carriers set a maximum state of charge, some vessels will not take EVs at all, and a few destinations restrict them. It is all workable, but only if we know at the quotation stage rather than on collection day.
Regularly. Bikes are drained, the battery disconnected, and each one crated to export standard before sharing a container with others going the same way. It is one of the more economical things we ship, and a common first enquiry from people who are not moving house at all.
Make, model and year is enough to start. We will confirm whether it can be imported before we quote to ship it.