Shipping for Cars
Shipping your car in a container provides a reliable, secure, and cost-effective service that meets your requirements. Container shipping offers you a wider choice of destinations and allows for secure transshipment. If you have personal possessions that are to be shipped with your vehicle, container shipping may offer a more secure service.
Although generally, RORO is cheaper than Container shipping, container shipping can add flexibility and can match or beat RORO prices where more than one vehicle is being shipped.
With container shipping, there is the requirement to “stuff” the container and the costs of haulage to and from the port.
Container shipping is not available for all vehicles, the maximum door height for a 20″ and 40″ HQ are 2.27m and 2.58m respectively, which quite often means that motor homes, expedition trucks, and vehicles with large roof loads may not fit in standard containers.
Standard containers come in three sizes; 20′,40’and 45′ in length. While a 20′ container is suitable for the shipment of one car or 4×4, the 40′ and 45’ containers provide sufficient space for three or four average-sized vehicles so may be more cost-effective if you have more than one vehicle to ship.
Loading a Car for Container Shipping
Great care is taken to safely load your car so that it remains well secured for the duration of shipment to destination and does not move within the container either while at sea or being loaded and unloaded from the ship.
At the loading facility, your car is driven into the container and carefully positioned before all four wheels are safely chocked. Ratchet straps are then used to lash the wheels to secure eyelets within the container to ensure your car cannot move during transit.
Sometimes the vehicle’s front, and rear towing eyelets can be used to lash your car securely in the container.
All car shipping containers must comply with strict safety regulations confirming both their structural integrity and that they are deemed wind and watertight. These stringent requirements ensure that when loaded into a container, your car will remain safe and protected from the elements.
- Stuffing – The container will normally be loaded at a warehouse outside of the port. Anything loaded into the container will be lashed down and secured, whether it’s a car, 4×4, camper van or motorcycle.
- Customs Clearance – Depending on the port and method of export (TIP, Carnet etc.) the shipment will be cleared with customs during the process. This may require a physical inspection.
- Shunting– The container is shunted from the warehouse / loading facility to the port.
- Loading on to the carrier – Your container will be loaded on the ship and ready to travel to destination.