So you are moving overseas and you want to take your car or motorcycle with you. Maybe it’s a vintage vehicle dear to your heart, or maybe it’s new and you can’t stand parting with it so soon. Whatever type of car you want to ship overseas, if it means enough to you to have it shipped, it had better be treated very carefully. You need a personal shipping company with lots of experience and expertise. (And that’s us at Spratt!)
You need to consider two key things when you are shipping a car overseas. First, you need to investigate the situation where you are going. How do they handle car imports? What kind of documentation do you need to confirm that you are the rightful owner? What kinds of testing will your car need to pass to be street legal? Is there an importation tax payable when you ship your car for your own use (not for resale)? Will this country require that you register your car there? What is involved in that?
Preparing Your Car for International Shipping
The second thing is to make sure your car is prepared properly to be shipped. Things get chaotic when you are making an international move. It can be tempting to fill your car with your belongings and just drive it to the docks. But really, you don’t want to do that! You want to your car to be completely empty and clean. This protects it in transit. Remove all child seats, electronics, roadside emergency kits or other personal items that were not factory-installed. Be sure to check under that seats! That’s where the really disturbing things such as dropped food and wrappers lurk.
Before you ship your car, take it to the mechanic to make sure that nothing is leaking. Even a small leak that you wouldn’t notice in normal use can cause problems in transit. Your tyres should be fulling inflated, but your petrol tank should be less than a quarter full. Last of all, clean your vehicle thoroughly inside and out. Dirt and moisture can cause damage in transit. Besides, you want your car to roll off the ship ready to go when you are reunited.
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