Long distance driver accompanied RORO shipping

[charlieaarons]

I’ve no personal experience of shipping a vehicle, all I know has been gleaned from forums and over landing books. All I seem to read are horror stories of theft, damage and port bureaucracy. From reading these it would appear that if your vehicle won’t fit inside a shipping container you may as well kiss goodbye to any of your vehicle contents that aren’t bolted down. I realise that if nothing happens e.g. your vehicle is delivered safely and on time, then the tendency is not to write about it but it doesn’t stop me from worrying about entrusting my newly converted campervan to the vagaries of flat rack shipping.
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Attachment 114958

Your fears may be slightly exaggerated. My vehicle has been shipped across the Atlantic round trip, also across the Pacific: LA to Brisbane, Brisbane to Tacoma to Anchorage - both via Panama.
Nothing was stolen. I did take elementary precautions like putting the GPS in the back. but there was a key to the back (camper part) for customs inspection, and there was a LOT of stuff in the back including valuable items like tools and computer and satphone.
Admittedly, shipping to and from Africa and other places may be a different story.
The bureaucracy is bad no matter whether you accompany the vehicle or not; perhaps worst in countries like US and Australia, surprisingly.

Charlie

[Nigel Evans]

Thank you for your feedback. You're probably right about my fears but it would be good to know others experience. It seems not many actually ship their truck campervans on this foum.

[ColinTheCop]

Although if you're reading Stephen Stewarts current travel blog, you'll see it's not confined to the less developed countries....

http://www.xor.org.uk/travel/canada2012/20120608.htm

[JRhetts]

Your fears may be slightly exaggerated. ... I did take elementary precautions like putting the GPS in the back. but there was a key to the back (camper part) for customs inspection, and there was a LOT of stuff in the back including valuable items like tools and computer and satphone.
Charlie

Charlie

From what you know, is it the case that one cannot lock and retain all keys to the back [house] until you yourself are present at customs clearance to open and observe customs inspection?

Do you know, does this vary by country or even by shipper or inspector? Or is it universal?

I installed a heavy sliding panel between house and cab, so as to pretty much eliminate undesirable entry during RORO. Am I SOL on this?

John

[DiploStrat]

Look here: >> ==> http://moglander.com

The Mog has landed.

[sg1]

I have shipped with Seabridge, a company specializing in shipping RV´s to and from Europe to/from North America (Canada/US), South Africa, Australia and South Amarica. I shipped to South Africa and I had absolutely no problem. I talked to a lot of other customers (Seabridge has a yearly reunion of their customers) and the only ones I met who had problems had shipped to South America. Grimaldi Lines stops in Dakar on their way to Buenos Aires from Europe and their seem to be (at least sometimes) thefts in this port. It is a good idea to have a separation between the driver cabin and the living quarters. When I shipped I could keep the keys to the cabin although that seems to vary depending on the agent who checks your vehicle when you deliver it to the port.
Regards Stefan

[Nigel Evans]

To some extent shipping must be luck of the draw although it's good to know of an agent with a good reputation.

The Moglander blog gives a good idea what it's like to spend a month travelling with your van on a cargo ship. Was it me or did the cabin look a bit like a prison cell? Still for $2500 each what do you expect.

[incognito]

So , does anybody knows cargo vessels which take campers AND passengers from Europe to North America and back?
thanks
Incognito

[Nigel Evans]

Incognito,

Try talking to the agents who book passengers on cargo ship such as http://www.cargoshipvoyages.com/.

They may be able to help.