Shipping a vehicle from one continent to another is an inevitable part of a global overlanding adventure and, no doubt, becomes less overwhelming the more times you do it.  However, this was our first experience and not without its challenges.

Unless you are fortunate enough to have been given the name of a good shipping broker to help with the daunting process of shipping a vehicle, you are left at the mercy of Google as you wade through too much unhelpful information until you have a short list of companies/agents that appear to offer the services you want.  This short list is then whittled down as you are told about Covid backlogs, lack of ships, lack of containers and cost differences which ranged into the thousands of dollars.  Eventually, we committed to Ever Global Shipping as Diana Du, Managing Director, was, by far, the easiest and most informative to deal with.   She provided us with the following

-       Ocean freight Sydney to Southampton                                                            AUS  6,400
-      Plus - Australian port charges, export customs clearance,
handling, documentation, container transport and   
loading, vehicle securing.                                                                                 AUD  3,30
-       Transport fuel surcharge                                                                                   AUD     180

-       Weekly sailing service with transit time from port to port approximately 45 days.
- You can bring the car to our export container packing depot. 
-        Vehicle needs to be drained petrol tank and disconnected battery or hazardous goods permit  has to be obtained for an additional charge of AUD 450.
-   The above charges are subject to destination all charges. 
-        Above Plus Marine insurance if you require is 3.5% of value, or min. per policy A$500.
-        Alternatively if you are to ship the car only and the car is drivable, then it can be shipped as RORO from Port Kembla to Southampton that might be cheaper depending on
vehicle dimensions.

Once we agreed to proceed we were asked for the following:

-       vehicle rego copy / year /make / model / vin no. / engine no. , and colour / value
-       your ( exporter)  contact details incl. name / address / email
-       your (exporter) driver licence or passport copy
-       consignee contact details in destination incl. name/ address/ ph no./ email
-        if or not you need the marine insurance, if so value you wish to insure
-        we request deposit of A$1500 for booking, you can directly deposit to our account details as below, or you can pay by credit card ( visa or master, 2.5% additional card fee),
pls provide card no./ expiry date / name.

We were then offered a choice of shipping dates with OCCL Shipping and asked for a rough inventory of personal possessions stored in the car.  Diana then supplied us with the details of an agent in the UK who would be able to help us clear the vehicle once it arrived in Southampton.  His details are RJJ Freight Limited, Contact: Chinita Riser, E-mail: chinita.riser@rjjfreight.co.uk

He supplied and requested the following:

-       UK Landed Charges for 1 x 20ft containing 1 x vehicle, into Southampton               GBP  970

-       This covers UK port charges / Port security charges / Unpacking and shunt charges / UK customs clearance & NOVA.
-       Rate excludes any taxes, if applicable.
-       Please be aware, UK customs can select any container at random for exam. Should this happen, any charges incurred will be invoiced to you.  We cannot foresee this
happening but have to make you aware.
-       Can you please confirm your circumstance of import (i.e transfer of residence / recent purchase / temporary import etc), so I can confirm what documentation we require, to
enable us to clear of customs upon arrival in the UK?
-      You need to complete C110 form on the following link, online and send to me please –
Tell HMRC about the temporary arrival of a non-UK private motor vehicle for personal use (C110) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
-       A copy of the vehicle registration document
-       Current market value for the vehicle
-        Copy of photo ID (passport or licence)
-        Copy of road insurance documents (whilst insured in UK)
-        Signed forms for declaration of a vehicle and appointment of a direct customs agent

We decided on ETD Sydney 7th April with ETA Southampton 15th May, paid the $1,500 deposit and were instructed to deliver Bob to Trojan Bonding, Botany Bay on 28th March.  We drove into Sydney on the 28th and after a quick detour to Ian's twin sister in Surrey Hills, where we dropped off everything that we needed to take with us to UK we took Bob to a car detailers close to the ports.  Unlike Australian customs where attention to detail around cleanliness of incoming vehicles is verging on the paranoia, we had been told by Diana not to go overboard with cleaning the vehicle which was just as well given that the red dirt of the Australian outback is now so ingrained on some of the body work it would have required a Herculean effort to remove.  Regardless, we wanted to present him well and despite only having 45 minutes to work on him, the guys at Diamond Clean did a great job.

As the day was rapidly disappearing, it seemed prudent to give the guys at Trojan a ring just to confirm that we were on our way and would arrive before 4pm when we had been told the warehouse closed.  It was therefore a bit of a shock to be told that they weren’t expecting us and they usually closed at 3pm.  We now had a bit of a predicament as it was already past 3pm and overnight parking in Sydney was near impossible for Bob as he couldn't fit under the barriers of any of the car parks!  Also, we had completely forgotten to drain the fuel tank which was at least a quarter full.  Explaining this to Andy at Trojan he amazingly offered us parking at the warehouse even though they had not yet been notified of when the ship was due to arrive and was completely unphased about the fuel on board.  Our ideal of being present to see Bob safely into his shipping container was obviously not on the cards and the only option available to us was to leave him, with the keys inside, parked outside Trojan’s offices.  We were somewhat mollified by Andy's calm reassurance that the yards were under 24hr surveillance and Bob would be quite safe until such time as he could be loaded.

Diana sent us various photos of Bob during the process of loading him into his shipping container

OCCL Houston ((Hong Kong flag) left Sydney on 11th April and we tracked it on vesselfinder.com as it progressed via Brisbane, Thailand and on to Singapore.  What we hadn’t realised, as it hadn’t come up in communication with Diana, was that Bob would be loaded onto another ship for the Singapore/Southampton leg of his journey.  Hoping that shipping containers were not like airport baggage with a higher risk of being misplaced the more times they are pulled on and off their transportation, we were now tracking the CMA CGM Georg Forster (Malta flag) as it made its way through the Suez Canal and on to Tangier, Morocco.  Excited that Bob was close to reaching his destination we contacted Diana for an update on procedure re timing and collection only to be told that he had missed his connection onto Georg Forster and was now on the APL Merlion (Singapore flag) which had only just left Singapore (15th May) and wasn’t due to arrive in Southampton until 9th June. 

Somewhat disappointed we now focussed our attention on the APL Merlion as it made the same journey through the Suez, via Tangier and then on to Rotterdam, Netherlands.  Once again, we contacted Diana who informed us that the new ETA into Southampton was 12th June and we were also contacted by the UK shipping agent who confirmed the ETA and requested the afore-mentioned payment.  We were still tracking the ship and were delighted to see it dock at Southampton on Friday, 10th June.  We were contacted by the UK shipping agent on 13th June who confirmed the ship had arrived and the container had been unpacked.  We were advised of the address (at the docks) for collection and asked for the following:

·       Name of collecting agent
·       Date of intended collection
·       Collecting agent vehicle registration number
·       PIN number to collect (TBC)

We provided all of this and were then issued with a PIN number and told that we would get 7 days free from the day of unpacking to collect.  Thereafter, it would be GPB 12 per day. 

We arrived at the port just after midday and following our directions drove straight to the collection yard where we could see Bob parked just inside the compound along with a motley collection of around 50-60 other vehicles presumably awaiting collection.  We were met at the gate by two very friendly guys who checked our ID/PIN and then left us to check on Bob.  On their return they announced that Bob had a flat battery and the front interior was covered with mould.  The flat battery was easily dealt with by the appearance of a third guy with a jump starter who also attempted to alleviate the mould situation by handing me a pair of blue plastic gloves and some wipe downs, they really were the nicest guys who were still smiling after I drove away and, wanting to connect my phone and re-organise a couple of things, pulled over and switched Bob off.  Whoops, another jump start needed!  How glad were we that we had not drained the tank and still had quarter of a tank of diesel enabling us to easily recharge the battery.

Despite the four week delay which meant a total shipping time of ten weeks in total, the whole process couldn’t have been much simpler.  The only thing we would do differently in future is to allow Bob to fully dry off after any pre-shipping detailing.