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Vehicle shipping prices: what does it really cost to ship a van across the world?

Do you want to level up your campervan adventures and explore other continents? If you're considering shipping your home-on-wheels across the planet, you might be looking for vehicle shipping prices.

We shipped our van from the UK to Halifax in Canada. Over the course of year, we drove all across the US and down through Mexico. From there, we shipped again to Colombia, before making our way down through the whole of South America. From the 'end of the world', we drove back to Uruguay to ship our van Ringo home via Germany.

All of that to say - over the past couple of years, we've developed a pretty good understanding of vehicle shipping. From which companies to use, to the most common routes to take, read on as we share our findings with you.

The authors driving their UK campervan through Monument Valley, Arizona

How to ship your vehicle: RoRo vs container ship

Before you start looking at vehicle shipping prices for your campervan, first it's important to understand the difference between 'RoRo' and container shipping. For both options, you need to drop your van at the port one to two weeks before the shipping date, and pick it up a few days after it arrives.

RoRo shipping

RoRo, or 'Roll On Roll Off', works in much the same way as a conventional car ferry. Unlike container shipping, where vehicles are loaded into a sealed container, your vehicle is simply driven onto the ship and secured for the journey. Most RoRo services require you to remove all personal belongings from the van to comply with customs regulations, although fixed items like kitchen units and beds can stay in place.

It's likely that if you're planning to ship your vehicle across the world, you may likely have a fair amount of personal belongings you wish to take with you. Your options here are either A) Take everything you need as luggage when you fly out to meet your vehicle, or B) Leave your belongings in your vehicle, at your own risk.

The important thing to highlight with RoRo shipping is that, because your vehicle is driven onto the boat by someone else, you need to hand over your keys. This leaves you open to the risk of theft. Because you are instructed not to leave any personal belongings in your vehicle for RoRo shipping, anything you do leave will not be insured.

RoRo shipping is commonly used for larger vehicles, such as motorhomes and overlanders, which may not fit within a standard container.

Container shipping

In comparison, container shipping involves you driving your vehicle into a secured container. You can either personally drive it into the container, or leave it with a shipping agent to complete this step for you. Either way, the container is locked for the duration of the shipping. Because of this, it's a much safer option. It also means you can leave all of your personal belongings in the vehicle.

The downsides? If you can find a 'container buddy', then the costs can be the same or even less than RoRo. But if you need to pay for a large container by yourself, it can be more expensive. Many shipping agents will offer a 'buddy matching' service, where they will try to match up with someone else looking to ship on the same route at a similar time.

Additionally, this option is only viable if your vehicle will fit in a container. Containers are commonly available in three sizes:

  • 20ft container: 5.9m long x 2.35m wide x 2.4m high (2.27m opening)
  • 40ft container: 12m long x 2.35m wide x 2.6m high (2.39m opening)
  • 40ft HC (high cube) container: 12m long x 2.35m wide x 2.7m high (2.58m opening)

The difficult part comes in that most campervans are not simply the height of the vehicle itself. Usually, they have modifications, such as solar panels, awning bars, skylights and roof racks. All of these add height to the vehicle, so when you're measuring the height, ensure you account for these.

It's possible to decrease the height of your vehicle by letting air out of the tyres. Additionally, if you have air suspension, this can be deflated before loading.

Our LWB Mercedes Sprinter just about fit in a 40ft HC container by almost fully deflating the tyres, and completely deflating our air suspension. We also removed our awning bar and stored it inside the van. So, the highest point on the roof of the van was our skylight and our solar panels.

However, we'd recommend measuring a few times to be confident your van will fit before committing to container shipping!

Letting all of the air out of our tyres, our van juuuust about fit in a 40ft HC container!

Vehicle shipping prices

Vehicle shipping prices vary wildly, and can change frequently based on many factors, including container availability and world events. For example, during COVID-19 there was a container shortage, and prices for container shipping tripled! We have included a comparison table below of the most common shipping routes. These vehicle shipping prices are accurate as of January 2025.

RoRoContainer
Liverpool, UK to Halifax, Canada
7 days
~£3,800~£3,800
Veracruz, Mexico to Cartagena, Colombia
10 days
~£3,500N/A
Panama City, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia
2 days
~£4,800~£1,800
Montevideo, Uruguay to Hamburg, Germany
3 weeks
~£4,600~£2,200
Hamburg, Germany to Cape Town, South Africa
4 weeks
~£6,000~£1,800
Melbourne, Australia to Hamburg, Germany
6 weeks
~£7,800N/A

We have based most of the shippings on Hamburg in Germany, as this is one of the most popular ports for vehicle shipping. As Germans ship the most vehicles per year, it's much easier to find a container buddy if shipping from a German port. We chose this option on our way back from South America, and shipped from Montevideo to Hamburg. We then drove back from Hamburg to the UK.

We shipped RoRo from the UK to Canada and Mexico to Colombia, as we didn't think our Sprinter would fit in a container. However, we were struggling to find a sensible price to shipping back to Europe, and ending up using Overland Embassy to ship in a 40ft HC container. This was by far the best option, as we didn't need to worry about theft, and it actually worked out cheaper too!

Charlie & Dale, Nohma Co-founders

The most common vehicle shipping ports

UK

If you opt for RoRo, the two UK ports that have regular RoRo sailings to most destinations are Southampton and Liverpool. If you're opting for container shipping, it's possible to ship from several ports, including London. However, it's not very common, and because of this you will likely need to pay for an entire container yourself. If you're looking to share a container, we'd recommend shipping to/from Hamburg.

Mainland Europe: Germany & Belgium

The two most popular ports in Germany, for both RoRo and container shipping, are Hamburg and Bremerhaven. In Belgium, the most popular port is Zeebrugge. No matter where you are shipping, it's likely there will be regular sailings from any of these ports.

US & Canada

On the west coast, your options are a lot more limited - Seattle is the most commonly used port. On the east coast, you have a lot more options - Halifax in Canada, and New York and Baltimore are most popular, often with a few other stops in between.

South America

In South America, some countries are easy to ship to, whilst others are almost impossible. Cartagena in Colombia is the most popular port in the north of the continent. In the south, Montevideo in Uruguay and Zarate in Argentina are the most popular ports. If you're looking to ship to Brazil, Paranagua, Santos, Rio de Janiero, Vitoria and Suape are all common stops for both RoRo and container ships.

Australia

When shipping to Australia, you have quite a few options available. On the west coast, Freemantle is the most popular port. In the south, Adelaide and Melbourne. On the west coast, it's easy to ship to Sydney and Brisbane. If you would prefer to ship to the north, you can find a sailing to or from Darwin.

South Africa

If you're hoping to ship to South Africa, Cape Town is pretty much the only option you will have for shipping your vehicle to.

The vehicle shipping process

The process of shipping your vehicle varies from country to country, but it generally follows a fairly similar structure.

First, you need to drop your van at the port one to two weeks before the shipping date. At some ports, you may need to be around for physical inspections (this was the case in Veracruz, Mexico). Whereas in others (for example, Montevideo and Liverpool), you may simply be able to drop the vehicle off and leave.

When you drop your vehicle at the port, you need to ensure it has an empty LPG and it's clean. Additionally, you usually need to wear a high-viz when dropping it at the port.

Once the ship arrives at the destination port, there's usually a period of a few days whilst it goes through checks. In Cartagena, we needed to wait 5 days until after the ship arrived to pick up our van. In comparison, in Halifax you need to go to a customs office to get a document signed and stamped before you can schedule your vehicle collection.

For a deep-dive on the vehicle shipping process for the UK to the US and Canada, read our article: The ultimate guide to shipping your van to the USA.

Dropping our van at the port in Liverpool, and picking it up in Halifax.

Vehicle shipping companies

So, you've decided you're ready to take the plunge and explore far flung lands. The final choice to make is which company to use to ship your vehicle. There are two types of vehicle shipping 'companies' - the shipping company themselves, and the shipping 'agents'.

The most popular shipping companies include K Line, WWO (Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean), ACL (Atlantic Container Line) and Grimaldi. However, it is not possible to book directly with the shipping company, you need to use a shipping agent.

There are countless shipping agents online, and it can be hard to know who to use. They are generally very useful, as they know the process at each different port, including customs clearance. Additionally, they can provide insurance in case your vehicle is damaged.

We used a couple of different shipping agents during our Pan American road trip, and this is our experince with each of them.

IVSS

IVSS are a UK based shipping agent. They were very useful for our RoRo shipping the UK, and I think it would be difficult to book a UK shipping without using them. For the Liverpool to Halifax route, the cost seemed fair.

However, we also used them to ship from Veracruz to Cartagena in the middle of our trip. For this shipping, they hand you over to an in-country shipping agent almost immediately. You end up paying a significant amount more from having arranged it through them.

IVSS are also quite slow to respond to messages. When we booked our shipping to Colombia we were in quite a rush to arrange it, and it was quite difficult to even speak to them on the phone, despite the fact we were ready to pay. When you're spending this much money on something, slow responses don't inspire confidence.

Local shipping agents

If you're looking to ship RoRo from Central or South America, I would recommend booking directly with a local agent. They can be difficult to find, however once you have the contact details, they are very knowledgable and the process is pretty much exactly the same as if you were to use a larger agent.

In our case, it would have been ~£1,000 cheaper to book directly with the local agent in Veracruz! Please reach out in the comments if you would like the contact details of the Veracruz shipping agent in, as they are only available via WhatsApp.

To find other local shipping agents, we'd recommend looking through iOverlander, as some are listed on here. We spoke to one in Zarate who was very helpful and knowledgable.

They also generally have a much quicker response time than some of the larger shipping agents.

Overland Embassy

Overland Embassy are a German shipping agent. They specialise in shippings around the Darian Gap in Panama, and container shippings across the world. We came across them looking to ship our van home from South America. Because of them, we realised our van would just about fit in a 40ft HC container. They found us a container buddy, and we shipped from Montevideo to Hamburg with them.

Overall, this was the best experience for us. They were very clear and quick at communicating, the pricing was fair and transparent, and they were quick to deal with any issues. We had a small amount of damage to our vehicle from the container, and they dealt with the insurance claim for us quickly and efficiently.

You can use the discount code NOHMA50 to get $50 USD off your shipping costs when booking with them.

We used Overland Embassy to ship our campervan back from our year-long Pan American road trip. Here we are, mid trip on the Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia.

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