I am on a number of car-related email lists and the issue of transporting cars over longer distances is one of the issues that comes up regularly. On this page I have compiled some information on shipping cars based on my own experiences. Suggestions for additions and modifications are always welcome. Some of this information is prone to changes over time. Thus, the information below can only be current as of its writing (September 2005).

1. Transport (trucking) inside the United States

You can find independent haulers for $0.75-$1 per loaded mile. Price depends on distance and region. For long hauls I have paid as little as $0.60 per mile (in 2005). There are a few ad boards on the web where independent haulers look for freight - e.g. http://www.findahauler.com or http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/haulquery.pl. I would stay away from big transport companies (like those advertising on Ebay). A lot of times your car is shifted from one truck to another on long hauls and may be stored in depots along the way delaying final delivery. Independent haulers may not always be good at keeping schedules, but once a car is on their trailer they usually take it straight to its destination. Also, they are considerably cheaper and you always know who is in charge of your car and where it is.

Based on my experiences I can highly recommend these haulers:

• Jade Auto Services, Smetzldj [AT] aol [DOT] com, http://jadeautoservices.com (Based in Olympia, WA, haul mostly along the West Coast and Western US)
• Darrell Tindall, mynamedangitDT [AT] aol [DOT] com (Based in Houston, TX, but hauls all over the US)
• Daniel Grinnell, mymokeis [AT] hotmail [DOT] com
• Iron Horse Trucking, (760) 447-1897 (Based in NV)
• Gary Stewart, gastew [AT] insightbb [DOT] com

Haulers I will not do any business with anymore due to bad experiences:

• Robert Allen, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text66485 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (way behind schedule; charged more than agreed AFTER he had picked up the car)
• Doug Evans, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (poor communication; never picked up car despite deposit; had to threaten to press charges to get my money back)

If it meets these criteria, Wallenius Wilhelmsen is the way to go: www.2wglobal.com. East Coast - Europe service can be had around $800 (including U.S. port fees). I tried shipping an Opel RoRo last year that did not really meet the stopping requirement. So they charged me for towing and the fork lift also caused some body damage. In the end, I paid more than I would have for containerized service.

Shipping in a container

My favorite company is California Shipping, www.calship.com. However, they are based in Stanton, CA and only ship out of Long Beach.
A company that ships from almost anywhere to anywhere is Schumacher Cargo, www.schumachercargo.com.
I prefer Calship because they are a little less expensive and they are a small company - you immediately have the right person on the phone. However, they only operate out of Long Beach; while Schumacher works with warehouses in every major U.S. port. Expect to pay around $900-1000 for containerized service. This is a good estimate for a small (i.e. European) car. Larger cars (e.g. full size U.S. cars) are more expensive. These are port-to-port prices. You have to figure out how to get it to and from the port yourself. These companies also offer ground transport - usually done by subcontractors - but their rates are typically not very competitive.
The rates I mentioned are for shared container service - usually three cars per container. Paying for a whole container would be a lot more expensive.

Additional costs

You always pay more than the quoted rate ... The quoted price usually only covers ocean freight itself and sometimes includes charges by the port of loading. In addition to these, expect to pay for unloading, preparation of documents, customs, and tax. This means even a "free" car will cost you around $1500 by the time it is in Europe.
Here is a break-down: The shipping company invoices you for the U.S. charges (freight, fees in the port of loading) and destination charges (varies by port; as high as EUR 250). On top of that the EU will hit you with 10% import duties (on the combined value of purchase price and shipping cost). Finally, your government will hit you with VAT on the sum of purchase price, transport, and duties.
You can save some of this by preparing the documents yourself (see below).

Documents

For containerized service you only need a valid title and a bill of sale as proof of ownership. The rest is done by the shipping company. For RoRo service with Wallenius you need to prepare a dock receipt and a Bill of Lading master. Both are essentially the same document with a different header and very easy to fill out. For cars valued more than $2500 you also need a shipper's export declaration for customs.
EU import docs are a little more involving, but manageable. For import into Germany, for example, you need: Erklärung über den Zollwert, Einheitspapier, and Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung. The Einheitspapier is the most complicated one and also the only one not available on www.zoll.de - you need to buy this form from a stationary supplier (easier said than done if you only need one) or find it elsewhere.

Parts cars

In case you have a car without title, there is the option of shipping it as a "lot of car parts". However, to do this it needs to be clearly a parts car in non-running condition. Generally, the lack of a drive-train is enough to convince customs that it is a parts car. Just a thought as it may be easier to remove the engine than to fight bureaucracy for a lost title.

3. Transatlantic shipping to the United States

I have shipped my daily driver from Germany to the United States and will write up some tips on bringing cars to the United States when I re-work this page the next time. The most important aspect to keep in mind is that it is next to impossible to bring vehicles younger than 25 years into the United States at reasonable cost. In the meantime, please contact me for information on how to get a car from Europe to the United States. I can also help with arranging ground transport in Germany and neighboring countries.

For official information on importing vehicles into the Unites States please see: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/.

4. "Opportune Lift" for U.S. military

If you are active or retired U.S. military and are in no rush to get your vehicle shipped, you can have the military haul your car for next to nothing. Rates for transatlantic shipping are approx. $150 for vehicles weighing less than 4,000 pounds and $250 for anything heavier. I learned about this after posting a link to this page on the type2.com list. For more information, please check out: http://www.msc.navy.mil/sealift/2004/June/lift.htm.

5. Professional help

Does this sound to complicated to you? There are numerous forwarding agents in the business who will take care of all the logistics and documents for you, for example: http://www.ablecargo.com/ (this is a suggestion from the type2 list - I have never used their services). Forwarders I have used include Mirian Nunhofer at Allround Forwarding on the East Coast (http://www.allroundforwarding.com/) and Tina at Double River Forwarding on the West Coast (2River [AT] comcast.net).