TJN Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Just wondering if anyone has had experience of shipping a vehicle to Durban? I have found several shippers that offer the service and it seems quite reasonably priced, around £700. So was wondering if anyone has done it? Still in the fist throws of the plan at the moment but the trip would be with 2 or 3 other vehicles and consist of arriving in South Africa and then driving across to Namibia and put the vehicles back on a boat in Namibia. total time away would be about three weeks. TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zim Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Is that £700 each way ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJN Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 Yeah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I would suggest that shipping your car to SA and back will make a 3 week trip very pricey indeed. 700 quid sounds awfully cheap to ship to Durban - check that that is not just the actual shipping bit, as you also need to pay for agents, clearance, devanning, customs and a bunch of other stuff. If the price is for ro-ro, then be aware that you can only ship completely empty cars. I would suggest that shipping to Durban, and back via Walvis Bay will cost between 2500-3000 easily - I have just payed 2100 to ship back from Mombassa. Have you checked out some of the rental firms - some will allow you to pick up in Durban or Johannesburg and drop off in Windhoek, so you can drop it off there and fly back without drama. A friend of mine used British 4x4 in J'burg who did a good service and provided everything from rooftent down to a GPS. it would also save you a few days of messing around waiting for your car to be cleared from port, and also arranging for it to be loaded back into a container - you could lose nearly a week. Oh, and then you will also need to buy a Carnet de Passage to temporarily import your car into SA, Namibia and Botswana, or you will be charged import duty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJN Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 EightPot, Not aware of the empty vehicle policy, will check it out thanks TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 You're normally only allowed to have a spare wheel and wheel brace inside the car, and externally it has to be bare - no roofracks or rooftents. Otherwise it all gets nicked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diff Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Just wondering if anyone has had experience of shipping a vehicle to Durban? I have found several shippers that offer the service and it seems quite reasonably priced, around £700. So was wondering if anyone has done it? Still in the fist throws of the plan at the moment but the trip would be with 2 or 3 other vehicles and consist of arriving in South Africa and then driving across to Namibia and put the vehicles back on a boat in Namibia. total time away would be about three weeks. TJ Hi TJ, I have no experience of shipping to Durban, but when I looked into shipping to Namibia in 2009, it worked out at around £1500 each way in a container (total costs including port fees etc). The costs may be worth it if you are going to spend an extended period in Southern Africa, but for 3-4 weeks it was not cost effective. The ship carrying your vehicle can stop at many ports along the way to and from ZA and there is no guarantee that it will arrive on the day you expect it to, or that you will be able to retrieve it from the docks on the day you want. In the end I hired a fully equipped 110 CSW with two roof tents etc in Johannesburg, and spent just over 3 weeks with the wife and children doing a solo trip around Botswana (Kalahari, Okavango, Savuti, Chobe, Magkadikadi etc) as well as a trip into Zimbabwe and a couple of parks in ZA before flying back out from Johannesburg. We covered a lot of ground and had a fantastic time. If you want to visit the main parks in Botswana, you need to book your camping pitches a long way in advance. I spent many months planning and I seem to remember having to book the parks at least 6 months in advance. Durban to Namibia via Botswana is a long way to go in 3 weeks if you actually want to visit some of the parks and not just be driving all the time. If you haven't already, I would work out the mileages for your proposed trip and work out how far you need to travel each day. Speed across the ground will vary depending on whether you are on tarmac or dirt. Hope this helps, Regards, Diff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8bertha Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 TJ, my old fruit The "Empty Vehicle" policy is a bit of a funny one. One of the main reasons they specify this is that they don't want the hassle if the deck-hand decides to help himself to the contents of your car. However I have heard of people delivering their cars to the Ro-Ro port and collecting at the other end with no problems. I think visibility is the main problem, if you have a load of kit on display then there is temptation. I've also heard of people turning up for a Ro-Ro with a loaded vehicle and being turned away at the gate with an instruction to go empty it, and subsequently missing the boat! This is why we shipped in a container... all the stuff is safely out of harms way. However you then have to declare on your import declaration not just the car, but all the bits bolted on to it and stored inside it. If you can, try to organise shipping where the agents at both ends are part of the same company, or at least are willing to talk to each other. Be aware that there may be costs involved at the quayside, such as any customs inspection costs, or storage costs if you are not able to collect within the specified timeframe. Grab me tonight at the club meet if you want and I'll explain what we had to do when we went to see uncle sam. D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJN Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 Dan, Will "grab" you tonight. I wondered if I would get away with it on the 130 by having everything locked away in the rear tub. TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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