RoRo Vehicle Shipping

Today sea transportation is the most common as well as the cheapest way to ship a vehicle internationally. You might have observed an example of this kind of car transportation on a ferry when cars are driven inside a special deck at one terminal and then driven off the ferry at the other. In international logistics similar process is called “RoRo” shipping.

How does it work?

“RoRo” stands for “Roll on/ Roll off” which basically describes the transportation procedure: vehicles are rolled up the ramp onto a large vehicle carrying vessel, braced and tied down on a specially designed enclosed deck during the transportation and then rolled of at the destination port. This type of car shipping was developed in Japan specifically for exporting large amount cars from its manufactures to Europe and the USA.

Such vessels can fit from 400 to 1000 cars on average and larger ships have enough capacity for transporting up to 6000 cars. The entire loading process and Port-to-Port transportation is handled by port workers and sea line employees, so your vehicle is all taken care of the moment you leave it at the origin terminal and until you pick it up at the destination point.

What types of vehicles can I ship?

Even though RoRo was originally designed for shipping cars, today this service is also offered to all kinds of motorized vehicles: motorcycles, ATVs, boats, RVs and even heavy duty machinery (like cranes, tractors, excavators etc.).

Most RoRo ships have segregated decks in order to transport different types of vehicles separately so that a classy Harley is not loaded together with farm machinery.

Inoperable vehicles are also accepted by RoRo transporters as long as they can roll, steer and have good brakes. However, there will be an extra charge of around $300 as special equipment will be required to load your vehicle on and off the ship.

Major RoRo international ports

• There are several big US ports that have been providing RoRo shipping for many years
• East coast. New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Brunswick, Jacksonville
• West coast. Los Angeles, Tacoma
• South. Galveston

If the vehicle you are looking to ship abroad is located far from any of the above mentioned cities, you can hire automobile shipping service to transport your vehicle from your front door to one of the ports or the other way around.

Benefits of RoRo shipping

Shipping a car overseas using RoRo service has become the most popular type of transportation for a good reason. Comparing to container shipping, RoRo has the following advantages:

• It’s cheaper. The process of loading vehicles on and off a RoRo ship is not as time and resource consuming as building a container around every single car.
• It’s easier to ship multiple vehicles. If you need to relocate several vehicles at once, it would be more pricey to get a container for each car while in RoRo they are all loaded and transported together on a deck.
• Allow bigger capacity to fit large and oversized vehicles. Decks on RoRo ships are much more flexible with vehicle dimensions than containers, which allows to ship large vehicles. For oversized loads, some ships even have movable decks which can raise and lower depending on the vehicle height.

The only drawback of RoRo shipping is that it is not as all-encompassing as container shipping. Small countries may not even have international RORO transport facilities.

If you think RoRo is the right option for your vehicle’s oversea trip, please, contact us to receive a customized quote for your particular transportation.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Best price. We will achieve best pricing for your transportation by professionally negotiating with the carrierss and comparing prices.
• Personal assistance. You will be assigned a dedicated shipping agent who will be guiding you through the entire process to make sure everything goes smoothly, coordinating both land and sea shipment and helping you with any questions along the way.
• Reliable transporter. Our team professionally sorts and evaluates the carriers to provide you with a reliable carrier that meets our high standards, has proper documentation and insurance.
• Headache away. Shipping a vehicle overseas involves more details than regular land car shipping, as it might require multimodal transport if the vehicle is not in a port city. We value your time and thus undertake all the details about the transportation procedure as well as customs paperwork and any other logistic issues.

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