The purpose of this post is to cover the steps we had to take in order to get our vehicle from the UK to Namibia. There is a fair amount of paperwork and cost involved, and I will outline it all below. These steps will be very similar for shipping vehicles from anywhere in the world to Western, Eastern and Southern Africa.
Quite a lot of work went into preparing the vehicle before shipping. There is already some info here concerning the vehicle build. Since it was going into a container, we loaded the vehicle with everything we needed, so we only had to take cabin baggage with us on the flight out to Namibia.
Shipping the vehicle
It takes 4-6 weeks to ship, so don’t leave it all to the last minute as you may well be disappointed. Start the enquiry process 3-4 months before you arrive at the destination.
For shipping a vehicle to Africa on a temporary basis, there are 3 main things you need to address:
1. Shipping: Container or roll-on roll off (RORO)? Due to the high value of the vehicle and its contents we opted for the more secure option of shipping in a 20ft container. This is more expensive than RORO. RORO involves lashing the vehicle to the deck of a dedicated vehicle transport ship. We have used this to permanently export vehicles to family living in Dar Es Salaam. If you pack any items in the car, I can 100% guarantee that they will get pilfered.
The door opening height on a container is 2.28m. You need to bear this in mind when building an overlander. Roof racks, suspension lifts and roof-top tents can easily send you over the height limit. I measured our truck and it came in at 2.25m, so we had only 3cm of clearance!
2. Carnet De Passage: This is basically a vehicle passport, enabling hassle-free temporary import of your vehicle to multiple countries. Goods are subject to import duty, so a hefty security deposit is left with the carnet-issuing authority to ensure you do not permanently import your vehicle into any of the countries you visit. Permanent import is possible, but is a different subject entirely and well beyond the scope of this post.
3. Freight forwarding agents at destination port: You may be able to negotiate this bureaucratic minefield yourself if you arrive in the country before your vehicle arrives, but it is much easier to get an agent to do all the customs clearing work for you.
Approximate costs of shipping from the UK to Walvis Bay, Namibia are as follows:
Container Shipping (20ft): £2224
Carnet: £6000 refundable deposit with additional £800 non-refundable carnet costs, so £6800 in total.
Port & agent fees on entry to Walvis Bay: £850
Documents required in order to ship the vehicle (digital copies are fine):
- Vehicle MOT certificate, recently issued
- Vehicle registration documents
- Recent bank statement (proof of address)
- Passports for all drivers
- Driving Licences for all drivers
- Bill of lading (shipping document issued by UK shipping agent on behalf of the shipping line)
Original documents needed to be sent via DHL to Freight forwarding agent (WFS) in Namibia:
- Carnet de Passage
- Vehicle Registration document
Digital documents required by Namibian freight forwarding agent. These are supplied by the agent, you just need to fill them in and return via email:
- FIA declaration
- Namport POA
- MSC Namibia POA (specific to the shipping line)
Links to 3 companies essential to the process:
Container shipping UK to Namibia: Simba Shipping
Carnet Issuer: C.A.R.S Europe
Freight forwarding agent in Namibia: Woker Freight Services
