Caravan Shipping & Import

Importing Caravans and Motorhomes from the UK and USA, has become very popular in recent years due to the reduction in duties, and the huge range of available manufactures. We have shipped hundreds of caravans and can help you with advice on the best shipping method for your chosen model. RORO or containerisation, will depend on the size caravan you are looking to import, so please call us to discuss, or simply click below quote button.

What's the cheapest Shipping method?

There are three shipping options, but we will only discuss two of them, because the third shipping method "on deck" is not recommended, and not suitable for Caravans and certainly not Motorhomes.

Containers

From the UK this is the most common and cost effective way to ship caravans to New Zealand and Australia. Not only is it more cost effective, but you can load the caravan with your personal effects inside, and they essentially get shipped for free. They obviously need to be declared for Customs, and all boxed up so quarantine and Customs can remove them and inspect if needed.

Not all caravans fit, so best to give us a call before you make your purchase. It requires our skilled packers to fit caravans in containers as there is very little room on each side, and often air needs to be removed from the tyres to get them in the door.

RORO

Roll on roll off is commonly used for shipping motorhomes, as it very rare that motorhomes are small enough to fit in shipping container. As a general rule RORO is more expensive than a 40' container because the shipping price is calculated on the total volume(cubic volume). ie L x W x H.

But in some cases containers are either not an option, or the caravan / motorhome is of a size that as a total cost is cheaper than packing into a container.

Summary

If possible use a container, but talk to us about the options as its always important to look at the TOTAL cost, not just the shipping cost in isolation.

Is It worth Importing a motorhome?

In our experience there are definite savings to be made by importing your own caravan, but only if you are considering buying a later model or expensive model. Keep in mind that the cost to ship a $10,000 motorhome, or a $100,000 motorhome of the same size will be the same. So as a proportion of the cost it makes more sense to buy a more expensive model. Also remember that any model for sale by a dealer in New Zealand or Australia that is not locally made will have all these costs included in the price plus the dealers margins. So doing it yourself has cost benefits.

As part of your overall shipping costs you do need to also take into account taxes and on road compliance costs. In some countries, import permits and vehicle standards such as impact and emissions are pre-requisites for entry.

Items you need to consider before shipping your caravan or motorhome are :

• How much will it cost to ship my caravan to the destination?
• What taxes/duties/GST/VAT will be applicable to pay at the destination country?
• What are the on road compliance charges?

Feel free to call us if you are any questions about how to calculate the total cost.

Can I pack my Caravan with Personal Effects?

If shipping your caravan in a container then yes you can pack your personal effects inside the caravan, or in the spare space inside the container. Please remember the followings.

• All goods MUST be manifested and declared to Customs. We will need a list of all items and there approx. value. You can group items together. For example clothing, we don’t need to know every item, just the approx. value of the clothing.
• Personal effects need to be packed in boxes, so Customs and or Quarantine can remove them for inspection, and make it easy to ensure all goods are accounted for. The boxes also often need to be removed from the caravan or Motorhome so that they can be cleaned of any contamination. Please don't just load the inside with unpacked goods, as it makes handling difficult and accountability of piece count almost impossible.
• Ensure each box is marked. i.e. If you have 23 boxes mark each box 1/23, 2/23 etc. As you pack each box manifest the contents of the box, that way we will know that in box 3 for example contains wood items. This way quarantine will only need to open box 3, and not have to go through all your goods.