Find answers to shipping your car worldwide.
General Questions
Answers to your general questions about shipping cars worldwide.
Process to Ship Overseas
Everything about how international car shipping is done.
Documentation Required
We explain all of the documents required to export a car overseas.
Process at the Destination
Here's what happens on the destination side of things.
General Questions
We ship vehicles worldwide either in a shipping container, or on an airplane. We also provide shipping via RoRo and Flat Racks for oversized cargo that does not fit into a shipping container.
We offer an escrow service to pay for vehicles on your behalf in the US. Get more information on our Escrow page.
West Coast Shipping doesn’t offer inspection of cars but we can introduce you to companies able to help with that service. Contact us to get recommendations on an inspection service.
You will be able to track your vehicle once it is loaded in to a container. Tracking information is provided directly by your dedicated account manager.
We will handle all operations on the export side in the US, and for the destination part we work with a network of excellent overseas agents.
To avoid receiving registration renewal bills from the DMV, you can simply complete a Certificate of Exportation and return it to your local DMV office. Read more about reporting a sale of a vehicle for export here.
Questions About The International Car Shipping Process
You can get an instant rate to ship your car overseas by using our Instant Car Shipping Calculator.
If you have no further questions and want to proceed with shipping, you can fill out our online shipping form.
After you submitted the online shipping form, your dedicated account manager will reach out to you to get started with the next step.
We offer shared or dedicated container shipping, RORO shipping for oversized cargo, and air freight shipping.
After you submitted our online shipping form your account manager will reach out to you with the delivery reference or let you know once we have a driver assigned to pick up your car.
The overall transit time depends on many different factors such as the origin and destination port, the season, or the chosen method of shipping. Your dedicated sales representative or dedicated account manager can give you an estimate on the transit time you can calculate with.
Depending on your cargo, method of shipping and outside circumstances such as the weather there is no general answer to this question. Your dedicated account manager will always be able to give you a more precise answer to this question.
We typically collect vehicles within 2 to 5 business days. If your vehicle is in a remote part of the country, it may take additional time to secure reliable car transport.
We always include most charges in our quotations. Unforeseen charges caused for example by a customs inspection are not included and will be on account of the cargo.
Our liability is legally limited to $500. To increase our liability you can book our additional Cargo Damage Protection.
Questions About Documents
- original title (copies are not accepted by US Customs)
- if you are the registered owner - statement of value (we will provide a blank example for you to fill out)
- if you are not the registered owner - bill of sale from the registered owner to you
- We can only export your vehicle from the US with the original title
- The below states do not issue titles for vehicles older than 25 years old.
- If your vehicle comes from one of those states, we will need the original registration.
- The bill of sale (if applicable) will also have to be notarized.
- States applicable: Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Georgia, Vermont, Alabama, Maine
- If your vehicle doesn't have these documents, please contact us. There are several exceptions we can use to get the vehicle exported without those documents, depending on the vehicle type.
For us it doesn’t make a difference if the driver collects the title, or if you instruct the seller to send it to our warehouse via FedEx or UPS (please avoid using USPS to send original documents).
If the title is not in the shipper's name we need a Bill of Sale in addition to the title to export your vehicle. Read more about the requirements to provide a Bill of Sale.
Once the car is cleared for export we are sending the original title to our overseas agent (for free) or to any address you want us to (additional charges).
It’s important to note, however, that certain states have historically not issued titles for classic vehicles. The states that fall under this category include:
- Alabama
- Connecticut
- Georgia
- Maine
- New Hampshire
- New York
- Vermont
Should your classic car hail from any of these states and never had a title issued, a notarized bill of sale will be required in its stead. For further inquiries or clarifications, feel free to reach out to your designated account manager.
Questions About Payment For Shipping
We will send you our invoice after the container was loaded in an email with the subject YOUR CONTAINER HAS BEEN LOADED.
We will invoice you when your car is scheduled for loading. Please make sure we receive the payment at least 2 weeks before vessel arrival at destination port to avoid costly delays with release.
We don’t offer freight collect terms and you will have to pay your invoice to West Coast Shipping.
We don’t offer credit card payments as an option. The only options are wire transfer, check, or Zelle.
The Process At The Destination
Our overseas agents are able to help you with advise how to register your vehicle and arrange the homologation process.
We will share the details of our overseas destination agents when the container was loaded and the vessel sailed from the origin port. We have a network of agents in almost any country we ship to but you are welcome to nominate your own overseas agent to handle your cargo at the destination port.
We work closely with a network of overseas agents in the destination ports and they are the one handling the destination work on your behalf. With this setup we can make sure that you always get updated directly from the company carrying out the actual work and make sure the flow of information towards you is not disrupted in any way.
Yes, our overseas agents are able to organize the delivery of your vehicle to any address in the destination country.
Our overseas agents will charge you separate for their services and your dedicated sales manager is able to give you an overview of their charges upfront.
After the container was loaded and the vessel sailed from the port of origin we inform our overseas agent about your shipment and they will get in touch with you around 5 to 15 days before the vessel arrives.