Container v. RORO
Usually, there is not much contest between RORO shipping and container shipping: RORO tends to win pretty much every time it’s available, and there are a few of reasons for that.
First of all, RORO shipping is almost always cheaper than container shipping. Especially when you remember that you don’t just pay for the container to be transported by sea, but also you will need to pay for loading the container in Japan, and offloading it at your end.
Next, RORO shipping gives you flexibility: You can send 1 car, or 7 … or 34 — as many as we can convince the shipping line to make room for. But when it comes to container shipping, you need to fill the container to make it worthwhile.
So you may find that the sizes of cars you buy fit snuggly 4 to a container. Or perhaps that number is 5. In any case, if you have 7 cars to ship and you usually fit 5 per container, it makes sense to send off the first 5 and then wait until you have another 3 to make up the second set of five. But it would be better if you could just send off all 7 on the first ship, as you can with RORO shipping.
So why use containers?
Container shipping your cars makes sense only in these three cases:
No RORO option available
First, is if you have no other choice. Obvious, really. If there are no RORO ships going to your country, then you’re pretty much stuck with containers. For most destinations, though, this is not an issue.
If shipping high-end cars
The second reason only makes sense to very few “niche” buyers: If you’re buying high-end cars like Ferrari, Aston Martin, Bentley or the like, then you want to keep them sealed up and locked away during their journey. The premium cost of shipping only makes sense with these premium cars.
If the car is worth 5 million JPY or more we recommend you consider container shipping. For cars over 10 million JPY, you should definitely choose container shipping over RORO shipping. In the case of very expensive vehicles, we can arrange air freight.
Long waits between RORO ships
The final reason to choose container shipping is in the exceptionally rare case that there is a RORO shipping option for your cars, but availability is so low that your vehicles could end up waiting for months. If your customer is willing to pay extra for quick delivery, then container can make sense in this unusual case.
Safety-first container loading system
When containerizing cars so that they are parked on the floor of the container, we have them secured with blocks and cables to stop them shifting while in transit.
However, when shipping more than two cars in a container, one or more may be suspended above the others. In this case, it's vital that they are suspended in a sturdy fashion as a failure would result in a large amount of damage.
The suspended car is firmly mounted to the container using the container’s own mounting points. It’s attached to these using steel rods that are bolted onto your vehicle using the wheel nuts. Each wheel is mounted with 4 steel rods. Each rod is rated to 1,500 KG.
What does that mean? Well it means that your car is being held in place by 16 steel rods in total — with each one of them capable of bearing the entire weight or almost the entire weight of the car.
Overkill? Perhaps.
However, a drop what would shatter wooden bracing, or buckle traditional steel bracing does not faze this unique loading system.
That is why only know of one instance out of literally hundreds of containers shipped, where one car suffered slight damage in transit. To be honest, even in this case it was still not completely clear whether the damage had actually occurred during shipping, or whether it had actually happened during offloading.
We only use the very best, most secure methods to container ship your cars. We want your cars to arrive in great condition so you can sell them, then come back and buy more.
We find that the most successful importers really understand how it all works - from the auction to the ship and beyond. Don't get left behind!
