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Shipping your car to Halifax, Canada | The real story

It's 2 weeks before our ship is shipped to Halifax and we've received an email from the forwarder: The boat is delayed… Well that's a good start, but we knew what we were getting into. “Fine”, we say to each other, “we have kept a wide margin, our flight to Canada will be in two weeks." In the following days, more e-mails from the forwarder follow with even more delay. The last message: The car will be on the boat on 20 February. Now it gets exciting, our flight leaves on 21 February. It would be nice to know if the car has left before we go that way ourselves.

Also read: Shipping an Overlander vehicle, motorhome or motorhome bus | How much does that cost?

The port in Antwerp

Bringing the car

We bring the car to the port of Antwerp, a home game, 20 minutes drive from our apartment. Twenty nerve-wracking minutes. Once at the port we have to report to terminal 1333. We are standing between the truck drivers who come to unload or load. It is our turn, but are immediately brushed off again. We first have to fill in a form, “it's there”, the woman behind the counter points out. Shit, we brought a pen, didn't we? Where's that pen? Still in the car? The woman behind the counter is not very friendly, she doesn't even want to lend us a pen. Fortunately, there is a truck driver who is kind enough to share his pen. 

Leaving the car

Once outside again, with the correct documents, the next row follows. We line up behind the trucks to enter the port. Once at the barrier, it turns out that only one person is allowed to enter the harbor, so Roy is on his own. “You can park the car on that side and hang the keys on the rear view mirror.” What?! Key in the car? Just because? Okay… this feels really crazy. Roy parks the car next to a white camper van, leaves the keys in the car and walks away. We have a knot in our stomach when we drive home. We had read all about this online, but that doesn't prepare you for the feeling we have now. We've had other locks put on the back doors, so at least they're closed. But if someone wants to, he can just drive away with it.

Even more delay

In the meantime we have a new email from the forwarder about the shipment, the boat has a few extra days delay. Tomorrow we leave by plane, so that means that we have already left before the car leaves. Not ideal. 

Rescue at the port in Antwerp | Car Shipping Halifax, Canada
Rescue at the port in Antwerp | Car Shipping Halifax, Canada

The Port of Halifax 

Once arrived in Canada we see through the app MarineTraffic that the boat has left. Is our car on it? No idea… At the Wereldreizigers.nl camper from Chris and Malou it went completely wrong, there they were 'forgot' to load the camper which caused even more delay.

Then after a few days the redeeming message follows. A port employee writes via an Instagram message that he has put our car on the boat. He found us through the stickers on the car, so they've already done their job! What a relief it is to know that your car is on the boat! 

Pick up the car in Halifax

After 1,5 weeks of waiting, the time has finally come. We drove around in a rental car for 3 weeks, but today comes Red finally arrived at Halifax harbour. The next morning we were invited by the agent to come to the customs counter. 

At 9 sharp in the morning we are dropped off by the Uber taxi at the customs office in the port of Halifax. The agent isn't here yet. After ten minutes a car arrives and that turns out to be the agent. She gives us the necessary documents and advises us to go into the customs office and ask for our car. 

We pay about 150 CAD to the agent and this is it? A few printed documents? 

Customs control

We enter the customs office and ask about our car. It turns out it hasn't been checked yet. Which is not surprising, since our car only arrived at the port the night before and customs work from 8 to 5 o'clock. After a few minutes we are outside again and we can go again. That feels a bit of a waste of our taxi ride. The agent is still in the parking lot waiting for someone else who has shipped his car. She promises to keep us informed and to call if she has news. She is sure we still have our car today. It's Friday, so that would be nice. Otherwise we have to wait all weekend until Monday. 

Once back in the hotel we wait for the phone from the agent. At 12 o'clock we still haven't heard anything and call her ourselves. She hasn't heard anything yet and says she'll let us know as soon as possible. At 2 o'clock we still have not heard anything back and are fed up. If the car hasn't been inspected now, we'll have to wait until Monday. We take the plunge and call customs ourselves. As it turns out, the car has been inspected! We jump headlong into an Uber taxi to the customs counter. Strangely enough, on the way in the taxi we receive an e-mail from the agent that she has no news about the inspection and that unfortunately we will have to wait until Monday. Turns out you'd better go after your car yourself!

The right stamps and documents

After fifteen minutes at customs we are back outside with the correct stamp on our documents. The taxi driver was kind enough to wait for us at the customs counter and then take us to the port. 

We haven't felt this excited and a little nervous in ages. Since we gave it a name, the car doesn't really feel like a car anymore, but like Red. At the harbor we see him with his striking red color immediately behind a fence. That feels nice! We receive a visitor's pass and are allowed to enter the harbor area. After a long wait, we can finally go to our car! 

Red in Halifax Red at the port in Antwerp | Car Shipping Halifax, Canada
Save in Halifax | Car Shipping Halifax, Canada

Check and departure

It turns out that someone in the back of the car tried to open all the boxes and the lashing straps were cut. It seems that customs did this as we only lost a few small things. However, we don't know for sure. If it was customs, it's shocking that they treat your stuff like that. Yet the enthusiasm prevails and we get in the car to leave.

Roy turns the key. Nothing… The battery is empty. We are very lucky, it is a quarter past four and the technical service normally stops working at four o'clock, but luckily there are still two men who can help us out. They give our battery a boost and we can leave.

The technical service comes to the rescue | Car Shipping Halifax, Canada
The technical service comes to the rescue | Car shipping Halifax

The feeling of driving away in your own car after all those weeks, after all the stress that the shipping entails, is indescribable!

From now on our adventure really begins!

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Shipping your car, the facts at a glance 

Now that we have experienced it ourselves, I would like to share with you a few facts about the shipping from Antwerp in Belgium to Halifax in Canada.

  • Length of time: Normally the boat is on its way to Halifax for 11 days (15 days to Baltimore) and after arrival you have to count on a maximum of 3 working days before you can pick up the car due to port and customs controls.
  • Pricing: The price fluctuates. It cost us EUR 1840 for the shipping and EUR 425 for the insurance. This is mainly based on volume. A bigger car = more costs.
  • Options: You can join the boat. In that case you have less 'hassle' at customs, because you drive your car on and off the boat yourself. However, due to the pandemic, this is not allowed until at least the end of 2022.

If you are also going to ship your own car and if you have any questions, read the article below and let us know, we will be happy to help you!

Also read: Shipping an Overlander vehicle, motorhome or motorhome bus | How much does that cost?

Until the next,

Roy and Ellen 

Avatar picture

Red's Road Life

Roy & Ellen
Traveling North and South America in our Jeep Wrangler Rubicon named Red
Vlogging it all on YouTube

We met in Bali and after a few months we lived together in the heart of Antwerp. We celebrated Christmas in Paris, traveled with our camper through Sweden and Norway, slept in an igloo during our winter sports holiday in Austria and flew to Jordan, where we slept under the stars in the Wadi Rum desert.

Then COVID hits...

We were given a little too much time to think about our dreams and before we knew it we bought a Jeep Wrangler, converted it into a cottage on all-terrain wheels and renamed it Red. We shipped it to Halifax (Canada) and now we are making one of our dreams come true, traveling through the Americas.

0 comments

  • Inglese:
    HI! Thanks for all the information. However, I didn't understand who I should contact to formalize the sending.
    I could also travel together with my Hyundai Terracan it would be great!!
    Can you help me with the name of the agency so I can contact it??
    Thank you with all my heart.

    Italian:
    Ciao! Grazie per tutta l'information. Tuttavia non ho capito a chi mi devo rivolgere per formalizare l'invio.
    Potrei anche viaggiare insieme alla mia Hyundai Terracan sarebbe bellissimo!!
    I have a great time with the name of the agent per year of contact??
    Thank you so much.

  • Inglese:
    Hello, my name is Gianluigi and I live in Canada, but I would like to move to Italy because my family and relatives are now in Canada. I'd like to know how much it would cost to bring a 2018 SUV to Italy. I wanted to know if you know a site or number. Thank you for your time.

    Gianluigi Gonzaga

    Italian:
    Buongiorno io mi chiamo Gianluigi e abito in Canada, ma vorrei transfermi in Italy perche cio famiglia e parenti e ora in Canada. Vorrei sapere quando costerebbe a portare in Italy un suv del 2018. Volevo sapere che sapete un site o numero. Vi ringrazio per il vostro tempo.

    Gianluigi Gonzaga

  • Hi Ton,

    Thanks for your comment.

    We have shipped with seabridge. Who uses grimaldi. If I'm not mistaken, belgaco also uses grimaldi, only belgaco is slightly more expensive. Grimaldi had again outsourced this to ACL (a subsidiary of Grimaldi).

    Best regards,

    Roy

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