When you plan to transport an RV to Europe you don’t have to do it alone. In recent years, shipping vehicles of all types from one country to another by ship or cargo plane has become much more common. There are some documents and details that will be the same for any type of motorized vehicle. However, the requirements may be slightly altered for a recreational vehicle because of size or type of construction.

Leave yourself plenty of advance time to get everything in order. Usually two or three months is required to cover all the bases. Costs can vary widely, depending on the starting location, whether you will need someone to move the RV to the port and so on. But as you make plans to transport an RV to Europe you might want to do some early research and talk with representatives from two or more shipping/moving services. They will happy to give you a quote based on a few simple questions you answer online or over the telephone.

Here are a few of the basic details you will need to consider:

• Are registration, license, title and tax forms all complete and current?

• Will you drive or tow the RV to the dock yourself or will this be part of a package program from a freight/shipping company?

• Will the RV be placed on the ship or plane upon arrival or will there be costs for temporary storage?

• Will the RV be delivered to your door in Europe or will you or an agent have to pick it up and drive/transport it to the final destination?

You should make an early decision on whether you will use roll on/roll off service or arrange for a dedicated container or flat rack that will house only your RV and personal items. Roll on/roll off service will be a bit less expensive but you will generally not be allowed to send unrelated items or other small cargo that is not directly associated with the RV. This is an important decision when you transport an RV to Europe.

In preparation for shipping, you should make sure that the outside antenna and any other protruding items are removed or secured according to shipping requirements. If your RV is motorized the gasoline tank should be no more than one-quarter full. When you arrange additional insurance to transport an RV to Europe, remember that you are not normally covered for personal items. You should also make arrangements for liability insurance that will cover damage your vehicle might cause to other property or the ship.

Requirements vary somewhat for individual European countries when it comes to recreational vehicles and motorized vehicles. A shipping agent or freight company can help you answer many of the questions you may have. For example, you will have to satisfy customs requirements at both the originating port and at the destination port. In some countries, a specific agency will oversee shipping of vehicles, so there may be specific import duties or administrative fees.

Again, time and costs vary depending on the starting point and final destination. Most of the time, shipping a vehicle from the east coast of the United States to a European country will take a week to 10 days. This might change with door-to-door service instead of port-to-port shipping. Be sure that you or your designated agent carry proper identification and required original documents when accepting the RV upon arrival.

But never fear, when it comes to travel trailer transport to the United Kingdom – it has been done before by careful and enterprising individuals and by experienced shipping service companies. The key to success is to allow plenty of lead time for planning and getting all the documents and schedules in order. The companies that have experience with moving travel trailers know the process takes patience and problem-solving skills.

Watch for the companies that make promises and claims that seem almost too good to be true. If you think this is the case, it probably is! No careful and reliable agent can make all the arrangements in a week or two and deliver your travel trailer in good condition a few days later. In truth, it will take a couple of months of planning to cover all the details of registration, insurance, dock fees, customs schedules and import costs.

Travel trailer transport to the United Kingdom should be carefully planned, as we mentioned several times already (mostly because there are specific limits for trailer length and weight). An earlier call or visit to the Vehicle & Operator Service Agency (VOSA) would be a good idea. An agent at this office should be able to answer questions about how the travel trailer can be transported over land, once it arrives in the U.K. This is crucial because you don’t want to go through the months-long process of getting your prized possession into the country only to find that alterations are necessary to make it “legal.” Lighting, licensing, hitch arrangements and brakes can all vary in different countries. Deal with these issues before moving the trailer, rather than after.

Some people who start planning travel trailer transport to the U.K. find that the entire process may cost $2,000, $3,000 or more, even for a unit that cost about that much in the first place. Estimates for shipping a small car, for example, range from $500 to $2,000 for the least expensive option – roll on/roll off service. But the movement of a non-motorized trailer is a slightly different animal, so to speak.

Before you commit to any overland transportation in the original country, make sure that all the registration and tax documents are in order. This means that at any moment during the entire trip you or your agent can say “yes” when an official of some agency asks if you own the unit and all is in order. That simple step can eliminate delays later in the trip.

Finally, take some time to visit some of the excellent Web sites that deal with travel trailer transport to the United Kingdom. Some of them are very detailed and answer most of the questions about this process.