Car Shipping to USA from the UK

One company from your door in Britain to the address in America

Most transatlantic car moves are a relay. A UK haulier takes the car to a compound. A freight forwarder books the space. A shipping line carries it. A US agent you have never spoken to collects it from the terminal and passes it to a local trucker. Five companies, four hand-offs, and nobody who saw the car leave your driveway ever sees it arrive.

We run it differently, and it is the whole reason this page exists. SKORTA collects your car enclosed, on our own trailer, with our own crew. We carry it to the departure port ourselves. We arrange and manage the ocean freight — the vessel is operated by the shipping line, we do not own ships — and we stay accountable for the car while it is on that vessel. Then we travel to the United States, receive the car at arrival, and complete the final delivery to the address ourselves.

You deal with one company and one number. When you want to know where the car is, you ring the person who strapped it down. That is unusual on this route, and it is deliberate. Everything else on this page — the container, the paperwork, the timings — is downstream of that single decision. Our approach to single-car transport does not change because an ocean is involved.

The UK leg: enclosed collection from anywhere in Britain

The journey to the port is the part most people underestimate. A car bound for America may be driven onto an open transporter, taken to a consolidation yard in Essex or the Midlands, and left outdoors for days while space is found. By the time it reaches the ship it has already been handled by strangers and rained on twice.

Ours goes straight from your door to the port, enclosed, alone. The Brian James Race Transporter 7 loads on an electric tilt bed with a powered rear door and a synthetic-rope winch, so a car with 90mm of ground clearance and a hydraulic nose goes in level and comes out level. Straps go over the tyres in wheel sleeves — never round suspension arms, never over paint. Low-profile chocks and rear chassis rollers do the rest. There is one car in the trailer, and it is yours.

We photograph and sign a condition report before the doors close. That report matters more on an export than anywhere else, because it is the reference point everyone downstream works from — the loading crew, the surveyor, and you, standing in an American driveway weeks later. Collection can be from a home, a showroom, a storage facility, an auction house or a circuit, anywhere in Britain. Read more about our enclosed car transport and how door-to-door delivery works in practice.

Container or RoRo: why collectors choose the box

There are two ways a car crosses the Atlantic, and the difference is not subtle.

RoRo — roll-on, roll-off — means the car is driven aboard a purpose-built vehicle carrier by port staff, parked on an open internal deck alongside several thousand others, and lashed down. It is the cheaper option and it is entirely normal for ordinary cars. But your car is driven, twice, by someone you have not met. It sits on a deck with salt air moving through it. Nothing can be left inside. Ground clearance rules out some cars entirely.

Container means the car is loaded into a 20ft or 40ft steel box, secured on its own wheels with soft straps, and the doors are sealed. Nobody drives it, nobody opens it, and the seal number is recorded. A 40ft container can take two cars in a shared load, or one car alone if you want the box to yourself. For anything with real value — a supercar, a matching-numbers classic, a car with a competition history — this is what collectors choose, and it is what we recommend by default.

• RoRo: lower cost, car driven aboard, open deck, no personal effects, clearance limits.
• Shared container: two cars, sealed box, no driving, moderate cost.
• Sole-use container: one car, sealed box, full control of loading, highest cost.

Which we book depends on the car and on you. The rate follows the choice.

Arrival in America, handled by the person who loaded the car

This is the section that separates us from a forwarder's quote.

When the container reaches the US port, someone has to be there — to attend the unloading, check the seal against the number recorded in Britain, walk the car against the condition report photograph by photograph, and then get it to the address. That final leg is commonly subcontracted to whoever an agent uses that month. We do not.

That means the seal is broken in front of someone who knows what the car looked like when it went in. It means the second condition report is signed by the same company that signed the first, so if anything has moved, there is no argument about when. And it means the car arrives at the house, the collection, the storage facility or the event field with a familiar face behind it rather than a stranger with a clipboard and a schedule.

Customs clearance at the US end is normally handled by a licensed customs broker — and we coordinate with them so that release, collection and delivery follow on without the car sitting in a terminal any longer than it must. Timings depend on the port, the sailing and clearance, and we confirm them per booking rather than promising an average.

US import: what is generally true, and what only your broker can tell you

American import rules are stricter than most European ones, and it is worth understanding the shape of them before you commit.

Broadly, a car permanently imported into the United States is expected to comply with federal safety standards administered by the Department of Transportation and emissions standards administered by the Environmental Protection Agency. Vehicles never built to those standards generally cannot be permanently imported as they are. Age is the well-known exception, and the thresholds are set by the US agencies rather than by us — they turn on the vehicle's exact age and specification, and are confirmed with a US customs broker before booking. Separate exemptions exist for temporary entry — a car coming in for a concours, a rally or a race and leaving again — and a carnet is commonly used for movements of that kind.

Standard paperwork includes the shipping documentation, proof of ownership and purchase, the UK export declaration, and the DOT and EPA entry forms filed at arrival. We carry the car and the documents that travel with it.

What we will not do is tell you your specific car qualifies. Eligibility turns on age to the month, exact specification, and the purpose of the movement, and it is a US customs broker's determination — not a haulier's. Confirm it before you book. If the car is heading to a US event rather than staying, say so early; it changes the route the paperwork takes.

Who moves cars to the States, and why

Three journeys account for most transatlantic movements of this kind.

The relocation. Someone is moving to New York, California or Texas and one car is not going in the shipping container with the furniture — usually the one they have owned longest. It leaves last, arrives first, and matters most. These are the movements where a single accountable company earns its keep, because the owner is on a plane and cannot chase anyone.

The auction purchase. A car is bought at a UK sale and has to be off the premises quickly. We collect on release, so it never joins a compound queue, and go straight to the port. That is the same discipline we apply to auction and dealer transport at home, extended by an ocean.

The event car. Something going to a US concours, a historic race weekend or a manufacturer gathering — where the car must arrive to a date, presentation-clean, and come home again afterwards. Enclosed both ways, temporary import, and a return leg planned from the outset.

Whichever it is, the structure is the same: our crew, our trailer, our management of the crossing, and our hands on the car at the American end. Tell us the car, the postcode and the destination city and we will price the movement properly — you can also try the estimate calculator for the UK leg, or look at how shipping to Canada compares if the destination is still open.