Shipping or importing a van to another market

Neither method is universally cheaper — RoRo is generally the lower-cost option on well-served routes with strong vessel availability, but industry reporting also shows corridors (some Asia-to-Europe routes among them) where a shared container can undercut RoRo, because RoRo vessel capacity has been tight relative to demand. Route, vehicle size and how much other cargo is travelling with the van all shift which option actually costs less — get quotes for both on the specific route rather than assuming one is always cheaper.

How a vehicle physically crosses an ocean is a separate question from whether it is allowed to stay. A temporary import lets a vehicle enter a country for a limited period — commonly around six months — without paying full import duty or tax, on the condition it leaves again; the EU's temporary admission regime and equivalent UK rules both work this way for non-resident visitors. A permanent import is a different process entirely: duties and taxes become payable, and the vehicle typically needs to pass that country's own type-approval and registration requirements before it can be plated and driven long-term — which is where the market-standards mismatch below actually bites.

A Carnet de Passages en Douane (CPD) is an internationally recognised customs document, issued under United Nations customs conventions, that allows a vehicle to be temporarily imported into a range of countries — mostly outside Europe — without leaving a cash deposit against potential import duty. It functions as an international guarantee: if the vehicle is not re-exported as agreed, the issuing body is liable for the duty and taxes instead of the traveller having paid a deposit at every border. A CPD does not remove the destination country's own rules on what a temporarily imported vehicle can and cannot do — it typically cannot be sold, loaned or abandoned there without the customs authority's agreement, and it must leave again within the carnet's validity.

Vehicle type approval is market-specific, and this is the mismatch that catches people out on a permanent import. An EU-built van typically carries an M1 or N1 EU type-approval classification (see M1 motorhome, explained and N1 LCV, explained) under EU Directive 2007/46/EC — a classification and paperwork trail that other markets do not automatically recognise. Registering that same vehicle in Germany or Spain long-term runs into each country's own roadworthiness and homologation authority — TÜV in Germany, ITV in Spain (see TÜV, explained and ITV, explained) — which can require significant modification or a formal approval procedure for a vehicle not originally built to that market's standard, even if it already passed type approval somewhere else in the EU. The same logic runs in reverse for a non-EU-built van entering Europe, or a European van entering North America or Oceania: a conversion or base vehicle that fully complies with its home market's safety and emissions standards is not automatically legal to permanently register anywhere else, and the compliance gap is usually the largest hidden cost of an international van import.