When we decided to ship our (self-converted) Sprinter to Europe, I started scouring the net for information on how to do it. While I did find some useful links, a lot of what I came across seemed to have changed in important ways, or was missing important caveats. I thought I'd write up our choices and experience so that anyone else thinking about doing this can refer to it. No doubt it too will become less accurate as time moves on from the date of writing (November 2016).
BIG PICTURE IDEAS
LEGAL STUFF
You are allowed to ship your vehicle (Sprinter or otherwise) to Europe for a period of 6 months without filling out any more than a simple form. Note: this is 6 months out of any 12 - you cannot head down to Morocco (for example) with the hope of resetting the clock unless you plan to be out of the EU for long enough to round up to 12 months. This regulation is EU-wide: no matter which country you import to, the 6 months-in-12 rule applies wherever you go in the EU.
There are no import duties, no need for inspection or registration as long as your vehicle is fully registered and inspected in your home state. Note that this may require you to re-register and re-inspect your vehicle if the current expiration dates fall in the middle of your proposed stay in Europe. This can be tricky if you also plan to suspend your US insurance policy (see below), since most states will revoke the registration when that happens. So be sure to do this before cancelling insurance, not after. We imported via the UK, so we had to fill out a C100 form (very easy) that required us to give a UK address (we used my parents'). We mailed the letter to UK Customs and about 3-4 weeks later, they sent a letter to the provided address in the UK confirming that the vehicle was cleared for import without duties etc.
As the time of writing, we are still in the UK, so we do not know quite how departure will work, but all the forms and letters make it extremely clear that we MUST remove the vehicle from Europe before 6 months is up, otherwise we will be liable for the full import duties, vehicle tax + registration and inspection for safety. Note that this is also the case if the van were to be stolen or wrecked.
INSURANCE
There are 3 parts to the insurance story.
1) Insurance back in the USA
If you're going to be gone for a long time, it may be financially worth your while to cancel your US policy. We're gone for the full 6 months, so we did this. Be aware that in most or all states, the insurance company will notify the state, who will require official suspension of your vehicle's registration (since it is illegal to drive an uninsured vehicle on any public route). We believe that our insurance company (State Farm) will happily reinstate our insurance when we return, but that remains to be seen.
2) Insurance in Europe
You are legally required to have liability insurance while using your vehicle in Europe. Failure to do so can threaten you with legal penalties (the consequence may vary by country). You are not required to have any insurance for damage or loss of the vehicle itself, but you may decide that you want some.
Contrary to information that you may still find out there online, there appears to be only a single insurer willing to offer this insurance. Your normal US insurance company will not insure your vehicle in Europe, and no regular European insurance company will insure a US registered vehicle. You may find stories about certain companies such as Geico who supposedly offer the required coverage. These stories were either never true, are no longer true, or apply only to expatriates who will be abroad for at least 1 year (this does not conflict with the 6 month rule mentioned above - there are conditions under which you can have your US registered vehicle in Europe for longer, but they mostly concern being posted there for work or long term study). Several companies in the UK advertise this sort of coverage, but when contacted, no longer offer it.
The only insurer I could find who still offer the required insurance is Tour Insure in Germany
(http://www.tourinsure.de/international-vehicle-insurance/home9b85.html?L=6)
Whether it is because they basically own the market or for other reasons, the cost of this insurance is astronomical. We pay about $800 a year to insure our van with full comprehensive coverage (though only for the vehicle value, not the conversion extras). Just 6 months of liability-only coverage via TourInsure was nearly $700. To insure the full value of the van would have cost over US$4500 for 6 months.
There's not much you can do about this (unless you manage to find an alternative insurer that I missed). We decided to get the required liability insurance, and a small amount of loss/damage coverage. However, they mis-read our form, and gave us only the liability portion, and we reconsidered and just left it at that. There was a $2500 deductible ("excess" in UK terminology), which meant that it would be fairly useless for minor accidents anyway.
3) Insurance on the boat
No matter how you ship your vehicle (more below), neither the insurance you had/have in the USA nor the insurance you will have in Europe will cover anything happening to the van while on the boat. Reading trade journals about this sort of thing gave the me the sense that in general not much is likely to happen, but if it does it will be one of two things: (1) fire on board (2) vessel capsizes due to load shifting. Neither are common, but (1) is an order of magnitude more common than (2). No idea how there can ever be a fire on board, but apparently it is a "growing risk" (though still a very small one). Note the fire risk is much smaller for container shipping compared with Roll-on/Roll-off shipping (see below for more on this).
We opted to take out US$50,000 of insurance on the van while on the boat. It cost $1.50 per $1000 of value, so it added $750 to the overall shipping cost, while also adding near-total peace of mind that if for some reason the van never made it across the Atlantic, we would not be out of pocket and totally stuck (it would obviously still be horrible). This insurance was offered by our shipping agent, and paid for as part of the bill for shipping.
[ In later posts, I will talk about shipping options, and then the actual experience ]
BIG PICTURE IDEAS
- It takes a long time. You will likely not see your van for almost a month.
- It costs about US$2000 in each direction.
- It is quite intimidating and scary, but will probably be fine.
- You can do it for 6 months with no import duties, registration or paperwork.
- Insurance will be expensive.
LEGAL STUFF
You are allowed to ship your vehicle (Sprinter or otherwise) to Europe for a period of 6 months without filling out any more than a simple form. Note: this is 6 months out of any 12 - you cannot head down to Morocco (for example) with the hope of resetting the clock unless you plan to be out of the EU for long enough to round up to 12 months. This regulation is EU-wide: no matter which country you import to, the 6 months-in-12 rule applies wherever you go in the EU.
There are no import duties, no need for inspection or registration as long as your vehicle is fully registered and inspected in your home state. Note that this may require you to re-register and re-inspect your vehicle if the current expiration dates fall in the middle of your proposed stay in Europe. This can be tricky if you also plan to suspend your US insurance policy (see below), since most states will revoke the registration when that happens. So be sure to do this before cancelling insurance, not after. We imported via the UK, so we had to fill out a C100 form (very easy) that required us to give a UK address (we used my parents'). We mailed the letter to UK Customs and about 3-4 weeks later, they sent a letter to the provided address in the UK confirming that the vehicle was cleared for import without duties etc.
As the time of writing, we are still in the UK, so we do not know quite how departure will work, but all the forms and letters make it extremely clear that we MUST remove the vehicle from Europe before 6 months is up, otherwise we will be liable for the full import duties, vehicle tax + registration and inspection for safety. Note that this is also the case if the van were to be stolen or wrecked.
INSURANCE
There are 3 parts to the insurance story.
1) Insurance back in the USA
If you're going to be gone for a long time, it may be financially worth your while to cancel your US policy. We're gone for the full 6 months, so we did this. Be aware that in most or all states, the insurance company will notify the state, who will require official suspension of your vehicle's registration (since it is illegal to drive an uninsured vehicle on any public route). We believe that our insurance company (State Farm) will happily reinstate our insurance when we return, but that remains to be seen.
2) Insurance in Europe
You are legally required to have liability insurance while using your vehicle in Europe. Failure to do so can threaten you with legal penalties (the consequence may vary by country). You are not required to have any insurance for damage or loss of the vehicle itself, but you may decide that you want some.
Contrary to information that you may still find out there online, there appears to be only a single insurer willing to offer this insurance. Your normal US insurance company will not insure your vehicle in Europe, and no regular European insurance company will insure a US registered vehicle. You may find stories about certain companies such as Geico who supposedly offer the required coverage. These stories were either never true, are no longer true, or apply only to expatriates who will be abroad for at least 1 year (this does not conflict with the 6 month rule mentioned above - there are conditions under which you can have your US registered vehicle in Europe for longer, but they mostly concern being posted there for work or long term study). Several companies in the UK advertise this sort of coverage, but when contacted, no longer offer it.
The only insurer I could find who still offer the required insurance is Tour Insure in Germany
(http://www.tourinsure.de/international-vehicle-insurance/home9b85.html?L=6)
Whether it is because they basically own the market or for other reasons, the cost of this insurance is astronomical. We pay about $800 a year to insure our van with full comprehensive coverage (though only for the vehicle value, not the conversion extras). Just 6 months of liability-only coverage via TourInsure was nearly $700. To insure the full value of the van would have cost over US$4500 for 6 months.
There's not much you can do about this (unless you manage to find an alternative insurer that I missed). We decided to get the required liability insurance, and a small amount of loss/damage coverage. However, they mis-read our form, and gave us only the liability portion, and we reconsidered and just left it at that. There was a $2500 deductible ("excess" in UK terminology), which meant that it would be fairly useless for minor accidents anyway.
3) Insurance on the boat
No matter how you ship your vehicle (more below), neither the insurance you had/have in the USA nor the insurance you will have in Europe will cover anything happening to the van while on the boat. Reading trade journals about this sort of thing gave the me the sense that in general not much is likely to happen, but if it does it will be one of two things: (1) fire on board (2) vessel capsizes due to load shifting. Neither are common, but (1) is an order of magnitude more common than (2). No idea how there can ever be a fire on board, but apparently it is a "growing risk" (though still a very small one). Note the fire risk is much smaller for container shipping compared with Roll-on/Roll-off shipping (see below for more on this).
We opted to take out US$50,000 of insurance on the van while on the boat. It cost $1.50 per $1000 of value, so it added $750 to the overall shipping cost, while also adding near-total peace of mind that if for some reason the van never made it across the Atlantic, we would not be out of pocket and totally stuck (it would obviously still be horrible). This insurance was offered by our shipping agent, and paid for as part of the bill for shipping.
[ In later posts, I will talk about shipping options, and then the actual experience ]