How to Import a Vehicle from the UK in 5 Easy Steps

When importing a vehicle from a different country one MUST be always weary of conmen

1. Plan Your Budget then find the car you are interested in. You search using the following key words; the year, the model, the vehicle’s mileage and price.

Now that you know how you’re going to import your vehicle, you just have to budget for it. There are a variety of things you’ll need to budget for other than the cost of the vehicle itself; a typical list includes:

• Permit Application (About £40.33)
• Quarantine Cleaning (About £80.69)
• Degassing (About £80.69)
• Shipping (About £1,210.20 – £1,774.48)
• Storage
• Taxes
• Customs Duties (5-10% of Customs Value)
• Quarantine Inspection
• Dock Transfers (About £32.28)
• Compliance & Modifications (Up To £2,420.40)
• Delivery
• State or Territory Registration
• Insurance

1. Purchase & Getting Your Vehicle Import Approval.

Once you have your Vehicle Import Approval, you can make the shipping arrangements. If you require help with that, then one of our sales representatives at UK Quality Car Export can assist you.

• Transportation Arrangements. There different ways of transporting a unit, here are examples;
• Sea-Freight Conventional Cargo (General Cargo) Conventional cargo is cargo that is transported in bulk, in boxes and/or on palettes. This requires high quality export packaging (for example, very strong wooden crates), offers very low security and is da mage prone due to multi-handling and exposure to weather conditions. Cargo is delivered to a shipping company, referred to as “the carrier”, for transportation between a named port of shipment and a designated place of destination, and is loaded into one of the holds of the carrying vessel (exceptionally on deck if the nature of the goods so requires).
• Sea-Freight Chartering Charter cargo ships do not operate on regular routes and schedules and pick up cargo only when it is chartered from the ship operator. When a consignment represents several thousand tons or cubic meters, for instance bulk cargo like oil, coal, ore and grain, the normal procedure is to charter a vessel or part of a vessel, after contacting possible carriers for quotations. Charter shipping has the lowest freight rate per unit of weight or measure. A charter-party can be concluded for a specific load (tonnage), for a journey, or for a determined length of time.
• Sea-Freight Roll on / Roll off (RO/RO). The RO/RO vessel (RO/RO or RORO) derived from the traditional car ferry, where motor vehicles are driven on and off by their drivers and non-mobile traffic is loaded on flat racks. The RO/RO is equipped with ramps that make loading and unloading from the side and/or bow (front of vessel) and/ or stern (rear of vessel) possible. Benefits include fast loading and unloading. Some modern RO/ROs are designed as a trailer/break-bulk/container carrier suitable for deep-sea voyage (long haul), making loading and unloading of containers from the top using a crane, like a full container ship. The type of cargo that can be carried on a RO/RO is flexible, including large objects. The disadvantage is low security and the risk of damage occurring during loading/unloading and during on-forwarding to an inland destination. For example, when transporting a large quantity of vehicles, RO/RO may not be the optimal mode of transport, depending on the road conditions and safety and security over-land. A car carrier or “own-wheels” offers considerably less protection against theft or damage when compared with FCL delivery by truck where vehicles are safely secured inside closed containers. Thus low freight rates offered on certain routes for RO/RO may not yield overall best value for money; the entire transport chain must be considered when selecting appropriate methods of transport. Shipping and Incoterms / Practice Guide 5
• Sea-Freight LASH (Lighter aboard Ship) Lighter Aboard Ship (LASH) is a system of water transport. LASH vessels each carry about 82 LASH barges. The barges, all of a standard size with cargo capacity of 385 tons, are towed into ports and inland waterways to various shipping points where they are loaded with cargo and then returned to the ocean-going vessel. They are hoisted aboard by a special shipboard gantry-type crane and transported overseas where the process is reversed. LASH ships do not require special docks or terminals.
• Air Freight Air freight is often used for high value/low volume shipments. The traditional method of air dispatch is to deliver a consignment covered by an individual air waybill to an air carrier (either direct or through a freight forwarder). In the case of large loads, it is possible to charter a full aircraft or arrange for what is called a split-charter if the load will not fill the aircraft to full capacity.

1. Customs Clearance & Quarantine Inspection: To import any commodity into Kenayh, Vehicles included, you will have to enlist the services of a clearing agent who will process the importation documentation through Kenya Customs electronically and clear your goods on your behalf. We at VE Kenya will assist you will be happy to assist you in clearing.

The duty payable on the importation of a motor vehicle in accordance to the Kenya Revenue Authority website are as follows:

• Import Duty: 25% of the CIF value of the vehicle
• Excise Duty: 20% of the CIF value + Import Duty
• VAT 16% of the CIF value + Import Duty + Excise Duty
• IDF 2.25% of the CIF value or Ksh. 5000.00 whichever is higher, is payable.

For more information visit the KRA website or click here.

Also note that, In accordance to the Traffic Act CAP 403 Second Schedule Article 2 to 4

1. Compliance & Registration:

Kenya Bureau of Standards (KBS) offers pre-export inspection of used vehicles to determine conformity to the requirements – Kenya Standard Code of Practice for Inspection of Road Vehicles through appointed inspection company in Japan, United Kingdom.
This is a mandatory inspection carried out pursuant to the provisions of Legal Notice 78 of 15/07/2005 and importers of used vehicles coming from the mentioned countries are required to demonstrate conformity to the standard before shipment.
In order to increase the efficiency of the inspection service KEBS has signed contracts with competent company to offer the service on KEBS behalf for a period of three years.
The purpose of the inspection is to ensure vehicles imported into the country are road worthy and that the country is not used as adumping ground for unsafe vehicles.
Information on the full scope of the inspection is provided in the standard which can be purchased from KEBS information resource center or at any of KEBS offices countrywide. However the main requirements that vehicles should comply with are as follows:

• The Age Limitof the vehicle shall be less than 8 years from the year of first registration.
  The difference between the year of manufacture and the year of first registration shall be not more than one year.
• The Driveof the vehicle shall be Right Hand Drive (RHD) only.
• Road-worthiness. This shall be determined by compliance to requirements specified in the standard.
• Radioactive Contamination Inspection.
• Odometer Tampering Verification.

Fun fact in reference to registration of vehicles, the current series of vehicle registration plates in Kenya are on a white plate with black lettering and look quite similar to UK suffix style registrations. The format is LLL NNNL, where ‘L’ denotes a letter and ‘N’ denotes a digit. The older series of number plates were black with white or silver lettering. The rear plates in the older series of number plates were yellow and black lettering. According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics they are over 1,626,380 vehicles in Kenyan road as at 2011.

The following services will be available on the new NTSA platform:

• Car Registration;
• Transfer of car ownership;
• Change of particulars;
• Duplicate Logbook application;
• Reflective Number Plate application; and
• Vehicle inspection.

To register on the new NTSA platform, car owners will need to do the following go to their website for more information and open an account with them.

Why Import a car from the UK?

• Cheaper: Even after VAT is taken into account you can still expect to save 5-25% off the price of your imported car compared to buying the equivalent model on the Irish marketplace.
• Higher spec: Asides from price you also tend to get a higher specification model when importing from Northern Ireland or the UK.
• Service histories: Service histories are usually very good.
• Better Condition: This is down to better roads, more motorway and a keener interest in car maintenance. The Used car market in the UK expect cars to be in immaculate condition with a perfect service history.

Quality Car Export (UK) Ltd offers a professional car export service for customers outside the United Kingdom. We help clients to negotiate, purchase, transport and ship a vehicle from the UK to destinations worldwide. We help to insure you are buying from a reputable seller or dealership and organize the transport from the place of purchase to either a UK port or one of our loading facilities around the country. We make sure your documents will be signed, completed and received in a timely manner for us to clear UK Customs. We offer shipping your vehicle via Ro/Ro or in a Container. To certain destinations we even offer consolidated Container shipments. Visit our website on https://old.ltncarimportcy.com and lets work on getting you your dream car.

Import a car from the UK. Is it still worth it?

So does all this still hold true today? After all, the values of Sterling and the Euro has more or less stabilised, and it’s the Euro that remains the (slightly) weaker currency. Since 2008, rates of VAT have fallen on the most popular cars, making them much more affordable and because many of our main vehicle importers are now more closely tied in with their UK or European HQs, standard specifications have improved significantly. Given that there’s still an element of hassle and expense in getting to and from the UK when researching and making your purchase, is it still worth looking there for your next car?

Well it very much depends on the make or model of car you’re looking for. The biggest problem we have in Ireland today is actually a shortage of supply, there’s a lack of cars in the second hand market from 2009 onwards, so in some ways we’re being forced to look towards the UK market.

Clearly it’s still a popular option. People who have run the gauntlet and learned how to import a car from the UK this year are up 23 per cent on last year, we have had over 30,000 cars imported by both private buyers and dealers alike so far this year.

Visit our website on https://old.ltncarimportcy.com/ and let’s find you your dream car.