Car shipping to and from Vietnam, eligibility first
Two questions decide a vehicle shipment here, and the freight rate is neither: whether your car qualifies to enter at all, and whether it should travel on a deck or inside a sealed box. Asia Relocation Vietnam answers both in writing before anything is booked.
Vietnam has the strictest entry conditions of the markets we work in, and they are no formality to tidy up later. Whether a used vehicle may be imported depends on its age and on how long you have owned it, taken together. A car that fails on either does not fail more cheaply at the port than at the quotation.
The second question is the one this page exists to answer honestly. Roll-on roll-off is cheaper for a standard running car; a sealed container protects better. Neither is right in the abstract: the vehicle, the route and the handling you will accept decide it.
Asia Relocation Vietnam runs the origin end as one structure rather than a chain of subcontractors, from Ho Chi Minh City. The inspection, the paperwork and the port coordination are the same company, and the same coordinator answers from the first question to the handover.
What the shipment covers, and what sits outside it
What is excluded matters as much as what is included, so it is written down here rather than discovered on the day.
Carried by the service
- The eligibility answer — age and ownership duration checked together, in writing, before a quotation exists.
- A method recommendation, deck or container, with the trade-off stated rather than left to a price list.
- The inspection: condition report and photographs, which is what any later claim is settled from.
- The Vietnamese customs file — registration papers, forms, and the permits that apply to your direction.
- Loading, sea freight and clearance, closed by a documented handover at the far end.
All of it is itemised, with the limits stated.
A different service
- Driving something that is not yours. No import, no duty, nothing to sell afterwards: that is car leasing.
- The duty itself. We prepare the file and explain the calculation; the payment is yours, and we never quote it as a round number.
- The household. Furniture crossing the border is an international move; staying in the country, a local one.
- Animals. They never travel with a vehicle: pet relocation.
- Cover, and the weeks in between. Moving insurance is quoted on its own, and storage in Vietnam holds a car that lands before you do.
They can be planned together with the shipment. Tell us in the inquiry.
Deck or box, and the four cases in between
The honest version of this choice on a Vietnam route, including when the cheaper option is right.
Roll-on roll-off
Driven aboard, secured on the deck, no box to pay for. On a route where a service calls, it is the sensible answer for a standard running car, and we say so rather than steering you upwards. You accept more exposure and more hands.
Sealed container
Closed at loading, opened at destination, weather and handling shut out. It also takes wheels, parts and tools with the car, which a deck will not. We recommend it for anything valuable, modified or not currently running.
Shared container
Two or three vehicles braced separately in one box. Container protection at a share of the price; what moves is the calendar, since the box leaves when it is full rather than when you are.
Motorbikes
Crated or braced inside a container rather than driven aboard, and photographed one by one. In a country where the motorbike is the default vehicle rather than a hobby, this is ordinary work here.
Company, project and NGO fleets
Several vehicles under one agreement, frequently attached to an industrial project rather than an office. One billing trail, one contact, and a condition report per vehicle instead of per convoy.
Eligibility, then a method, then a date
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Does this vehicle qualify?
Age and ownership duration, checked together and answered in writing. It is the first step and not the fourth, because everything downstream is worthless if the answer is no.
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The method, argued rather than sold
Deck or container, with what each one costs you in money and in exposure. If the cheaper option is right for your car, that is what the quotation says.
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Inspection and the Vietnamese file
Condition report and photographs, then registration papers, customs forms and any permit your direction requires. This is the stage where a shipment is delayed or not.
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Collection, loading and sailing
The car is picked up where it stands, in the city or at a plant in a province, and moved to the port as a documented transfer by our own people.
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Clearance, delivery, handover
Customs at the far end, delivery, and a second condition check against the first report. Signed and dated, so the file closes rather than simply stopping.
Four owners, and what each one is really asking
Professionals shipping a car in
Frequently a first posting in Vietnam and a first import. The question underneath is the same one: will it be allowed in, and what will it cost once it is.
Households leaving with the car they arrived in
Export is the simpler direction, and the one where the method matters most: the receiving country decides what it will accept, and a deck shipment is harder to argue about on arrival.
Motorbike owners
The bike that came with the posting and is not being left behind. Crated, photographed individually, and usually consolidated with something else from the same address.
Industrial projects and missions
Fleets attached to a plant or a programme rather than an office, rotating on the project calendar. Entitlement to respect, one file, one contact.
From Ho Chi Minh City, and from wherever the car actually is
Collection across the country, loading and clearance through the port the sailing uses.
The Asia Relocation Vietnam vehicle desk sits in Ho Chi Minh City, where most files are run from. The cars are often elsewhere: expatriate engineers are posted where the plants are, not the offices, and a vehicle parked at an industrial park two provinces away still has to reach a quay.
That transfer is the part we do not subcontract. The car is inspected where it stands, moved as a documented movement against that report, and only then loaded. A vehicle driven down by whoever was available arrives with kilometres and marks nobody recorded, and nothing can be settled afterwards.
Questions that come before a booking
Can we import a used car into Vietnam?
Roll-on roll-off or a container?
What will the duties come to?
Which documents do you need?
Do you ship motorcycles?
How long does it take?
Is the vehicle insured in transit?
Can you collect the car outside Ho Chi Minh City?
The car, before and after the crossing
You would rather not import at all
A vehicle for the length of the assignment, with no duty, no eligibility test and nothing to sell at the end.
Leasing a car in Vietnam →The whole moving service
Seven services in Vietnam, and which of them your move actually needs.
Moving services in Vietnam →Send us the vehicle, its age, and how long you have owned it
We answer the eligibility question first, recommend a method with its reason, and come back with a written scope and a date.
Request your shipping quote →