Coverage
North America and Europe, on the lanes the vehicle carriers actually run. Southampton, Antwerp-Bruges, Bremerhaven and Rotterdam against Brunswick, Baltimore, Halifax and New York — with the inland legs, the clearance and the compliance handled at both ends.
- United States, United Kingdom and European Union
- RoRo, shared container, sole-use container, enclosed road and air
- Inland transport, storage, customs and carnet arranged both sides
How coverage works
We are not a carrier. We choose one.
Lucas International owns no vessels, no terminals and no trucks. The Atlantic vehicle trade is run by a short list of operators. Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Höegh Autoliners, Grimaldi, K Line, MOL and the US-flag ARC run the deep-sea pure car and truck carriers. Atlantic Container Line runs the weekly ConRo rotation, pairing Liverpool, Hamburg and Antwerp against Halifax, New York, Baltimore and Norfolk. Published transits on that service run about nine nights Liverpool to Halifax, eleven to New York and fourteen coming back from New York to Liverpool. We book space on the service that suits the car, and we instruct licensed customs brokers to clear it. We do not file entries ourselves and we do not describe ourselves as something we are not.
The work is in the choosing, and the nearest port is rarely the deciding factor. A running modern car with no paint anxiety can go RoRo from Southampton, which has no vessel or tidal restrictions and works round the clock. A non-running pre-war car, a fresh restoration, or anything where originality carries the value goes in a container instead, whatever the port map suggests. Method decides more shipments than price does, and it is set out in full in RoRo versus container. Terminal choice matters in the same way: a facility built to move three million new cars a year treats a car differently from one accustomed to handling a few. Where a client is buying as well as shipping, compliance eligibility is checked before the purchase rather than after the landing. That is why sourcing and shipping run as one engagement here.
Europe and the United Kingdom
European vehicle ports
The loading and discharge points we work most often on UK and EU lanes, and what each is actually good for.
| Port | Country | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southampton | United Kingdom | The UK's number one vehicle port | No vessel or tidal restrictions, two high tides a day, working 24/7/365. Southampton and the Humber together account for roughly 40% of UK automotive trade. Weekly RoRo and container departures for the United States. |
| Antwerp-Bruges | Belgium | Largest RoRo and vehicle port in the world | 3.34 million new cars handled in 2025 on the port authority's own figures. Called weekly on the ACL European rotation. Our default EU gateway where a car is coming out of Germany, the Low Countries or northern France. |
| Bremerhaven | Germany | Europe's second busiest vehicle handling port | The BLG terminals. The natural loading point for German-sourced cars and for anything bought at auction or from a marque specialist in the north of the country. |
| Rotterdam | Netherlands | Principal Dutch container gateway | Used for boxed moves rather than driven ones. Dutch entry adds BPM, a registration tax keyed to CO2 output and first registration date, on top of 21% VAT. Both sit with the Belastingdienst, are stated here as at 2026 and are confirmed per shipment. BPM can dwarf the duty on a modern performance car. |
| Zeebrugge | Belgium | Deep-sea and short-sea RoRo terminal | Merged with Antwerp into a single port authority in April 2022; it handled 2.26 million units in 2021 as a standalone port. Strong for high-volume RoRo and for short-sea feeder connections into the UK. |
| Port of Tyne | United Kingdom | Second UK port for vehicle exports | More than 600,000 cars a year through its car terminal. Worth using when a car is collected in the north of England or Scotland and would otherwise be trucked the length of the country to reach the south coast. |
Sailing frequency and terminal allocation are set by the shipping lines. We confirm the actual service and cut-off for each shipment rather than working from a published schedule.
North America
North American vehicle ports
Volumes below are 2025 finished-vehicle figures, which is the cleanest available measure of how much automotive work a terminal genuinely does.
| Port | State/Province | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brunswick | Georgia | Largest US automotive gateway | Almost 779,000 finished vehicles in 2025. It overtook Baltimore following the 2024 Key Bridge collapse and roughly USD 262 million of capacity investment. Deep South Atlantic coverage with good onward road connections. |
| Baltimore | Maryland | Second US automotive gateway | More than 728,000 finished vehicles in 2025. A scheduled call on the ACL North American rotation, which makes it a practical discharge point for UK and Northern European loadings. |
| Jacksonville | Florida | Major South Atlantic vehicle port | 416,721 finished vehicles in 2025. Published port-to-port times from the UK run around fourteen days, which tends to make it the quickest sensible Florida option. |
| New York / New Jersey | New York and New Jersey | Principal North Atlantic gateway | 361,283 finished vehicles in 2025. Around eleven nights from Liverpool on the ACL rotation, and the shortest ocean leg to a US port on that service. |
| Halifax | Nova Scotia | First and last North American call on the ACL rotation | Roughly nine nights from Liverpool westbound and seven nights back eastbound. The fastest crossing on the lane, and often the right choice for a car that is then moving on by road into Ontario or New England. |
| Galveston | Texas | Gulf gateway | 19,137 finished vehicles in 2025 — a specialist volume rather than a mass terminal. Gulf transits from the UK run around fourteen days on published schedules. Used when the final address is in Texas or the interior south. |
Port-to-port time is one stage of five. Collection and consolidation, export formalities, the ocean leg, destination clearance and final delivery together make three to six weeks door to door normal on these lanes. Anyone quoting two weeks is quoting one stage.
Markets
Where we clear, and what clearing there involves
Three markets, three different sets of paperwork. The requirements below are stated as at 2026 and confirmed per shipment with the named authority before a car moves.
North America
United States and Canada. For US entry, CBP requires the original bill of lading, the bill of sale, the foreign registration and any other documents covering the vehicle. EPA Form 3520-1 and DOT Form HS-7 are filed for each car. The Import Security Filing (ISF 10+2) goes in at least 24 hours before the box is loaded, and USDA expects the undercarriage free of foreign soil. Two age thresholds govern eligibility and are routinely confused. NHTSA's FMVSS exemption runs at 25 years from the month and year of manufacture, not the model year. The EPA emissions exclusion runs at 21 years, provided the engine is the original or an equivalent configuration.
The 25-year rule explainedUnited Kingdom
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. HMRC must be told the vehicle is in the country within 14 days of arrival through NOVA, and NOVA has to clear before DVLA will register anything. Registration then runs on a V55/5. The approval route depends on origin and age: a European Certificate of Conformity, IVA, MSVA, a GB conversion IVA for a left-hand-drive EU-registered car, or an age exemption. Getting the evidence right is what separates an age-related plate from a Q plate, and on a classic that gap is real money.
USA to UK shippingEuropean Union
Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy in the main. Duty is assessed on the CIF customs value — purchase price plus transport and insurance to the EU border. National VAT then applies to value plus duty plus freight: 21% in the Netherlands, 19% in Germany, 20% in France, on each national tax authority's published rates as at 2026. Registration taxes sit on top and vary by member state, with Dutch BPM the one that most often surprises a buyer. Type approval and national registration are handled per country.
Shipping and logistics
Beyond the ocean leg
Also arranged
Most of a car's mileage happens on land, and most of the delay happens on paper. Both are part of the engagement, not an add-on quoted later.
Inland transport, both sides
Collection and final delivery by open or enclosed carrier in North America and across Europe. A named driver, a dated photographic condition record at collection and at delivery, and no transhipment mid-route. Cross-border road moves between the UK and the EU need a customs regime — T1 transit, temporary admission or returned goods relief — and not simply a CMR note.
Storage
Secure storage at either end while a sailing, a compliance step or a buyer completes. Customs-bonded storage is arranged through licensed partners where a car has to remain under customs control rather than enter free circulation.
ATA Carnet
A single internationally guaranteed document covering temporary export and import of a car for up to twelve months. This is the mechanism behind concours entries, auction viewing and rally participation, issued in the UK through the chambers of commerce.
Temporary Admission
Brings a vehicle into the UK or the EU without duty or VAT, provided it leaves again unchanged. The route we use where a carnet is not available or not appropriate for the movement.
Returned Goods Relief
For a car that goes out and comes back. HMRC and the equivalent EU rules require the vehicle to return within three years and to come back unprocessed. Conditions are checked against the current published guidance before the car leaves, not after it returns.
Marine cargo cover
Placed by a regulated broker on an agreed-value basis under Institute Cargo Clauses (A). The commercial default is invoice price plus ten percent, which is the wrong basis for an appreciating asset. Lucas International arranges the introduction; it does not underwrite or advise on insurance.
Next step
Tell us the car and the two addresses
Give us the vehicle, the origin and the destination. We come back with a port pair, a method, a realistic door-to-door range and the compliance steps that apply to that car in that market. If you would rather read first, how it works sets out the engagement end to end.