Penguin Shipping has the greatest accumulation of technical knowledge of customs clearance of motor vehicles of any UK Customs clearance agent.
Import customs clearance of Japanese import vehicles has been a major part of the business since its inception and historically the importation of vehicles from the USA and elsewhere in significant numbers.
Vehicles arrive on Roll-on/Roll-off vessels into Southampton, Newcastle, Immingham and a few other ports in the United Kingdom.
Importation of vehicles from the USA and South Africa continues at high levels and Penguin Shipping has agency ties and represents some of the largest agents and shippers in the automotive business.
RO-RO is a significant means of shipping from the USA but containerisation of single or multiple vehicles is available which often provides faster transit times particularly from the US West Coast.
The reason the Japanese vehicles were attractive was that they are right-hand drive, the same as the UK and also the Japanese ‘Shaken’, a vehicle inspection programme, similar to the UK ‘MOT’ test but far more extensive and costly, as the vehicles gets older. Auction houses were established that buy vehicles solely for export and the buyers of the vehicles for export only and receive a ‘commission’ from the Japanese government for exporting the vehicles. Early markets were New Zealand and Australia, both right-hand drive markets but the United Kingdom was a target market for the vehicles.
In the early days the regulations required the importer to have ‘owned and used’ the vehicle outside of the United Kingdom before it was formally imported and registered for road use. It was arranged by the exporters in Japan to send the vehicles to Rotterdam and for importers to travel to the Netherlands to ‘own and use’ their vehicles for a short period of time thus qualifying under the existing rules.
This regulation was eventually swept away and the commercial importation of used Japanese vehicles started. Many private importers continued to purchase vehicles at the Japanese auctions but the vehicles could now be shipped direct to the UK ports, principally Southampton.
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