If you are only shipping a car to Latin America, RoRo is the way to go. It is cheaper than buying a container for one empty vehicle, it books on short notice, and it is even better if you already live near a port city and can drive the car to the terminal yourself.
That is how I shipped mine. A RoRo ship is a parking garage that floats. You roll on, they lash the car, you roll off at the other end. There is no box, and that is the point.
Need household goods in the same sailing? That is a container, not RoRo — usually a shared 40-foot. The method fork lives on how to ship a car to Latin America (container vs RoRo). This page is the RoRo product in full.
Ready to take the next step? Book a consultation call — we’ll map out the right path for your situation.
Table of Contents
What RoRo actually is
RoRo means roll-on/roll-off. The vessel has ramps and decks, not stacks of boxes. Your car is cargo the same way a parking stall is inventory: driven on, chained down, driven off. No crane lifts the vehicle into a steel cube.
Lines run regular vehicle sailings from US Gulf and East Coast terminals toward Caribbean and South American ports. You (or a trucker) deliver the car to the origin terminal. The line handles stowage. A broker on the other side handles pickup and destination customs — which is a separate project from the ocean move.
People hear “ocean freight” and picture a 40-foot box. That product exists, and it is the right one when you are moving a household. For one car and nothing else, you would be renting empty air. RoRo is the stall, not the warehouse.
Why it wins for a car-only move
You are paying for deck space, not 40 feet of steel. That is why RoRo is the cheaper line-haul when the cargo is the vehicle. A shared container only competes when you split a 40-foot with someone else’s car and pack the leftover cube with household goods — around $3,000 each as a planning number on that product. One sedan in a box by itself is usually the expensive way to do it.
RoRo is also operationally simpler. No matching a second car. No packing plan. No argument about who pays if the other vehicle drops out. Title, ID, terminal cutoff, empty cabin, sail. That is the whole origin-side job.
The trade is strict: no personal possessions on the car. If the trunk is full of a life, you are not on RoRo. You are back in a container, or you are paying twice — RoRo for the car and something else for the stuff, which is usually worse math than sharing a 40-foot.
Even better near a port city
The quiet cost in vehicle shipping is not always the ocean. It is inland trucking to and from the ramp. If you live in or near an origin port city, you drive the car to the terminal yourself and skip that bill. Same story on arrival: living near the destination port means you pick the car up instead of paying another trucker to haul it inland.
Houston, Miami, Jacksonville, and similar Gulf/East Coast vehicle terminals are the kind of origin that makes this easy for a US-based move. You are not locked to those names — your forwarder will tell you which ramp has space on your week — but the pattern is the same. Proximity to the ramp is a discount. Inland pickup is a surcharge plus another handoff where something can get delayed.
If you already planned to live in a coastal city on the Latin America side — Cartagena, Guayaquil, Callao/Lima, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and other real ports, not a mountain capital — RoRo compounds. The car arrives where you actually are. Shipping a car into a port and then trucking it eight hours inland is how a cheap sailing becomes a project.
Port-city RoRo is the clean version of this move: drive to the origin terminal, sail, drive off at a destination you already live in or near. Inland on both ends is still possible. It is just no longer the cheap, simple version.
How the process runs
A vehicle forwarder books the space with the line. You get a cutoff, a terminal address, and a condition sheet. Show up with a clean title (or lienholder paperwork the line will accept), ID, and the car in the state they asked for — usually near-empty fuel, battery connected, no junk in the cabin, no spare jerry cans.
- Quote the lane, not a fantasy door-to-door. Origin terminal, destination terminal, then inland as a separate line if you need it.
- Book the sailing. RoRo space can appear a few days out. Do not confuse that with destination customs, which does not move on that clock.
- Deliver the empty car to the origin ramp before cutoff. Photograph the exterior and interior. Keep copies of the bill of lading.
- They lash it on deck. You are not packing a box. You are not riding with it.
- Destination pickup + aduana. A local broker pulls the car off and starts import paperwork. That bill is not in the ocean rate.
Fuel is usually left low, not full — lines do not want a tank of gasoline as extra hazard in a floating garage. Ask for the current sheet instead of guessing. Terminal arguments are how you miss a sailing you booked three days earlier.
The car is the easy half
Residency and destination import are a different file from the RoRo booking. Map that before the car sits at the port.
What cannot go on the car
Personal possessions stay off. No packed clothes, no kitchen boxes, no “just a few things in the trunk.” The line is moving a vehicle, not your household. Undeclared cargo in the cabin is a customs problem they will not take.
That rule is why RoRo is cheap. You are not paying someone to treat the car as a suitcase. If you need the suitcase, use a container — preferably a split 40-foot — and pack the cube.
Booking window
RoRo can be scheduled a few days out when the line has space. That is the operational surprise. People treat ocean freight like a six-week container project. For a car-only RoRo stall, the booking window is short. The water still takes however long it takes.
Use that speed on the origin side. Do not use it as an excuse to ignore destination paperwork. The car can sit while aduana finishes. Budget a backup ride and, if needed, port storage.
When RoRo is the wrong product
Skip RoRo if the move is the car plus a household. Skip it if you cannot empty the cabin. Skip it if destination duty will eat the car anyway — then buying local is often cleaner than a cheap sailing into an expensive import.
RoRo also loses some of its simplicity if both ends are inland. You can still do it. You are just adding truckers, extra handoffs, and days. The version that feels like “just ship the car” is the port-to-port version.
For the container alternative — including the ~$3k-each shared 40-foot — read how to ship a car to Latin America. That page owns the method fork. This page owns RoRo.
FAQ
Is RoRo the best way to ship a car to Latin America?
If the cargo is just the car, yes. It is cheaper than a container stall-for-stall, it books on short notice, and it is simplest when you can drive to a port city terminal. If you also need household goods, share a 40-foot container instead.
Does living near a port city actually matter?
Yes. Inland trucking to the ramp is a real line item and another delay point. Living near the origin terminal — and even more so near the destination port — is how RoRo stays the cheap, simple product instead of a door-to-door logistics chain.
Can I put personal items in the car on RoRo?
No. Empty the cabin. The line is not moving your household. Stuff in the trunk is how a clean vehicle booking turns into a customs problem.
How far ahead do I book RoRo?
Space allowing, a few days out. Confirm the actual cutoff with the forwarder for that sailing. Destination import still needs its own timeline.
Is RoRo the same as a container?
No. A container is a sealed box you can pack. RoRo is a parking-garage ship. Different product, different price, different rules. See container vs RoRo if you are still choosing.
Does RoRo include customs clearance?
The ocean move does not replace destination aduana. Budget a local broker, possible duty, and time after the car comes off the ramp. Cheap freight into an expensive import is not a cheap move.
Ready to take the next step? Book a consultation call — we’ll map out the right path for your situation.
Related: How to Ship a Car (Container vs RoRo) · How to Move to Latin America from the USA · Moving with Pets · Residency Comparison
