Shipping a tourist vehicle out of Panama City isn’t difficult if you know the process. We were fortunate to have some information handed down to us from a friend, Juan, who shipped his vehicle two weeks before we did. There are two parts to the process. One is to do all the customs paperwork releasing the vehicle to exit the country. This wasn’t hard and we have good notes for this. The second part is to find a shipping company. This part was easy for us due to Juan’s help but problematic because the company we chose was not very well informed about the process on the receiving end in Guayaquil Ecuador and therefore we had trouble with the wording on the Bill of Lading. Getting the vehicle shipped out of Panama was no problem and the loading process at the Port of Balboa went smoothly.

Click here to see our notes on customs and shipping.

Click here for all photos of Balboa Port and Mango being loaded in her container

When choosing a shipping company, make certain the company is capable of releasing the vehicle at the destination port in the manner in which you choose. There are two ways. One is called LCL (Less Container Load) and that means that the container is opened inside the port, you pick up your vehicle inside the port and the container is returned to your shipping company by the port. This is the cheapest method for receiving your vehicle because it is much simpler. Note that, in my understanding, with LCL, the contents of the vehicle must be removed from the container at the time the ship arrives in port. So, if you have all the paperwork ready from customs in whatever country you are shipping to, then you can pick up your vehicle that day. Otherwise, the port will unload your vehicle and store it in a warehouse until you have the necessary documents to pick it up. So, for safety reasons, I would recommend doing LCL only if you can arrive at destination in time to do all the paperwork done before your ship arrives. The other option is called FCL (Full Container Load). This means that the vehicle is stored inside the container until you are ready to pick up your vehicle. This is much safer, but more costly because you must pay to have the container moved on a truck to a warehouse outside the port in order to pick up your vehicle. Then the empty container is returned to your shipping company’s warehouse by truck. Ask the shipping company to be very clear about what kind of delivery of cargo they can do for you (LCL or FCL) and to put this verbiage on the Bill of Lading so there are no questions at the receiving port.

The other item that was confusing for us, was the correct designation for the “consignee” on the Bill of Lading. We had ourselves listed initially, but then we found out that in the Port of Guayaquil, you must be represented by an agent, an “agente de aduana”. Not only that, but you must have a company to receive your vehicle on your behalf. Depending on the destination port, your shipping company may be able to do both the shipping and the receiving. But in Guayaquil, this is not the case. If you have to be represented by a receiving company, it won’t matter if you’re your shipping company is authorized to do LCL or FCL, the receiving company must also be authorized to do LCL or FCL, so choose carefully and wisely. Ask a lot of questions. It is very costly to be represented by agents and receiving companies, so if you can ship somewhere where you can do the pick up yourself, that would be the best and most economical choice. Completing the Bill of Lading was the most confusing part for us. You may consider doing a package deal for shipping your car. It may end up saving you money, but I’m not sure, you’ll have to do some research.

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