Shipping a Mini

[Vikram]

As I mentioned in my restoration thread, my living situation will be changing very soon as I recently graduated. Unfortunately, my job hunt has been largely unsuccessful in the US and therefore I will be pursuing either employment or a Masters back in the UK.

I have heard that due to the size of the mini, shipping it overseas is not horribly expensive. It will also give me the opportunity to properly re-title the car as a 1960 Austin Mini instead of its current 1963 Austin Cooper designation.

Can anyone recommend a shipping service? I am in NY state and the car would need to be picked up and delivered to the port. I have seen some shipping companies that offer that service.

Any things in particular to look out for when importing the car to the UK?

[MiniDave]

I think most of us are more concerned with shipping it here!   ;D

If the car is driveable I think you'll want to do a roll on/roll off like Bruce did when he brought Emma over from the UK.

I think I would ask the UK end what they need first.......I think it's old enough that it's exempt from tax and such.

[BruceK]

Sorry to hear about your job hunting problem.

I only have experience in shipping from the UK to the US - not the other way around.  But yes, if you use RoRo (roll on, roll off) shipping instead of containerized shipping the Mini's small cubic footprint means it enjoys lower shipping costs than larger vehicles.  For RoRo the car needs to be running reliably, so dockhands and stevedores can load and unload it on the ship, as well as move it round the docks.  Containerized shipping is much more expensive. 

I have used Phoenix Cargo (part of Mapcargo) based in Middlesex and Terry Pittaway is the contact and I was very happy with the experience.  I would imagine they can handle imports to the UK as well.   www.phoenix-cargo.com   Terry is very familar with shipping Minis and he should be able to provide you with a quote as well as advice on the import process.  Plus they are Mini enthusiasts - take a look at their website and you'll see lots of Mini photos. 

If you are going to re-title the car I would think it would be much better to get it sorted in the US - not sure how the DVLA would address that as they will likely want to issue a V5C based upon the US documentation.  And if the US documentation is not technically correct, then they may question the importation process.  Just speculation on my part.

[Vikram]

Thank you, I have also heard of Phoenix Cargo.
I am unable to get any contact information of their website, would you be able to provide any?

[BruceK]

Thank you, I have also heard of Phoenix Cargo.
I am unable to get any contact information of their website, would you be able to provide any?

Yeah.  Something about way it is coded does not seem to work well on my phone either. But I can see the full website with the menu choices on the left when I visit the site on my laptop. 

Here's a screenshot of some contact information when I shipped my car with them.  That was about three years ago but it still should be good.

His email is terry.pittaway@phoenix-cargo.com

[Vikram]

Thank you very much Bruce!

[Jims5543]

I am kind of stuck on the no jobs in the US thing.  What kind of work are you looking for?

From what I am seeing there are more jobs than people willing to work, I understand you may be in a specialty type of market just curious what that is?


A good friend of mine is a mechanical engineer, he was let go from a window company and was in panic mode, last time he looked for work was 2012 and he was stuck in that mindset.

He landed a contract position immediately and picked up along the way 2 smaller contract jobs he is working on in the evenings and weekends.

Now the contract job may turn full time, except he has 2 other offers he has to sort out.

Last time he was looking he begrudgingly took the window engineer job as it was the only thing out there. 

[Vikram]

I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree, so that is the area that I am looking in. I do agree with the "take what you can get and move up from there" mentality and I am pretty open to various jobs, but my predicament is a little more complicated.

As I am not a US citizen, I require work authorization via visa sponsorship to work in this country. The job market is challenging enough as it is, and this adds a further complication. Going back to the UK removes one of those issues and I have an offer to do a Masters in Automotive and Motorsport Engineering in September.

I aspire to work in the motorsport sector, especially Formula 1 and the UK is the home to multiple teams. It is very competitive, but I might have a shot eventually. If I can work on cars as a full time job and tinker with road cars in my spare time I would be pretty happy.

[Jims5543]

Gonna send you a PM, I know 2 forum guys who work as engineers in F1 one is with McLaren then other with Mercedes both in UK obviously. One of them helped design a Formula E car as well.   You may want to poke them for advice, they are both really nice guys.