Anybody know of a RoRo service from Italy to UAE

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EURO DRIVING FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

It seems that our last race in the 2010 season will be in Abu Dhabi. The plan from the great and good in ivory towers of F1 and GP2 is that we, along with the other 12 teams, pack all our gear and cars in our freight boxes in the paddock at Monza and they get taken to La Spezia to be shipped to the UAE.
Anyway I made an of the cuff remark that to avoid the cost of bringing the empty boxes to Monza and the agro of packing them just put the trucks on a boat. My boss thought this was a good idea and suggested it to the organiser of the GP2 series who also thinks it’s a good idea. :open_mouth:

So does anybody know of a shipping line that could take about 20 trucks on some sort of RoRo ship, between Northern Italy, (or anywhere near-ish) to a port in the UAE?

2

Try Billitz in Trieste who done all the shipping this year when we went to istanbul from monaco www.motorsport.billitztrieste.com if they dont they maybe able to point you in the right direction

3

Is it one week or two between races ? What are you thinking of doing, going through the suez canal or driving across saudi ?. Don’t think you have thought this out, or looked at a map.

4

Ex Haulier:
Is it one week or two between races ? What are you thinking of doing, going through the suez canal or driving across saudi ?. Don’t think you have thought this out, or looked at a map.

he probably hasnt as like he said in his post

muckles:
Anyway I made an of the cuff remark

5

Ex Haulier:
Is it one week or two between races ? What are you thinking of doing, going through the suez canal or driving across saudi ?. Don’t think you have thought this out, or looked at a map.

We have about 5 weeks to get there, and it would be sea freight whether it’s carried in our trucks our boxes. To make sense to take the trucks we’d really have to get a ship that docks somewhere in the UAE.

We do an Asia series at present, but with different cars and equipment, but we have all summer to load the boxes in our own workshop and then it taken down to La Spezia to get shipped to the Middle East.

6

just load them and drive there,going out to qatar myself in the next couple of weeks

7

rcnl:
just load them and drive there,going out to qatar myself in the next couple of weeks

Thanks for the suggestion, but I doubt most of the other truck drivers would be interested and my boss wouldn’t let me take our truck overland to Abu Dhabi. So really need to find a way to sea frieght them or it’s the boxes. :frowning:

8

Ex Haulier:
What are you thinking of doing, going through the suez canal or driving across saudi ?. Don’t think you have thought this out, or looked at a map.

Don’t think you read his post too well my friend and I think he might just have had a look at the map, he put in the title “Italy to UAE”!! so why would he need to drive across Saudi if he’d shipped into the Emirates? (which was his original question)

I doubt very much if any Ro-Ro ferry would run that far, from Italy through the Suez Canal right round to the Gulf and up to the Emirates is a substantial distance and almost certainly over twice as far as the overland drive, but good luck anyway.

Ross.

9

bigr250:
I doubt very much if any Ro-Ro ferry would run that far, from Italy through the Suez Canal right round to the Gulf and up to the Emirates is a substantial distance and almost certainly over twice as far as the overland drive, but good luck anyway.

Ross.

I did think that might be a problem, which is why I’m asking on here as there is a wealth of experience here. I sure most of the sea freight from Europe to the Gulf region would be container ships.
I was wondering if there were ships carrying unacompanied trailers or something similar that we could get use, I know that some teams have shipped thier trucks to the US to race in the ALMS race at Sebring, so they must of found a suitable type of ship to use.
We don’t actually have to sail from Italy, other ports in the area would be okay provided we could get there in a few days.

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muckles:
I know that some teams have shipped thier trucks to the US to race in the ALMS race at Sebring, so they must of found a suitable type of ship to use.

That one’s easy, ACL (Atlantic Container Line) have a full Ro-Ro service from Liverpool to Halifax (Canada not west yorks :sunglasses: ) & New Yorks Maher Ro Ro terminal.

Ross.

PS, wasn’t it you muckles who was going to a northern Spanish circuit near Llerida? I’m currently planning a pre season trip for a group of bike racers early next year for 2 days at Portamao then a day off followed by 2 days at Jerez.

11

muckles:
I know that some teams have shipped thier trucks to the US to race in the ALMS race at Sebring, so they must of found a suitable type of ship to use.
.

was going to say "There is a regular (at least weekly) RO-RO service from Liverpool to US with ACL (Atlantic Container Line) " but bigr250 beat me to it :cry:
We used to collect US registered exhibition trailers from Liverpool for European tours.

IIRC there used to be a regular service from Italy to Israel via Cyprus, and also to Egypt. Also remember using a ferry from Trieste, Italy to Izmir,Turkey. Still hell of a way to Abu Dhabi from any of them. (doubt you could transit Israel anyway).

Another option depending on funds available would be to fly the lot in an Antonov cargo plane, They can hold 4 or 5 full size trucks,
Ive actually put a trailer on one at Paris to return to US in a hurry.
No idea who the companies are that operate them though a search on Google would probably reveal all.

12

bigr250:

muckles:
I know that some teams have shipped thier trucks to the US to race in the ALMS race at Sebring, so they must of found a suitable type of ship to use.

That one’s easy, ACL (Atlantic Container Line) have a full Ro-Ro service from Liverpool to Halifax (Canada not west yorks :sunglasses: ) & New Yorks Maher Ro Ro terminal.

Ross.

I did wonder how they did it?

bigr250:
PS, wasn’t it you muckles who was going to a northern Spanish circuit near Llerida? I’m currently planning a pre season trip for a group of bike racers early next year for 2 days at Portamao then a day off followed by 2 days at Jerez.

No it wasn’t me, I think the Renault World series last race was there are few weeks ago so it might have been them you saw.
Been to Portimao and Jerez this year. First trip to Portimao look like a good circuit good facilities, even a swiming pool, which we threw our driver in after the last race. funnily enough he’s now signed for another team for next year. :laughing:

[

toowise:
]was going to say "There is a regular (at least weekly) RO-RO service from Liverpool to US with ACL (Atlantic Container Line) " but bigr250 beat me to it :cry:
We used to collect US registered exhibition trailers from Liverpool for European tours.

IIRC there used to be a regular service from Italy to Israel via Cyprus, and also to Egypt. Also remember using a ferry from Trieste, Italy to Izmir,Turkey. Still hell of a way to Abu Dhabi from any of them. (doubt you could transit Israel anyway).

Another option depending on funds available would be to fly the lot in an Antonov cargo plane, They can hold 4 or 5 full size trucks,
Ive actually put a trailer on one at Paris to return to US in a hurry.
No idea who the companies are that operate them though a search on Google would probably reveal all.

Thank for all the help it seems that it’s looks like a no go to get the trucks there then, :frowning:

The antinov option is not on, we did used to crate it and air frieght it all out of Stanstead, but the GP2 series are supposed to be cutting costs to reduce the cost of racing, so they now ship everything and keep thing in one region. We have the original option of boxes it all up and shipping in containers from La Spezia, just would have made it easier to have the trucks out there.

13

muckles, I think your best bet is to contact a big player like eukor or k-line, nyk or wallenius. certainly some of their car carriers trading between europe and far east call at persian gulf ports.
Not sure if you get service from La Spezia, I’d say there’s better chance of one from Genova, Marseille, Barcelona…

14

Actually, it caught my attention so much that I spent 5min on it.
Is Savona - Jebel Ali OK?
nykeurope.com/roro/europe-to … -east.html

15

Muckles, you can ship from genoa on Grimaldi lines ro ro service to Dubai or Abu dhabi, Dubai is cheaper only 2 hours down the road from circiut.Shipping to Dubai is cheap but when your done to ship the trucks back to UK is more expensive . Cost about 4500 euro to get truck+trl there form italy ,back to uk will be 20-30% more ,the price goes up and down every month with the Dollar rates.You would struggle to drive them overland because at the moment no transit Visas are being given for Saudi , only Astrans seem to get them.Only if some Motorsport Association in Saudi could arrange for your transit.

16

HomoFaber:
Actually, it caught my attention so much that I spent 5min on it.
Is Savona - Jebel Ali OK?
nykeurope.com/roro/europe-to … -east.html

looking at the link homofaber put up it goes to abu dhabi anyway!

17

I did do an internet search and couldn’t find anything, so thanks Homofaber and toureg123, :smiley: I now have a couple of answers if they decide to go ahead. The ports aren’t a problem even Barcelona is okay as we’d have time to get to there and Savona would be Ideal.
We never even thought about the overland route, to many problems what with 15-20 trucks, high value load and not enough experience.