Relax, you are shipping your car. General Info | Vehicle Shipping

November 24th, 2021 by katherineletts

We used Tea Kalmbach for shipping out of Panama as she had another Overlander we could share a container with and gave us the best quote. She took care of everything, was very responsive, and gave us step by step instructions. Super easy. According to her, Colombia now requires an agent for shipping, as they’ve increased their security procedures and other processes. Tea coordinated us with an agent named Ana in Colombia. Ana was responsive, but not very organized. She charged much more than Téa for her services, but she was challenging to communicate with. Maybe it’s possible to work with a different agent in Colombia, but still with Tea in Panama. Not sure.

The Overland Embassy in Panama was also very responsive and professional. Their quote wasn’t as competitive for us, but had I found a container buddy to split the cost, I would’ve shipped with them. Young Boris stopped responding to us after coordinating for a quote. Definitely inquire a quote from a few different people!

We started looking into shipping agents/companies just a couple of weeks before shipping out and got out of Panama with minimal stress once we decided on someone to help us.
Tea’s WhatsApp is: +54 9 2267 52 0418

May 22nd, 2017 by instagram.com/wanderingfamvan

Like stated in first post here. Whole process is well explained here on this app with different check-in points. Be at your shipping company early in the morning and you will do just fine. Whole process in Colon with washing our camper took prox 4 hours. Easy as 1, 2, 3.
For the highway you have 2 options. Drive REALLY close to the semi truck as we did and you will be able to use the whole length of the big highway or just as you exit the Panama City drive first towards the Miraflores Canal locks and follow that beautiful road until it connects with the toll road. You dont need the PanaPass that way at all. Everyone have to pay 2,30 anyway just before the Colon.
We used Uber after fe dropped our camper off. It was 55usd from there to the centre of Panama City.

March 23rd, 2017 by barefootinajeep

The process was so easy. We used Boris as the agent with Evergreen. So quick, easy, painless. 10/10. Easiest thing in the world! Now time to enjoy wine and wait for the delivery in Cartagena.

March 21st, 2017 by barefootinajeep

Thanks for reporting! I have a good experience so far with Evergreen with agent Boris.

March 9th, 2017 by koj86

I would just really quickly like to make everyone feel better who is worrying about the shipping thing. We did RoRo with WWL yesterday without an agent. I was very worried about that day because the process and involved difficulty is put into a worse light than needed (in my opinion at least), so I would like to make a positive statement about it for once: IT IS NOT THAT BAD! Just like a big border day. You go to 3-4 different offices, then get your car inspected and off you go. Of course it is a little stressful, but if you have been ok with the borders, you will be ok here. Even more than ok, because people were much more helpful (locals and officials) than at many borders. Also to note: Fewer people than at borders and no pushy helpers. Just follow the steps 1-4 on iOverlander and you will be fine. We started at 8 o´clock at the office of the Shipping company (nicest office, but unfriendliest people of the day) and were done with it all by 1:30 pm.

And if you need a wall to be put in behind your drivers compartment for roro: Procars in Panama City do it (on ioverlander) at around 50$.

Agent: Not needed in my opinion with all the info available online etc.

Police Inspection (Things I did not know): You can turn up at that parkinglot very early to draw a number if you want. Some people got Number 9 at 6 am (??!), but we got number 14 at 7:30 am and did not have to wait long to have the car inspected, so I think it is not worth it getting there THAT early. One thing which did take much longer than expected (and was a problem for others because they had an appointment with their agent or something) was picking up the Papers at 2. We waited for over an hour, so have that time accounted for.

Road from Panama City to Colon (also very diff. to find info): Panapass is only for the coredor norte, not for the road to Colon. If you get out of the city without the Coredor norte (no problem really), then you will get to a "cuota" road to colon at some point. Here you pay 2,50$ cash and off you ride. We started driving at 6:30 on a weekday from the Yacht Club and got to the Terminal in Colon at 8:15.
Maybe this helps someone to relax about it all. Have a great day!