One of the international boat shipping methods that has gained a lot of attention as of late is the popular Roll-on Roll-off method. This is the preferred shipping method by many boat enthusiasts since, while usually more expensive, it is also the one where the boat has the most protection.
The Roll-on Roll-off shipping method consists, as its name states, in placing boats on trailers, which are then “rolled” into transport vessels, where they are stored inside the vessel in question to later be simply “driven out” at the moment of reaching their different ports of destination.
Now, as popular as this method might be, it is not without its share of inconveniences, which have also to be factored by anyone considering shipping his or her boat by the roll-on roll-off method.
That said, here are some of the Pros and Cons of shipping boats by the Roll-on Roll-off method:
Pros
- Boats shipped by this method are shipped exactly as they are, since they are just rolled on and off the transport vessel, which means that they are not handled in order to be loaded/unloaded into containers, which also comes at an additional cost.
- Also, contrary to what happens with the on-deck shipping method, in the roll-on roll-off method boats are shipped inside the transport vessel, which eliminates any kind of exposure that they might have to the elements of the environment, thus ridding them of any potential damage.
- Finally, as mentioned above, the handling of boats shipped by the roll-on roll-off method is far simpler than with any other methods, since with this one, boats are simply driven into the transport vessel and equally driven off it at the different ports of destination, allowing them to be ready to use from the very first minute after offloading.
Cons
- Contrary to other shipping methods that are charged at a fixed rate, shipping costs by the roll-on roll-off method are calculated considering the entire volume of the boat to be shipped. Thus, boats shipped by this method have to be measured in their entire length, width and height. This causes that in some cases owners choose to remove some parts of their boats, so as to minimize the quantifiable volume and thus, the overall shipping costs.
- Another minor inconvenience when shipping boats by the roll-on roll-off method is that, unfortunately, this shipping method is not available at all ports around the world.