About roro.run
Roro is short for “roll on, roll off”, the shipping industry’s term for it. New cars are driven onto a ship overseas and driven off again at Fremantle. Those ships are the ones we watch.
Hosted with ❤️ at rackmill.au. This is a pet project the developer made while waiting for his car to arrive.
Much of this rests on our assumptions
To figure out your estimates, we’ve had to take a few liberties.
- AssumptionNew cars come only on the ships that Fremantle Ports lists as “Vehicle Carriers”.Could be wrong: Some cars might arrive on a ship the port describes differently, such as a general cargo ship, and it would be left off your list.
- AssumptionThe shipping line’s schedule shows the ship’s real route.Could be wrong: A ship can make a stop its schedule doesn’t show. One ship we checked spent three days at a port that wasn’t on its schedule.
- AssumptionBefore Fremantle, a ship only drops cars off at other Australian ports.Could be wrong: A ship could pick up cars at another Australian port and bring them here, such as cars converted to right-hand drive in Melbourne.
- AssumptionCars aren’t moved from one ship to another on the way.Could be wrong: At some ports, such as Singapore, cars are moved between ships, so a car could finish its trip on a different ship from the one it started on.
Why nobody can tell you which ship your car is on
Anyone can see where a ship is. Nobody outside the shipping line and the car manufacturer can see which cars are on it. The list of cars aboard is private, and your dealership isn’t on it either. That’s why we can rule ships out, but never rule one in.
If you ordered a car that wasn’t in the yard, you ordered a colour and a model rather than a particular car. The manufacturer matches a car to your order later, and gives it a vehicle identification number (VIN). Until then, there’s no car to find.
Your dealership usually sees a status on your order, such as “on the water” or “in compound”, and not a ship or a date. To know more, they have to ask the manufacturer.
A ship docking isn’t your car arriving. Cars come off in the order they were loaded, which can take days, and then wait their turn at every step on the way to the dealership.
Worth asking your dealership
- Has my order been given a VIN?
- What status does your system show for my order?
- Which ship is it on, and can you forward the manufacturer’s email that says so?
Be patient with your dealership
Your dealership will tell you everything they know. But they get their information from someone else: the car manufacturer’s Australian office.
Until the manufacturer allocates a car and a VIN to your specific order, there is nothing for anyone to track. The car stays the manufacturer’s property through the voyage, customs and the compound, and only becomes the dealership’s stock once it has been allocated and invoiced to them. Before that, the salesperson sees a status code, updated in batches, and has to email the manufacturer to learn anything more.
Ships we ruled out
- DockedPort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “heavy lift”
- Due to dockPort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “heavy lift”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “training ship”
- Arrived at FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “landing craft”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- DockedPort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Arrived at FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Arrived at FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Left FremantlePort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- DockedPort’s record
- Port’s record
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Due to dockPort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “tanker - liquefied gas”
- Due to dockPort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “heavy lift”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “tanker - liquefied gas”
- Due to dockPort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Due to dockPort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “heavy lift”
- Due to dockPort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “general cargo”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due to dockPort’s schedule
- Date unknown
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “heavy lift”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “icebreaker”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “unknown”
- Due to dockPort’s schedule
- Date unknown
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”
- Due at FremantlePort’s schedule
- Port’s schedule
- Ruled out
- Listed as “other vessels”