​​​​​​​Ferry

One of the practical matters that needs to be arranged quickly is your ferry trip across the Mediterranean. As with every edition, we have booked a number of meters on the ferries from Sète and Almeria. And as is our annual tradition, we coordinate a crossing from the organization to get all rally and assistance vehicles safely, as cheaply as possible and without problems with customs, to Morocco.

Administration when entering Morocco

3.1. International Passport:

Everybody coming to Morocco for the Morocco Desert Challenge must have a valid international passport. An identity card is not sufficient. The passport needs to be valid until minimum 3 months after the rally and you should have at least half a page available for the entry & exit stamps.

3.2. Morocco:1 passport = 1 vehicle:

When entering Morocco with a vehicle,this vehicle will be registrered onto your passport. This means you can only leave the country in possession of that same vehicle. Driving to Morocco by car but returning by plane and letting somebody else drive back the car to Europe, is NOT possible.

On top of this the standard procedure states that 1 person can only bring 1 vehicle. This means that whoever drives a van to Morocco, transporting 1 motorbike, should be 2 persons in the van: the van will be registered in 1 person’s passport, the motorbike in the 2nd person’s passport. Those transporting more than 1 vehicle and who do not have enough co-drivers, must bring an “ATA Carnet”. (see below)

3.3.Procuration

Every person wanting to enter Morocco with a vehicle that’s not registered in his/her own personal name, must carry a “procuration”. This is a document (blank version provided by us) filled in by the real owner (as mentioned on the car or bike papers) in which he/she clearly allows the other person to temporarily bring the vehicle into Morocco.

This document is not valid unless it has been validated by an official: this official can be the people at the local town hall, a notary or a lawyer. Make sure they put an “official” stamp on the document. In fact the validation is a “verification of signature” i.e. somebody has to check and approve that the person filling in the procuration is in fact the owner of the vehicle and not just anybody. Therefore the owner needs to present himself with the filled in document, his ID-card and the car papers.

In case the owner is not a real person but for instance a company, the procuration needs to be signed by one of the statutory owners and he/she has to go to the townhall/notary/lawyer with not only the above mentioned documents, but also with the company statutes showing his/her name.

Please find an example of a filled out procuration here. You can find a blank version of the procuration document here.

3.4.Temporary import of all vehicles that are not trucks

If you enter Morocco with 1 vehicle which is NOT a truck (anything else goes: cars, bikes, quads, campers, vans), you can do so with a “temporary import of small vehicles in the context of tourism”. Nowadays you no longer have to fill in customs forms in advance. The temporary import is done on the ferry or at the border.

3.5.the ATA Carnet:

If you enter Morocco with a truck, an ATA Carnet is obligatory. It’s also crucial that the truck itself is put on the carnet, next to the list of all transported goods and vehicles: motorbikes, quads, spare gear boxes, extra engine, compressor, power generator, etc. When all transported vehicles are mentioned on the Carnet ATA, 1 truck driver can enter an unlimited number of vehicles into Morocco. You can order a Carnet ATA at your local Chamber of Commerce. Before leaving your own country, you should pay a visit to a local customs office where the mentioned goods are counted and the carnet stamped for a first time.

More information about customs formalities can be found here. In the run-up to the rally, all participants will receive an email about this with all the necessary information.