UK vehicles in Tanzania

Hello there,

I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about driving UK registered vehicles in Tanzania. We wish to drive from Dar Es Salaam through Tanzania and on to Burundi. From what we can gather we are being told that we will be given a transit permit which will allow us to take one particular direct route, and that we'll be fitted with a tracking device to make sure we stick to it.

This sounds incredibly Orwellian, and not what we had in mind at all. Have we got the wrong end of the stick, or has anybody heard this story elsewhere?

I lived in Tanzania for a while and drove a Zimbabwe-registered truck around there for over a year. But that was about ten years ago. However, I still spend a great deal of time in Africa and I seriously doubt that Tanzania, which is not a wealthy country, could afford to give foriegn or UK-owned vehicles a tracking device and staff a center to monitor it. More importantly, there is a massive amount of vehicle traffic across TZ's borders and while reasonably efficient by African standards, border officials are not going to have the time to check what route you took across the country. Like most of East Africa, tourism is a big part of the economy and it would be really dumb to harass travellers. If anything, this sounds like the Chinese, who have a persuasive influence, trying to sell the government something they don't need to make a few bucks.

So, if their is such a programme, it will sort of function for about a week and then fade into pointlessness. I plan on going back for a south and east Africa drive in a couple of years in my UK registered 110 and will not be worrying about a tracker, even if they give me one...which I seriously doubt. I know all this sounds a bit harsh, but I do know Africa pretty well. TZ has started to have a few problems with Islamic extremism and this may an attempt to 'protect' foriegners who wander away from relatively well secured safari areas and other tourist locations. I would check with the British High Commission in Dar es Salaam and see what they have to say.

Hope that helps...

Thanks for the reply, indeed we were pretty amazed that they might have such a system, but perhaps in the modern age of electronics it's not so hard to implement, plus we would of course have the honour of paying for it ourselves.

We were hoping to drive through the national parks, but I guess understandably from the point of view of protecting wildlife and tourism, that is not their preferred route for through traffic. However whether such a system would achieve its aim is doubtable, but we all know how they love to persevere with bureaucracy long after it has indeed faded into pointlessness. Plus I wouldn't rely on them having the foresight to not see tourists as simply a cash cow.

Anyway this story has come from our shipping agent, who after nearly two weeks is yet to get our vehicles released from their containers. We'll just have to wait and see what happens, with time ticking by we'll probably have to take the most direct route anyway.

Well good luck, and let us know how it all pans out.

As always Tembo, a well-informed answer!

Well it seems that because we're driving vans, and carrying some charity donated medical supplies, we've been categorised as cargo traffic. I see where they're coming from, but this completely screws the idea of combining a charity delivery with a road trip holiday.

Ahhh...smugglers huh? Yep, I ca see the TZ authorities concerned about contraband...

Hopefully you can work out some kind of plan to get some fun in as well. Good luck!