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Car transport “mystery” fees

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Home  |  Car Transport   |   Car transport “mystery” fees

There are lots of “horror stories” on the internet about how car transport companies surprise unsuspecting customers with mystery fees.  But there are legitimate reasons why your driver may require extra fees on top of the basic quoted transport costs. Let us take away the mystery and give you some tips to avoid additional car transport fees.

Your car transport quote is for a fully operational vehicle. Standard car carriers are not the same as tow trucks, your vehicle must be driven on and off the truck under its own power. The battery must be good, the vehicle must start up and stay running, and all tires must be inflated. Some car carriers cannot accommodate non-operative vehicles, and for those equipped with winches additional charges will accrue for additional labor required. Make sure your vehicle is in good running order before the carrier arrives.

Your car transport quote is for an empty vehicle. If you leave personal items in the vehicle, there may be an additional weight fee. We recommend leaving your car empty and shipping your household goods separately.

Your car transport quote is for a basic stock model. Extensions, lifts, and other add-ons that increase the height, width, or weight of a vehicle will affect the cost of your transport. Inform your representative of any modifications for an adjusted quote, and forwarding pictures can be helpful too.

Your car transport quote is priced for COD (Cash on Delivery). Most carriers will not accept credit card payments, most only accept jobs for cash on delivery. In rare instances where credit is the only option, the final charge will include a transaction processing fee.

Your car transport quote is for transport only, with direct person-to-person delivery. Storage for pick-up at your convenience is not automatic with this service, you or a contact must meet the carrier when the truck arrives in your area. If you aren’t available to accept delivery when your carrier arrives, you may be responsible for storage fees and/or re-delivery fees.

No driver wants to surprise a customer with mystery fees on delivery. Talk to your representative in advance about what exactly is included in the service. If you have any questions about car transport fees, please give us a call: 866-221-1664.

Frequently Asked Questions

Honest Answers to Your Car Shipping Questions

Yes, we always ask for your specific pickup and delivery addresses, if the carrier can get right to the addresses you provide, they will. If the addresses that you give us are not safely accessible for a Multi-car carrier, however, you will need to make arrangements with the driver to meet at a nearby location where the carrier can safely get in and out.

People do it all the time (rarely for free) but the official answer is no.

Not what you wanted to hear, we know, but that is the honest answer.

We are not licensed to broker the shipment of household goods and, likewise, no car carrier that operates in the USA is licensed to transport them from state to state either. Despite what you might be being told by other car shipping companies you may speak with.

Remember, at the end of the day we're all salespeople, and the true answer to this question is not a great selling point.

You will hear a lot of companies tell you that you can put up to 100 pounds of items in the trunk, but that is not entirely true. That fact is that items of that amount are fairly common and the department of transportation is probably not going to split hairs and fine the trucker over items of that amount, provided they are not over their weight limit. They could fine them, however, if they see a vehicle stuffed full of personal items so the car carrier will most likely try to negotiate something with you to cover themselves against any costs they could incur. It's not something we can build into your contract though.

We have a short and helpful video on this topic in our user videos.

Only in rare cases and car carriers will usually charge a premium to make it happen.

All dates given by car carriers are typically estimates and projections.

For this reason (and to keep your cost down) we ask that you build in some flexibility and give us the earliest possible date you would be WILLING to release the vehicle, even though it may not be your preferred date.

We'll put you in direct contact with your car carrier and the driver will also typically call you the afternoon or evening before your pick up and delivery (they won't just show up unannounced, and if they do we want to hear about it). However, car carriers are out on the road battling traffic, weather and any number of other factors that can and do throw them off of their pickup and delivery projections from time to time.

If the projected dates we give you come and you are unable to make contact with your carrier, please call our office immediately so that we may help resolve the situation.

The average transit time from pick up to delivery on any vehicle going coast to coast will average 7 to 10 days. From there you can figure your transit time based on how far your vehicle is traveling, i.e. from either coast to the Midwest might average 3-7 days.

Yes!

Even better, we do not even ask for payment until we have you confirmed for pickup by a safe, reliable, fully insured, direct car carrier. If for any reason you do not ship your car with the carrier that we arrange for you, there is no fee.

The fees paid directly to the carrier however, (in most cases, their fees are not paid until your vehicle is delivered) are not directly controlled by us, so any requests for a refund of the carrier's portion would need to be addressed with the carrier directly.

Of course! And you are always backed by our Damage Free Guarantee policy.

Part of what you pay us for is to verify that the car carrier that we put you on is covered by the proper amount of insurance and that everything is up to date.

There is never any additional cost to you for this coverage, and their insurance is always primary.

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