Clear, Honest Answers to your Car Shipping Questions
Shipping a car is simpler than most people expect, especially when you have an experienced team guiding the process.
Here’s how it typically works with Ship a Car Direct:
1. Get a quote (no obligation) You’ll provide basic details like your pickup and delivery locations, vehicle type, and preferred timeframe. This allows Ship a Car Direct to match you with reliable carriers already traveling that route.
2. We carefully select a vetted carrier Once you’re ready to move forward, we assign a fully licensed and insured carrier that meets our strict quality standards. We don’t work with just anyone - every carrier is reviewed for safety, performance, and customer feedback.
3. Pickup at your location (usually door to door) Most shipments are picked up directly at the address you request or, if it's not easy for an 18 wheel carrier to access, pick up will be arranged at a nearby accessible location. The driver will inspect the vehicle with you and document its condition before loading. Ship a Car Direct also offers a free, easy to use app to help you document the condition of your car before shipping it.
4. Your vehicle is transported securely Your car is shipped on either an open or enclosed carrier, depending on your preference and needs.
5. Delivery and final inspection When your vehicle arrives, you’ll inspect it again before signing off - ensuring everything matches the original condition report. You can use Ship a Car Direct's free app again to document the condition and photograph any concerns.
We don’t just book a truck and disappear.
We:
Carefully vet every carrier
Stay involved throughout the shipment
Provide clear communication at every step
Back shipments with our Damage-Free Guarantee for added peace of mind
Our goal is simple: make car shipping stress-free, transparent, and safe!
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.
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.
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.
This is a great question, and if you ask 10 different companies, you'll get 10 different answers. There is no “set” amount of necessary lead-time. Whatever you can give is great, but don't worry if you have to hold off until the last minute, if your move is priced correctly, it will usually get picked up within a day or two of your first available date.
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.
At Ship a Car Direct, our vetted list of carriers are comprised of both open and enclosed vehicle transport options of all different sizes.
The majority of long, cross country car shipping moves will be on a large, open air car carrier which typically holds 8 to 10 cars; the kind that you see out on the highway all of the time, often loaded with new cars. Enclosed car carriers are also used for these longer routes and look a lot like the bigger household moving box trucks and have a slightly smaller car capacity, ranging from 4 to 8 cars.
The much smaller 2-3 capacity car carriers will tend to do shorter, more “localized” shipments.
The carrier will contact whomever you tell us to contact, whether it is you, a friend, a dealer, etc. There is no “power of attorney” necessary. Someone simply needs to be present on both ends to sign the Bill of Lading, we do not recommend leaving the car unattended as you will not have the necessary verification for your damage insurance coverage if the Bill of Lading is not signed on both ends.
Your total price breaks down into two parts, the broker's fee (or 'deposit' as everyone calls it) and the carriers fee (your COD amount) Make no mistake about this, EVERYONE YOU ARE GETTING SALES CALLS FROM IS GOING TO BROKER YOUR MOVE. In this industry, there are brokers who try to fool you into thinking that they are the actual carriers and there are an equal amount of carriers who sell themselves on the fact that they have a truck or two but are not being honest about the fact that they broker out 90% of the orders they book. Here is a quick easy way to tell, if a company takes an up front fee, whether they call it a deposit or any other name, they are a broker. Carriers do not take any payment until the vehicle is delivered.
The hardest thing for people researching car moving companies to understand is that the prices they are getting are not hard and fast gaurantees, but rather ESTIMATES of what one company thinks it will take to get a vehicle moved promptly versus another company's opinion of what it will take. Don't be fooled, there are not carriers committed to take your vehicle at these quoted prices, the company you choose will still have to get to work getting a carrier to commit to move it at the price they quote you.
In our opinion, you are crazy to do so. Have you ever been paid up front for the work that you perform for your employer? Why would you pay a fee up front when there are reliable and trustworthy companies like ours that won't ask for it until we provide you with your carriers details?
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.
Damage is rare, but unfortunately it does happen. The single most important thing for you to do if your vehicle is damaged is to note the damage on your final bill of lading report when you receive the vehicle.
The bill of lading is the report that the driver will fill out on pickup, denoting if there is any pre-existing damage. Any damage that occurs in transit must be entered on this report on delivery. Failure to do so could seriously hinder your damage claim, so we cannot stress this enough. Look your vehicle over thoroughly when you receive it. The bill of lading is a document that releases the carrier of liability once signed at delivery.
Yes! Ship a Car Direct is an industry leading car shipping company with an A+ from the BBB and 5 star reviews across the web. They were the first company to not require an up front deposit and the only company to offer a Damage Free Guarantee. Their MC number is 632461.
Of course, they are always available here on our website by using the following link:
