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    • Home
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          • Ship Car to Another State
          • Ship Car Across Country
          • Door To Door Auto Transport
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          • Enclosed Car Transport
          • Classic Car Transport
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How Accurate is My Transit Time Estimate?

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Home  |  Car Transport   |   How Accurate is My Transit Time Estimate?

One of the most important factors in choosing the right car shipping company is time. Which one will deliver in the time frame you need it to, and what kind of guarantee can they offer? Unfortunately, many different factors can affect a delivery time (weather, unexpected construction delays, etc.), so carriers cannot guarantee a time—but they can provide you with their best estimate based on experience in the industry. This guide will help you choose a high-quality shipping company that knows how to estimate fairly and accurately.

Is There Such Thing as a Guaranteed Delivery Date?  

Each car shipping company may give you a slightly different time estimate for your delivery, which can be a confusing and frustrating part of the process. Unfortunately, car shipping carriers cannot promise you an exact date as to when your car will be delivered because of environmental, unexpected weather changes and changing road conditions.

While a car shipping company cannot estimate your delivery down to the day, they should be able to provide an accurate time estimate. Work with the carrier by considering a few dates you can drop off your vehicle. For example, can you leave your vehicle with the carrier a week earlier than you originally planned? Having a greater flexibility for your ‘before’ date will improve the odds of having your vehicle delivered on the day (or near the day) you’d like.

How Long Will It Take From Pick-Up to Delivery?

The length of time you’ll be without your vehicle depends on how far it’s traveling (common sense we know, but that’s the basics of it!) For example, if you’re going a few states over, it may just take 2-3 days. If your vehicle is traveling from the west coast to the mid-west), you can expect a 5-7 delivery time.  If your vehicle is traveling from the west coast to the east coast, you can expect a 7-10 day delivery time.  In some situations, a vehicle can be dropped off and picked up on the same day, depending on the length of travel.

No matter how near or far your vehicle is being shipped to, it all comes down to quality, care, and service. Ship A Car Direct offers many advantages that make us the most trusted car shipper around, including: door to door service, no upfront deposit required, and a damage-free guarantee! Contact us today for a free quote!

Michael Strickland
Michael Strickland

Michael starting working in car shipping over 20 years ago, in 2002; back in the days when fax machines ruled the roost, being the first name listed in the yellow pages was King and google wasn’t yet a verb. Sometimes he foolishly thinks he’s seen every situation imaginable when it comes to shipping a car, but about once a year he’s proven wrong.

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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