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How to Save Money When Shipping Your Car for a Long-Distance Move

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Home  |  Car Transport   |   How to Save Money When Shipping Your Car for a Long-Distance Move

Most people assume that shipping your vehicle is a costly endeavor. However, there are a few things you can do to save money. Here are a few tips and strategies to help you save on auto transport services.

Compare Prices
As with any service, you should always do your homework and compare quotes. Although the lowest price isn’t always the best one, it can still be helpful to shop around and find out the average price for shipping your vehicle. That said, if the price seems too good to be true, do a background check. Scams are everywhere and drastically lower prices can be a warning sign.

Seasonal Shipping
Like anything in the moving industry, auto transport services have peak seasons too. Because of this increase in demand, prices can also go up. If you aren’t in a hurry to ship your vehicle, wait and schedule transport during the off-season.

Flexible Pick-Up and Drop-Off Dates
Most auto transport companies will give you the option of when to drop-off and pick-up your vehicle. If you can be flexible with these dates, you might be able to get a better deal. Some carriers offer discounted rates for dates that fit the carrier’s schedule. You can also save money by reserving your shipment in advance.

Choose Terminal-to-Terminal Shipping
While door-to-door services are more convenient, they are also more expensive because they require the carrier to make a special trip to your location. Terminal-to-terminal shipping can save you money because the carrier can drop off multiple vehicles at one location. Check with the auto transport company to find out how far you are from the nearest terminal.

Choose Open Transport
If you are shipping an exotic, antique, or luxury vehicle, then you may want to pay the extra money for an enclosed carrier. However, unless your car is extremely valuable or brand new, you can save money by selecting an open trailer. Open trailers are considerably cheaper and it’s unlikely your vehicle will sustain damage.

Don’t Overpay for Insurance
In order to avoid unnecessary insurance premiums, you should know the Blue Book value of your car and choose a comparable insurance plan. You should also check the auto shipper’s insurance coverage as well as your own personal auto coverage to see if additional insurance is necessary.

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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