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Should You Shrink Wrap Your Car for Protection for Shipment?

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Home  |  Car Carriers • Car Shipping • Car Transport • Vehicle Shipping   |   Should You Shrink Wrap Your Car for Protection for Shipment?

Perhaps you are moving across the country and you want to make sure your vehicle arrives without damage. Maybe you are purchasing a brand new car online and you want to ensure it is delivered in pristine condition. It might even be that you are shipping your exotic car to a car show and you want to take extra precautions to protect it. When you are shipping a car, you may be concerned about the potential damage that could occur during the transport process. Though the damage is not expected, things do happen and many people don’t like to risk possible damage to their vehicle. Therefore, you may be wondering if protective shrink wrap is necessary when shipping your car. The fact is, car shipping is expensive and some people may not want the extra financial burden of adding shrink wrap. However, shrink wrap is the best way to ensure your vehicle arrives at its destination damage-free. Here are some of the benefits of shrink wrap so you can decide if it's right for you.

Protects Your Paint

If you are shipping your car on an open-air trailer, it will be exposed to the outdoor elements for the duration of transport. It’s possible that your vehicle could get scratched from flying road debris. Small rocks and debris are the number one cause of chipped paint and damage to vehicles during transport. The protective shrink wrap will repel these elements and prevent scratches and damage to your car. It’s also possible that your paint could get damaged in bad weather such as snow or ice. If you are shipping your car during the winter months, you may want to take extra precautions by wrapping your car prior to shipment.

You Can Avoid Repair Costs

Investing in shrink-wrap may seem like a lot of extra money on the front end, but it pays off. If your car gets damaged during shipment, it could end up costing you several hundred or even a few thousand dollars for repairs or a new paint job. If you just bought a new car, the last thing you want is to be spending extra money on repairs. Likewise, if you have an antique or exotic vehicle, you want to ensure it remains in mint condition. The best way to maintain your car’s value is to keep it protected from any potential damage.

Easy to Install and Remove

Shrinkwrap for your vehicle is easy to install and does not require any preparation. The wrap is glueless, so it will not leave any sticky residue. Removing the protective wrap is also easy and can be done by the customer without tampering with the vehicle.

An open hauler is great for transporting your car across the country, but it will not protect your vehicle from debris on the highway or weather conditions while traveling. Therefore, if you are concerned about these potential hazards and want to ensure your car arrives in perfect condition, you may want to consider shrink wrap. Though it is not necessary, it does provide additional protection and peace of mind.

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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