Car Shipping FAQ Videos

Yes, it's always door to door. We'll pick it up right from you. We'll take it right to you. I think the best way to think of it, though, is it's residence to residence OR person to person. If the address that you give us is not accessible to an 18 Wheeled carrier, if it's on a cul de sac, if you're in an apartment building, if there's low hanging trees on your street, there are some reasons why a carrier may or may not be able to get right to your door. In that case, they'll meet you somewhere close by. Usually it's a shopping area or someplace with a large parking lot. If they ever ask you to meet somewhere, that's not within reason. If it's 10 miles away or 20 miles away, that's when you want to get us on the phone again, because we'll call the carrier and we'll work out something more reasonable for you.

The official answer to that question is no, because no carrier's and no broker's license allows them to deal in the transportation of household goods. So that said... The fact of the matter is - people still do it. Customers still need to move items. Carriers will still take cars with items. You just don't want it to be excessive. If you can keep it under 100 pounds and keep it out of sight, that's great. If it's more than 100 pounds, then you may need to play a little game called "Let's Make a Deal" with the driver when he shows up. And I always tell people to keep in mind that the last thing a driver wants is to drive out to your house to load your vehicle and then drive away without your car so they'll work with you within reason. They may charge you a little bit extra If there's a lot of extra weight. They may not charge you at all, but that's going to be up to you and the carrier to work out.

Yes, of course it's insured. Part of what you pay us for, part of what we do as our job is to verify the insurance for these carriers. And before a carrier can be added to our list, we have to check them out, make sure they have the requisite insurance amount to be on our list and to be operating. They need to have at least $750,000 in overall insurance. Now, we even go so far as to back that up. If there was ever a problem with their insurance and you were required to use your own insurance, we help pay your deductible and we do that at no additional cost. It's just added peace of mind, and it's what makes us unique.

This is an excellent question. It's everybody's biggest fear. It's extremely rare that your car gets damaged, but it does happen. So this is what you need to do. The truck will fill out an inspection report when it's picked up. They'll mark anything that's pre-existing. You will refer back to that same report on delivery. So when your car is delivered, you want to thoroughly examine your vehicle and take your own sweet time. If there's a problem, note it on the final bill of lading. This is the single most important tool in filing a claim. It's a legal document. You are saying when you sign it, I release the carrier of liability - except as noted. So you want to make sure it's noted. You are still going to have to pay the carrier for delivering your car, but then you'll take that form and you'll file a claim for any damage that happened. But again, it's extremely rare and I wouldn't worry too much about it.

The bill of lading is an inspection report that the driver fills out when he picks it up. If you've ever rented a car before, it's a little like that. There's a little picture of a car and they'll go through and check points on it to see if there's a scratch or a ding or this or that. Anything that's pre-existing, then you get the opportunity to fill out this same report on delivery. So take your time, look over your vehicle. If there is any damage that wasn't there when it was picked up, you note it on that final bill of lading, then you sign that document. I can't stress this enough because it's a document that says "I release the truck of liability, except as noted." So you really want to make sure you note any damage on that final bill of lading. Then you take that bill of lading to the carrier. You should process a claim without issue.

This is a great question, and I love this answer. None - we don't need any lead time. If you give a day or two, that's fine. If you give a week, that's more than enough. Any more than that is a great amount of time but we don't need it. You're never going to call us and have us not have space available. We've got literally thousands of carriers that can accommodate you. So as long as we do our job correctly, and we've got you priced correctly. We can often get you on a carrier the same day. Now, if you're a planner and you want to plan ahead and get this off your to do list, then you can give more lead time than that. You just want to realize that your carrier assignment will probably come closer to your actual move date. So we'll want to go back and look at it a little bit closer to your move date. But we don't need any specific amount of time. We can help anybody out.

Your dates in this industry can't be guaranteed, but a carrier WILL give you an estimated date and most carriers will hit their estimates. What you want to keep in mind is this: We've all been in a situation where we have a 40 minute drive that ends up taking us an hour and a half. Carriers are dealing with situations like that every day, so you just want to build a little bit of flexibility into your plan. If you've got a date, you're really hoping to get your vehicle picked up. You want to keep in mind what is the earliest possible date you'd be willing to let the vehicle go? Because if it's a better situation for you to put your vehicle on a truck the day before your desired date, rather than risk that it happens the day after your date, you want to give that before date as your first availability.

People always want to know how long you're going to be without your vehicle. So here are some average times that you can expect once you load your vehicle. If you're traveling from coast to coast, those moves will take about 7 to 10 days if you're traveling less than that. Say, you're going from a Coast to the midwest, maybe about 5 to 7 days. If you're just going a couple of states over, could be two or three days. We've had vehicles picked up and delivered the same day, so it's always just a matter of how far your vehicle is traveling.

With us There is no deposit. When you place your order there are no upfront fees. You don't pay a deposit with us until we find the carrier that's right for your move. So we go to work for you, We find the carrier, If you're happy with that carrier, at that point, you can pay a deposit. You don't have to worry about whether or not it's refundable because we won't even ask for it until we find a carrier you're happy with.

To understand your price you just want to understand that it breaks down into two parts; There's the broker's fee and there's the portion that the carrier gets paid or usually your cod amount because the carriers do not take their payment until your vehicle is delivered at its destination and our broker's fee is always the same. The other thing that makes us unique is that we don't charge you a penny until we've secured your carrier. So rather than pay us to go look, we look, we find you the right carrier, and then you pay us. Now, what will dictate whether your price is $500 or whether it's $1,000 is always going to be how much we need to pay a carrier to get your vehicle moved. And that's going to be based on mileage where it's going to and from, if it's in an accessible area or if it's more remote. But most importantly, vehicle size and fuel prices. And that's the most important reason, you'll want to get your price quote close to the time when you're actually moving; because, as we all know, fuel prices can change sometimes without notice. Sometimes it will work for you, sometimes it'll work against you. If you're getting a quote at a time when fuel prices are really high, then you really want to get your quote in a few months when you're actually moving because your price could come down considerably.

Well, an open car carrier are like the car carriers that you see on the road all the time. An 8 to 10 car open air carrier. Enclosed carriers usually hold about six to eight cars. And obviously they look like moving trucks. They've got the cars inside. It's a little more expensive to go that way. It's a little more high end service. How to decide what's right for you. As a general rule of thumb, if your car's value is in excess of around $50,000 then you probably want to start considering enclosed carriers. If your car's value is less than that, then open is definitely your best bet. You're going to have all the insurance coverage that you need and a lot more availability with an open carrier.

In terms of communication, we put you in direct contact with your carrier. They will call you usually the afternoon or evening before doing a pickup or a delivery to arrange a time the following day. You will have their phone number. They will have your phone number. If there is ever a problem, if you ever have trouble reaching a carrier we set you up with, do not hesitate to pick up the phone. Let us help you out with it. That's what we're here for. We facilitate the communication to make sure everything goes smoothly with your move.

You can have anybody you want be your contact person on pickup, on delivery or even both. They don't need any special power of attorney or anything. They just need your permission. The person on pickup obviously is going to need the keys to the car and the person on delivery is going to need the payment for the carrier. Beyond that, I always say you want to pick somebody that's fairly thorough for your delivery contact because they are going to have the responsibility of signing off on the final inspection report.

There's not a lot to be concerned about in terms of preparing your car for transport. There are a couple of things that you can do - if you can retract or remove your antenna. If there are any racks on your car that can be removed and put inside, you certainly want to put those inside. Some people ask about fuel in the tank: Obviously, the carriers, for weight reasons, would prefer that there was less fuel in the tank but you don't have to worry about trying to get fuel out, just if you can avoid filling it up before you ship it, great. And the driver is going to need a key.