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What is the Cheapest Way to Ship a Car to Another State?

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Home  |  Car Transport   |   What is the Cheapest Way to Ship a Car to Another State?

Believe it or not, shipping your vehicle doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. There are a number of things you can do to minimize the cost of auto shipment. If you are interested in shipping your vehicle to another state, consider the following tips to help you reduce your expenses.

Choose the Right Time
If you aren’t in a hurry to have your car transported, you could wait and have it shipped during an off-peak period. Interstate auto transport is usually busiest between the months of May-September so you could save some money by avoiding peak season.

Choose Open Transport
Many auto transport companies will give you the option to ship your vehicle in an open or enclosed carrier. Although enclosed carriers do provide additional protection, they also come at a higher cost. Enclosed transport usually isn’t necessary unless you are shipping a luxury or antique vehicle. You can save money by shipping your car in an open carrier.

Choose Terminal-to-Terminal Transporting
Although most carriers will give you the option of door-to-door pickup and delivery, this service is generally more expensive than terminal-to-terminal transport. Although you will have to drive to and from a designated terminal, you can save a great deal of money by choosing this method of transport.

Book in Advance
If you don’t have a hard deadline and can be more flexible on your shipping dates, you will likely save money. When giving a quick deadline there is less flexibility from the car shipping company to shop the best options for you thus increasing the costs. So book early!

Be Flexible with Pick Up and Drop Off Dates
Most car shipping companies will give you the option to choose pickup and drop-off dates that work best for your schedule but you could save money by being flexible on these dates. The carrier may be able to offer you a discount to have your vehicle dropped off or picked up on a day that is more logistically convenient for them.

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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