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What’s the Better Trailer for Shipping Your Car: Open or Enclosed?

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Home  |  Car Transport   |   What’s the Better Trailer for Shipping Your Car: Open or Enclosed?

Whether you have a Rolls Royce or a Kia, it can be shipped. But the question remains: what kind of trailer is best for your car to be shipped in? In this article, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of each. Make an informed decision during your car transport process for seamless shipping!

Choice 1: The Open Trailer

As with any decision, there are factors that go into every option. With an open trailer, the downside is just that. It’s open, and exposed, to wind, debris, as well as running the risk of being exposed to minor paint damage. Because of this, the open carrier option is cheaper than the closed carrier option. Another benefit of this option is the driver typically has greater visibility, allowing for an easier time inspecting the vehicles he ships, and it’s more fuel efficient.

Choice 2: The Enclosed Trailer

First things first: the enclosed trailer option is costs more, because it does more for the price. It transports the vehicle in a fully enclosed trailer, providing a secure and safe environment. Case in point? It adds an extra layer of protection for the vehicle being transported. For many customers, this translates to a greater peace of mind. While the open trailer is the more common choice (it’s typically what people think of when they envision their car being transported), the closed trailer offers a greater guarantee, and in many cases, greater convenience. One downside to an enclosed trailer is it doesn’t offer the flexibility of inspections during transit like the open trailer does.

When determining which option is right for you, think about how much security you want your vehicle to have. A luxury vehicle requires a higher level of protection than say, a commuter car does. Once you know what you want, finding the right car shipping company to handle the quality of your transport is essential. Unlike many companies, Ship A Car Direct offers a money back guarantee, dozens of 5-star ratings, and NO up front deposit required! Contact them today for a free quote, and speak to a friendly shipping expert to answer any questions you have.

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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