Ease Your Car Shipping Experience

There are several things you can do to make your transport experience easier. One of the biggest things you can do is to make sure that your car is clean – on the inside, and that you have less than 100lbs of stuff in the trunk. This is because trucks aren’t licensed to carry household goods, but if you keep the load light in the trunk only, they never have to know about it and can just call it “junk in the trunk,” so to speak. You would be responsible for any lost and stolen items, however, so proceed at your own risk. Make sure that all loose change and trash is out of the interior of the car, and you may want some dirt on there to show any new damages.

Make sure you mark any damages on your vehicle prior to transport, then when the car is delivered go through a thorough inspection again.

Always know what type of transport is which – terminal to terminal is where you drop your car off at a terminal, whereas door to door auto transport is when the trucks comes to your house (or somewhere close) and picks up the vehicle. Terminal to terminal shipping typically costs less, but is generally less reliable than door-to-door transport. If you’re shipping an exotic or expensive vehicle, we recommend door-to-door transport.

Car Shipping Hot Spots

In the auto transport industry, there are always going to be “hot spots” (and, conversely, “cold spots.”) – places that trucks are moving into, or where a lot of people are going to, making it easier and cheaper to ship your vehicle. Some hot spots to look out for are (during the summer months) Florida, Alabama, South Carolina—pretty much anything in the deep south. Cold spots are places that trucks don’t really want to travel to, thus making your shipping a bit more expensive – in summer, this typically means California and the rest of the Pacific Northwest. Trucks going here seem to be scarce because of all the traffic backups going through California during the summer—just be careful.

In winter, it really changes. Florida and the deep south are places that become more expensive as the months turn, because everyone is coming out of there to get back home. Conversely, car shipping to the Northwest actually goes down—why this is, no one really knows.

About

My name is Ian, and I’ve been working in the car shipping industry for roughly two years now. It’s been an interesting two years, and I’ve heard my fair share of horror stories, hang ups, yelling and screaming, and sob stories. I’ve also had a chance to speak to some of the leaders in the industry, and I’ve worked hard to relegate their tips and tricks onto you, my fair readers. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a satisfied customer, and I work hard to make sure that the customers that visit this blog leave it with a newfound sense of what they need to do when it comes to shipping their car, as well as some helpful nuggets of information.