The FAQ's - Open Transportation

Continuing our spotlight on various frequently asked auto shipping questions, we explore a bit regarding open auto transport carriers and how they benefit your during your auto shipping experience.

Open auto transport describes the specific type of transportation truck that will be transporting your vehicle - they are the most common carriers on the road today, with roughly 80-90% of all auto shippers operating an open transportation truck of some kind. Open transporters often haul up to ten cars at a time, and each vehicle is "open" to the elements - as opposed to enclosed transportation, which secures the vehicle(s) in an enclosed shipping container to protect against the various hazards of the road.

Open auto transportation is the cheapest and easiest method of transportation for shipping companies to book your shipment with, and as such they consider it the "default" method of shipping a car. If you fill out our free online quote request form you can get up to ten free quotes for open auto transport; you can request enclosed transportation, but it is considered an upgrade and will cost more in the long run.

You can read more about open transport on our Automobile Transport FAQ page.

City Spotlight: Auto Shipping to San Diego

With a population of over 1.3 million residents, the city of San Diego is the 9th largest city in the U.S. and the second-largest in the state of California. It's a popular auto transport destination due to its beautiful location on the southern California coast, and is a major transportation network in the region where it lies.

When it comes to shipping a car to the city, it's generally going to be quick and fairly cheap. San Diego is a popular auto transport location, like we mentioned, but it's not just popular for customers; many auto transport carriers will include San Diego in its cross-country routes, and oftentimes will run several different vehicles to the city at the same time. Prices can increase during the height of the summer season, as there is typically an influx of customers looking to ship to the city, but on the whole prices are relatively low on a per-mile basis for much of the year.

You can read more about the city by visiting our Auto Shipping to San Diego page, and you can get free auto transport quotes to or from the city (or anywhere else in the U.S.) by filling out our free online quote request form.

City Spotlight: Auto Shipping to Birmingham

Founded during the heart of the Reconstruction period, Birmingham has been a major transportation and manufacturing center in the state of Alabama since its founding. Though its foundation was laid in part thanks to a major railroad junction, the city has boomed into one of the primary pillars of the manufacturing sector of Alabama proper - not to mention a fairly popular auto shipping destination.

Birmingham lies on several major north-south and east-west interstate routes, making it easy for auto shippers to transport cars to, from and through the city. Prices stay pretty standard on a per-mile basis throughout the year; shipping numbers stay fairly consistent throughout the year, whereas in many other areas prices could go up or down, depending on whether or not carriers are going to the area of if there is a large number of customers shipping in or out of a specific area. This means that your auto transport prices won't change too drastically, on the whole.

You can fill out our free form to get some quick auto transport quotes to or from the city of Birmingham, and you can read more about on our Auto Shipping to Birmingham page.

Looking for Quotes to ship a Motorcycle?

If you're looking for quotes to ship a motorcycle to or from anywhere in the U.S., you're definitely reading the right blog! You can visit our motorcycle online quote request form and get free motorcycle shipping quotes from several top-rated motorcycle shipping companies.

Our form may look complex, but it's fairly simple. It starts with your contact information - this is crucial for our auto transport affiliates to get you your free quotes. You just need your name, telephone number and e-mail address; everything else is optional. From there, fill out your motorcycle's information; this is important because the specific make and model can affect your motorcycle transportation prices. We give you room enough for two motorcycles - if you are only shipping one, leave the second one blank. If you are shipping more than two, you can put the year, make and model of all additional vehicles in the "Enter Any Comments" section at the bottom of the form.

From there, just let us know the cities and states of where you're shipping the vehicles from and to. If you're shipping multiple motorcycles and each is coming from a separate city, just include the pickup and delivery information of each in the comments section. It's fairly straightforward, when you look at it, and it's a great way to compare prices from various top-rated companies.

The FAQ's - Non-Running Vehicles

Are you looking to ship a non-running vehicle? If so, that's absolutely fine - you can fill out our free quote form to get quotes for both running and non-running vehicles. But what's different about shipping a vehicle that doesn't run? Well, for starters, any auto shipper that transports non-running vehicles has a special winch attached to his vehicle - and not all shippers have one of these. While it's normally not an issue, pickup times could be affected, with pickup windows being stretched by a few days to accommodate for the smaller pool of available carriers.

You should always specify if you're shipping a non-running vehicle; not doing so could very well end up with some very unhappy people, including yourself. If you try to pass your vehicle off as a running vehicle, and it isn't running, then you run the risk of your transport company booking with a carrier that can't ship it - this could net you not only a cancelled carrier, but a completely cancelled order, because many shippers state up front that you need to specify. You can read more about shipping non-running vehicles via our helpful Car Shipping FAQ page.

City Spotlight: Auto Shipping to Long Beach

Long Beach is a very popular city located on the southern California coast. Not only is it popular as a resort and beach location, but also for its major port - it's one of the largest ports on the west coast and one of the largest auto transport companies that handles overseas transportation is located in the city. When it comes to auto shipping to Long Beach, it's easy enough to arrange; many carriers transport vehicles to Long Beach year-round, mainly because they're taking them to the port.

But it's not just for the port that people ship there. It's a rather large city in the state of California and, for your trivia fact of the day, it is the largest city in the U.S. that is not a county seat. It may not be much, but it's something, anyway. The city, aside from being a major port, is also considered to be a major industrial extension of nearby Los Angeles. You can read more about the city by visiting our Auto Shipping to Long Beach page, and you can get free auto transport quotes to or from the city by filling out our free online quote request form.

Auto Shipping by State: Alaska

Looking to ship your car to Alaska? It's a bit more involved than simple city-to-city auto transportation, and it's going to cost a fair bit more, but on the whole it's a lot easier to ship a car to Alaska than it is to drive up through Canada (it's a longer drive than you might think!).

Once you book your auto shipping to Alaska with a transport company, they're going to find a carrier to pick your vehicle up from wherever it is and transport it via overland truck to the port in Seattle (or Tacoma, but it's usually Seattle). Once there, it'll be put onto a large cargo vessel and shipped overseas to the port in Anchorage, usually, though some shipping companies can ship to other ports as well. Pricing depends highly on availability and the time of year, so talk to your shipper about when the best time to ship a car to Alaska would be. 

You can fill out our free online quote form, if you're looking for a transport company still, and you can also read more about the state of Alaska itself - as well as glean some helpful auto transport tips - by visiting our Alaska Auto Shipping page.