Top 3 Most Common Questions People Have When Shipping A Car
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How soon can my car be picked up ? This question is somewhat of a question of ignorance as to how the industry operates. No one can truly answer exactly "how soon" your car can be picked up. What we can do, is look at previously shipped vehicles, routes, pricing, and several metrics to give you a best estimate or projection as to how rapidly we could potentially move it. And like many things in the auto transport world, pricing is always the greatest influencer when it comes to moving a vehicle rapidly. With a higher price, or rate to the truck, comes a greater number of trucks who may potentially be interested in moving the order. Think of it like a honey pot for bees. A small drip of honey, may attract a few bees, but a large honey pot will attract hundreds. Also, the route the car is moving (WA to NJ) or (TX to FL) is also very relative to the speed in which a vehicle will move. A car coming out of Los Angeles, where there are literally thousands of trucks at, will have more options at any given moment, then say a care coming out of Clovis, NM, where there are very few trucks at or moving through. This is why it's very hard to say how fast a car can be moved. But in most cases we can give you basic projections based on your budget , scheduling, and route. This takes some knowledge and experience in the industry to accurately predict. Flexibility is the key virtue when shipping a car.
Watch this clip by Auto Transport For Dummies on how you can ship your car in 48 hours or less
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Is insurance provided while my car is in transport? This is a fairly straight forward question, and we can assume most transport sites will provide you with the same answer. So we will take it a step
further and provide further detail. In short yes, every car is covered by the eventual trucking company's cargo liability policy. Those policies are typically in the 100-500k range. This information is
public, and can easily be verified on the FMCSA website, by searching the carrier MC number, which we provide when we dispatch out an order to a carrier. We always verify every policy on every order.
The part of this that is often overlooked is the carrier deductible. Trucking companies often carry very high deductibles in the range of $1500-10,000. So what does that mean? It means that in most cases,
where a small dent or scratch happens, the carrier will be "Out of Pocketing" the monies to cover those damages. Why? Because a small scratch or dent simply won't reach a high enough damage total for the insurance policy to kick in. So yes, a claim can be filed, but with something very minor, say $700, it won't be enough to trigger any kind of pay out from the insurance company. This is why we advise all of
our clients to properly notate as well as possible the condition of your car on pickup, and delivery, (with multiple photos) , and to work something out with the carrier on delivery in the event that your
car is damaged. Don't think that you will just file a claim later on a small incident, that likely won't go anywhere. The few small incidents we have had, we have been 100% successful in having the carrier pay out monies, or reduce the transport rate (relative to the damages on the car) right on delivery. There are also some zero deductible or rider policies that can be purchased online to cover any minor incidents like what we have described here. They usually are in the range of $50-100. Finally, if there did happen to be a catastrophic incident, in most cases you would receive a payout for the entire value
of the car, (values are determined by the insurance adjuster). So that is how the insurance works when it comes to auto transport.
Watch this quick video by Auto Transport For Dummies on how insurance works when shipping a car :
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Are you a broker or a carrier? Are you putting the car on your own truck? This question also gets asked nearly on a daily basis, and again we understand the distrust for online auto brokers. It truly
is a mess of an industry currently. People have nearly zero trust in the online auto broker world, and we get it completely. But it's not a whole lot different than your local mechanic or auto dealer. You
truly have to find someone you can trust to some extent. But in answer to the question, no , we are likely not putting the vehicle on an airRyd or Midwest Exotic Transport truck. Although we are building a small
fleet currently, it's highly unlikely to end up on a truck we own. Why? Because of the way the industry operates. It doesn't make any sense to go after one unit. It doesn't make a trucking company any money
to operate that way. Auto transport dispatcher's string together loads for trucks across the USA and do so in a very efficient and practical manner, so unless your car is in the perfect location, at the perfect
time, and also happens to be the right size / weight / length , then possibly they can schedule your car in . But the chances of this happening are slim to none. This is why it often costs 50-100% more to book a load directly
with a trucking company, and , or you'll simply have to wait multiple weeks to have it picked up. And even then, it could be cancelled or delayed. The only method of shipping cars fast and efficiently is by utilizing the vast networks of loads and load boards such as Central Dispatch, to move cars rapidly. We do understand the great distrust that exists in the transport world, but we are hoping to change that
as time goes on.
Watch this quick video on why it's often so difficult to hire a trucking company directly to transport your vehicle :