Thanks-I thought about that but she isn’t the most experienced driver long distance-mostly used to our suburban area.
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You could try asking some local car dealerships who they use, especially ones where you’ve purchased cars before. I knew someone who had worked at a dealership and when she moved cross-country she mentioned she still had some contacts at her old dealership to help arrange to ship her car.
And be sure you’re getting a service where they put your car onto a truck or train and ship it, not a service that hires drivers to get the car there.
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we shipped a car once. The dates did not end up exactly like we had been told; and the weirdest thing was that we could track the car - it went right through our town; didnt stop - went 600 miles to the east; then turned around and came back to us a few days later. ???
the control on exact times and dates might be hard; but the process was smooth for us. there were SO Many options it seemed.
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Perhaps you and your husband can drive the car and meet your daughter on the way (maybe St. Louis?)?Your husband flies back while you and your D drive to Florida together. It could be a nice mom and daughter time.
We did this last year to take D’s car to her school, different route but similar idea. Of course, it meant getting 3 one way airline tickets but for us it was significantly cheaper than moving the car.
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I just booked to ship and can update this site about how it goes…our start date is 05/09…and told pick up should be within a few days of that and then deliver within 5 days after pick up. We could still cancel before driver assigned, or for $199 after driver assigned but not picked up yet, which seems fair. D should get vehicle far sooner than if we had to drive it down and similar price…although I would consider a couple days with D to be worth it. I’m not the one driving, though, H would be. I don’t like busy roads and tend to just drive within my comfort zone. I also considered bad weather/car issues if we drove down and we shouldn’t have to worry about that. The process seemed almost too easy. Hope all goes well. It is about 1500 miles away and when we dropped her off was @24 hour drive with 2 hotel stays on the way there.
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Only a little help and too late I’m afraid but there seem to be lots of snowbirds here in FL hiring a driver to drive their car (while they fly)to upper Midwest as well as to east coast and then paying for a plane ticket back for the driver. One advantage to that over car haulers is you can pack the car full of stuff. Maybe someone could do the reverse trip, especially this time of year.
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MAKE SURE YOU HAVE INSURANCE!
SORRY TO SHOUT! BUT MAKE SURE YOU HAVE INSURANCE!
(I didn’t when shipping a car overseas, and it was damaged during the move. It cost thousands to repair.)
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Car is currently insured. Thank you.
Thanks for responding. We were told we could put up to 100# in the trunk
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Make sure your insurance covers shipping. Mine didn’t.
This might help:
https://www.transportreviews.com/Learn/126/3/Is-my-car-insured-while-it-being-shipped
And definitely check out the reviews of the shipping company. I didn’t and literally/figuratively paid the price (damage to the car equaled the shipping costs).
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I have read that some car shippers want nothing in the car that is not part of the car to minimize complaints about loss, theft, or damage of things that were supposedly in the car at the time of shipment.
If the shipper will allow you to put unrelated items in the car, then be sure to understand where the responsibility for loss, theft, or damage of such things lies, in addition to loss, theft, or damage of the car.
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I got a quote one day, waited a couple days to ask a question and the price had jumped by $70, saying they only lock in the cost for 24 hours. Lesson learned…
Most car shipping services are dispatchers. They don’t actually do the shipping. themselves. They are agents for drivers who do the actual hauling. Quotes can vary depending on the availability of driver and how many other cars the driver can haul along the same route. Quotes can also change based upon the price of gas.
Once I agree to a price, do I sign a contract or pay anything up front? We plan to pay credit card instead of the discounted cash on delivery option.
Once you agree on a price, you will sign a contract and you’ll pay usually half up front. Sometimes more. The driver then expects to paid the balance in cash upon delivery. There was no option to pay via credit card/
I shipped a car from NM to CA late 2019 and had zero issues. My price was lower because I lived near I-40 and the delivery address was near a major interstate that connected to I-40.
I was told I could put up to 40# in the truck, but I didn’t add anything since there wasn’t anything I needed sent to that address.
Before the driver picks up the car, make sure you take pictures of every section of the car, including the roof, make notes about the car’s current condition detailing major and minor scratches/dents/etc. Note the mileage on the odometer. (Taking a photo of the odometer is better.) Plus take photos of anything you pack inside.
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Lots of great advice. I did call our insurance company and will call again once we have a firm date of pick up. We picked a company that was more expensive but I saw on a couple lists of “best picks”.
Sorry I didn’t get back to you faster. My daughter was going to look for te name of the company she used to ship, but her BFF had baby yesterday and she got distracted. Said it was something like “Easy Ship” or another generic name that may not help you.
When my car was shipped in a corporate move, we were all told that we couldn’t put anything in the car and even had to remove everything in the trunk. When the guy picked up the car, he said we could have left the ‘regular’ stuff in the trunk like stadium chairs, extra coats, blankets, etc. Of course by then it was all packed in the moving van.
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This is the company we used last year and just about every moving company recommended them. Montway. https://www.montway.com/hiw-car-shipping-lp?headline=5-Star%20Rated%20Car%20Shipping%20Company&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyMiTBhDKARIsAAJ-9VsYWLfVAMhX4Rgpe1MuU2l4wgUELS8MCdP2i0pCh8tu_pammB_7fFkaAuGkEALw_wcB
Gas is making prices go up and when you need to car. None of the companies can guarantee an exact delivery date so you need to be slightly flexible. So my advice is to be there a few days before you need the car if that makes sense.
I live in Chicago and the truck haulers don’t come down our narrow streets so we had to meet them in a supermarket parking lot. Not an issue. These are all professional haulers and the company is just an order taker. They contract the car with car haulers. We had a husband /wife team that got the car from Chicago to Rhode Island in 2 days… They then had to wait a day till my son got there to deliver the car to his apartment. This is a major company and doesn’t play games. There was an initial delay in them picking up the car but after one phone call they gave the car to this new crew so he wouldn’t be delayed at his job start date.
Every company I looked at had good /bad reviews but when like every moving company suggested them… That made sense to me.
My son paid credit card then rest in cash to the driver. This is more industry standard by the way. I talked to tons of companies. Lol.
It’s not really a big deal but it is different.
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My son was allowed to load up his car and he did. Nothing valuable but made the move easier.
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Thank you all for the great advice!! Maybe others wanting to ship a vehicle will be able to learn from this information.
I can’t help regarding shipping companies. We looked at that option in the distant past, and decided instead to drive student cross country (about 2400 miles) over 4-5 days. The cost was likely more than shipping considering food, gas, lodging, but we considered it a vacation. We also have some great memories from that trip. If you have the time, I’d suggest creating a trip to remember?
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My sons car went back and forth from CA to MA 5x. As Knowsruff said, he had to pay back end in cash. They waited for him to go to bank. Whether I used a GF’s husband or an unknown company, all use a dispatcher. Car was stuffed. Dates of pickup and delivery could change.
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It has been a couple days and still waiting to get a confirmed date of pickup. I hope that is usual.
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