Vehicle Shipping

November 2, 2009 1:50 PM

Is there anything tricky I should know about shipping a car across the country?

I'm moving from Florida to San Jose. I have a 2003 Honda Accord. I filled out a form online and got some shipping quotes sent to me that seem reasonable (my standard being they are about the same as the sales tax on a replacement there. I've had the car long enough that I wouldn't have to pay use tax to bring it in).

Has anyone done this before? I know plenty of horror stories involving moving companies, and it seems like a lot of the same trickery could go on with this. So any of the following would be helpful:

1) Contacts for specific companies someone has worked with that aren't sheisters.
2) Things otherwise to look out for or consider in choosing someone, and
3) Any radically different approach that is way better for some unconsidered reason.

posted by Bokononist to travel & transportation (10 comments total)

i used dependable auto shippers. they have a lowish rating on some review sites, but so do all car shipping companies. the majority of complaints seem to center around time of delivery. they've very upfront about the fact that they don't guarantee a delivery date and that weather or other such things can delay your car. if you're flexible within a few days (up to a week) of when you can receive your car, i think they're great. i chose the "drop it off at my place" and i have no complaints.
posted by nadawi at 2:01 PM on November 2

I shipped a medium sized milling machine (4-5 ton) using a guy I found through uship.com. Lots of participants there are sole-owner-operator where they have a truck and a trailer and they make their living driving stuff around for people. I liked that I could talk to the actual guy who would be driving it, and he could pick it up, drive it right to me, and drop it off. They have a feedback system so you get some idea whether they are reliable. It looked like a good way to find someone to help you ship a car/horse/machine/anything.

3000 miles is a multi-day trip, though - it might be awfully expensive. (Radically different approach = just drive it? Sounds fun to me but I like that kind of thing.)
posted by fritley at 2:08 PM on November 2

No reason for it to be secret, I filled out the form at haulingdepot.com and have 6 quotes so far ranging from $775 to $1050.
posted by Bokononist at 2:24 PM on November 2

Another option is a "drive-a-way" place that provides a driver to move your car for you. Years ago as a college student I moved a car for such an operation and it seemed to work well for everyone.
posted by exogenous at 2:46 PM on November 2

I shipped a car partway across the country once. Can't remember who I used, they were fine, expensive but fine. The biggest deals that I wasn't expecting were these

- some shippers basically want the car to be empty. That is, they don't want to both ship your car and all your stuff in teh car. Normal stuff is fine, but putting boxes into your car is frowned upon by some shippers. The guy who wound up shipping my car basically said nothign that can be seen through the windows. I had some boxes in the trunk. He implies that that might be a problem but it tuned out not to be.
- some shippers give you very approximate times for pick up and delivery. Not a really huge deal but you usually have to have someone at both ends to sign stuff and I think we got a three day window that my car would arrive in. You think they're just going to drive your car there, either in person or on a truck, and it's not true.
- some shippers basically outsource this sort of thing and so have a hard time giving you good solid answers about some of this stuff
- driveaway may be a better deal at the end of it. I used to do this sort of thing for friends all the time, just to get a little vacation [they'd pay for gas, I'd promise to deliver the car in one piece or pay for damages]. If for some reason you need someone to do this in the beginning of February, I'd do it.
posted by jessamyn at 3:29 PM on November 2

I used DAS, too, to ship from Maryland to Colorado this winter. I have zero complaints; in fact, I thought they were pretty great. They were totally up-front about not being able to guarantee a date for standard delivery, everyone on both ends was totally professional (may vary depending on your area - I think they use local towing companies as distributors and drop points at beginning and end), and my car arrived without a scratch on it.

Their tracking system is fantastic - once your car gets going (mine sat on the lot at the starting point for a few days) you can track it across the country in real time. It saved me a lot of worry to be able to update it every half an hour and see that it was in Lawrence - now in Topeka - now in Abilene - etc.

The price was very fair - about $700 with to-my-door service. Their guidelines for a safe shipment were very thorough. It was a giant hassle that I didn't have to deal with at all - yay for DAS.
posted by peachfuzz at 3:32 PM on November 2

I can't remember who I shipped my car with when I moved from CT to OR, but the one thing I do remember is that I forgot to take my EZ Pass out of my car before I did so, so I got a bunch of tolls charged to my account that I didn't actually accrue. So if you have a toll-road transponder in your car, be sure to take it out of the car before loading it on the truck.
posted by pdb at 3:42 PM on November 2

ohhh - i had forgotten about the tracking system through DAS - god, that thing was AWESOME!
posted by nadawi at 4:29 PM on November 2

I shipped a car once using this company. Everything was super straightforward -- they came on the promised day; the driver phoned when he got close to arrange a place to meet (the truck wouldn't fit on my street, so we met a few blocks away); and the car arrived on time and undamaged. Shipping was cheaper than driving it and flying back, and the convenience can't be beat.
posted by Forktine at 4:47 PM on November 2

I used DAS as well -- they were EXCELLENT, upfront, cheap, and very helpful. Just make sure you get the payment details straightened up out front. There was some confusion (from my end) about when/where payment was expected, that ended up delaying the shipment by a few days.
posted by mr. remy at 5:05 PM on November 2