Car Shipping 101: Because You Can't Drive Every Project Home

Fly 'N' Drive: More Expensive Than It Seems

Let's start by slaughtering a sacred cow: the fly 'n' drive. Yes, this method of retrieving a car is a community tradition; our forum is filled with stories of people jetting off to strange new places, hopping into strange new cars, and driving them home. Is it a fun adventure? Yes, absolutely. We've even done it ourselves more times than we can remember.

But in most circumstances, flying out to pick up your car will cost more than having it shipped. You'll have to cover the costs of the plane ticket, gas, food and hotel rooms, and if you add what your time is worth it's almost impossible to come out ahead.

We'll Just Tow It Ourselves

"Fair enough," you say. "I've got a truck and trailer. I'll just drive out to the car and tow it home to save money."

Nope, odds are that won't work, either.

Why? Simple economics. Say we're retrieving a car that's 500 miles away. We hitch our empty trailer to our van and hit the road, paying for food and gas along the way. We arrive at the pickup location, load up our new car, and spring for a night in a hotel before we head back. More road food. More gas. By the time we get home, our van has racked up a thousand miles' worth of wear and tear and averaged 10 mpg. Total cost? Probably around $500, and that doesn't account for money lost by skipping two days of work.

If we hire a professional shipper to fetch that car, though, economies of scale come into play. Yes, bigger trucks use more fuel--modern semi-trucks get about 7 mpg--but we won't have to pay for them to drive empty for half the trip. Plus, each truck can carry about 10 cars. Suddenly every cost is a little higher, but spread among 10 different customers. We'll need to pay for the driver's time, sure, but that's time we won't spend off the job, eating on the road, or staying in a hotel. Odds are, a professional shipper will still cost less than towing the car home ourselves or doing a fly 'n' drive. It's the same reason that a bus ticket only costs $1, even though it's professionally driven and a bit of a gas guzzler.

Step One: Get Quotes

There are two basic business models in the car shipping industry: A company either owns a bunch of trucks, or it acts as a broker, coordinating a bunch of people who each own a truck or two. Think UPS versus your local courier dispatch.

Is one better than the other? Car Shipping Carriers, a broker, argues that its business model is superior. It gathers auto shipping quotes from many different carriers, a practice it says can lower costs. "The organization was built on the basic principle that competition is healthy as long as customers are receiving transparent information about us," Nicholas explains.

What does he mean by transparent information? Basically, Car Shipping Carriers believes its customers should know exactly what each quote they get represents–anything from a dude with a pickup truck and a single-car trailer to somebody with a big rig. This way, customers can decide which vehicle transportation option is best for them.

What factors influence the price? Here are a few of the main considerations:

Season

Just like plane tickets, spots on a transport truck rise and fall in price depending on demand. Are you a snowbird shipping your car down to Florida for the winter? That's a popular idea, so expect to pay more than you would during the sweltering summer months when cars are mostly shipping back North. Think of it like your morning commute: If you ship during off-peak hours (or against traffic, like to the Northeast in the middle of winter), you'll save money.

Type of Car

UPS doesn't charge the same price to deliver a toothbrush as it does a bowling ball. The same holds true for car shippers. A Camry is more expensive to ship than a Corolla simply because it takes up more space that could be used to haul more cars. Weight matters, too, as every additional pound is extra gas burned and extra truck and trailer maintenance required.

Special cars--think exotics, classics or heavily modified vehicles--typically cost more, too. Shippers don't want pay the insurance claim if somebody hits your Maserati, so they'll charge more to cover the extra risk.

Condition of Car

Here's a rule of thumb for car shipping pricing: If it's a pain, it will cost more. Cars that don't run, don't roll, or are heavily modified take more time and special equipment to ship.

Location

Car shipping is affordable because shippers can put a bunch of cars onto the same truck. In a perfect world, they'd all be traveling the same route, too. That's not usually possible, so shipping companies aim for the next-best thing: clustering their pickups and deliveries to minimize the amount of time driving around half-empty and stopping to load and unload. What does this mean for you? If you ship your car along a common route, you'll pay less than the poor soul sending his car from the middle of Kansas to the middle of North Dakota.

Type of Transport

Finally, the type of transport matters. The three options are open transport, covered transport, and enclosed transport. Open transport is the cheapest, and it's easy to understand why: Your car sits on an open trailer, exposed to the elements for the entire journey. Enclosed transport is the opposite: Your car is sheltered in a hard-sided carrier. Covered transport splits the difference: A fabric that isn't totally watertight covers the trailer, and the cost is less than enclosed transport.

Step Two: Decide

Once you have a few vehicle transportation quotes, it's time to take your pick. How do you decide? Simple: Just as if you were buying a new toaster on Amazon, you should read the reviews of each shipper to make sure they meet your expectations. This is also the time to pick a transport option, be it open, covered or enclosed. Your wallet will probably make this choice for you, but it's not a bad idea to think about the weather along the shipping route. An open transporter traveling through Arizona in the dry season will probably stay drier than one headed for Florida's summer showers.

Once you pick a shipper and agree on a quote, you'll pay a deposit. This will lock in the quoted rate, and the shipper will have a set period (usually a week or two) to schedule an exact pickup time and delivery window.

Step Three: Ship

You paid your deposit, scheduled a pickup time, and cleaned your McDonald's receipts out of your car. Now what?

Usually, the driver will call an hour or so before pickup to choose an exact meeting spot. For starters, your shipper probably won't want to pull into your driveway. (Picture a semi-truck trying to do a U-turn in your cul-de-sac.) We're fond of big shopping plaza parking lots, but your driver will have the final say.

Once you meet the driver, they'll do a thorough walk-around of the car, filling out a damage report as they go. The goal? To make everybody aware of any damage the car started with. (Hey, who would want to safely deliver a car and then get in trouble for a door ding they didn't cause?) You'll sign the damage report and then get a copy for your own records.

After that, your job is over. The driver will load the car onto the truck, hop in the cab and drive away. While you go on with your life, they'll be slogging down the interstate on the way to your car's destination. Once they get there, removal is more or less the reverse of installation. They'll choose an easy place to stop, take the car off the trailer, and let you (or whoever is picking it up) inspect the car for damage against the original inspection sheet. That's it. Now all you have to do is pay the shipper, and the process is complete.