I'll start by saying the was the 3rd car I have had shipped in 12 months and the second shipped via Uship in the past 3 months. All positive experiences.
So I had my Challenger minivan shipped in. I learned a lot from the driver and thought I would share.
On Thursday May 12th the deal to buy the car was done. On Friday I posted up on Uship. Seems you can do 3 ways on Uship.
1. Get a quote: On my last car this was an immediate price of somewhere in the high $600 range to move a car just under 1,000 miles. I passed on the immediate prices and then did the auction option. Here, shippers then give you bids. Ironically the first bids that came in were near $1,000. You can chat via the website with the bidders but these chats are monitored so you do not try to swap personal info and then strike a deal outside Uship.
For that car I countered one shipper and he accepted my price which if I remember was $550 but he could get me the car quickly.
This time I tried the 3rd method of "name your own price". My goal was 50 cents per mile and since 944 miles I stated a price of $475. Within one hour of posting I had a taker. I chatted with the shipper and liked what I heard so I accepted. Upon accepting you then get email and phone contact for the shipper. He and I spoke and I felt very comfortable with the guy.
Box truck pulling a 1 car trailer. He is from Traverse City, MI but also has a small place in North Dade County FL and would like to make FL more permanent.
Driver, Ken, was a great guy and communication was good. I was flexible and he gave me some rough estimates. He'd try to pickup the van Tues or Weds and have it to me Thurs or Friday.
Ken emailed again during the week announcing another schedule update and confirm of expected Friday ETA. We developed a rapport and I also gave him advise to be sure to get north of Cincinnati before shutting down for the night so as to avoid rush hour bridge nightmares. I went as far as to pull an address of a Walmart that would be a good place to shut down and anticipate his am delivery.
When he arrived with the van, this rapport continued and he was here for an hour. Much of it just chatter. My guess is time on the road can get lonely and he enjoyed the chatter with someone like minded (I know I did.) Some of the time was also spent answering the questions of, "now, your really going to race this van??"
I asked a lot of questions of the business. Through the stories and what I can see of his feedback on Uship here is what I pieced together. This trips north included the following.
Leave his place in Southern FL.
Pick up a dog about 50 miles south of Orlando and deliver the dog about 100 miles to North of Orlando. Ken told me he was delayed here because the receiving party was not home. Dog in crate, in box truck portion.
$89 (yeah, your Uship feedback gives the price of trips)
On the way, stop in Orlando and pick up commercial vacuum machine 5ft x 3 ft to deliver to N Dayton, OH. In box truck portion.
$290
From there to Jax to get my van which will travel to Sandusky, OH or 944 miles.
$475
From there to Copart in N. Atlanta to pick up a wrecked Motorcycle
Missed the 4:30 pm close time so had to wait till AM to get. Another delay.
This motorcycle was being delivered within 4 miles of my house. Local motorcycle dismantler. Loaded into box truck.
$255
From N Atlanta to Greenville SC to pick up another motorcycle and deliver to Chicago.
Also in box truck.
$280
That looks like $1,389. It will take him from Tuesday morning to Saturday morning to make that or 5 days. That's only $277 per day.
In our chatting about the business he was happy with this trip saying he was doing better this time than he had on others.
For me to use Uship for my $475 load I was hit with a $35 service fee or what looks to be 7%. My total cost was $475 + $35 = $510.
In our conversation Ken shared that Uship hits him for $75 or what looks like 15%.
That could mean that $1,389 is really only 1,180 or $236 per day.
The Rig
Ken bought the truck used. It was built buy a guy who hauled lumber. He ran this truck and a trailer. The loads were side loaded, so, the entire side is just a fabric curtain that can slide forward. Zoom in and you will see silver metal upright poles. These used to be the only side support other than the curtain. Since then, lateral wood has been added to the box for more support and more tie down capability. Because of this, the truck can no longer be easily side loaded. It would require a ratchet and unbolting the wooden laterals to accommodate a side load.
The truck has airbag rear suspension. This allows the ability to pump up or down as a way to adjust tongue weight of the trailer. If you zoom in you will see a little rubber strip near the hitch (looks like a grounding strap.) This is serves as a ride height gauge and things are right when this strip is just barely off the ground.
The rear mounted crane to the box was a neat touch. He tells me that this has been used to lift motorcycles into the box and well as other items.
The floor of the box has many tie down eyes. When he was here there were two motorcycles in there and the were both tied to the floor of the box.
The bicycles were riding for free. They belong to his brother as does the powerwasher in the box.
Ken tells me that the load had a tough time in the hills of KY coming up I-75. That's a 4,000 lb minivan. The rig is gas, not diesel.
