Car Delivery Methods

When planning to have your car transported anywhere in the country or the world, know that there are three major car delivery methods.

They are the open, multi-car method, closed (or enclosed) method, and car shipping by rail. The most common and well-known of these three is the open shipping method.

I’m sure you have seen, one time or another, a huge truck or trailer carrying a bunch of cars on the highway. That is exactly how open car shipping is done. Shipping companies make use of 75-feet long automobile carrier trucks to haul a number of cars, up to 10, and make a number of deliveries following the same route.

Average car shipping cost from coast to coast is from $600 (during lean season) and $1,000 (during peak season, which normally falls in summer). This method is affordable and perfectly safe, although it may look otherwise. Cars for shipment are strapped and pegged so that they will not fall off. There are so far no records of a major road incident where a car has fallen of a delivery truck.

For international shipments, open shipping is done on the deck of a roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) vessel. This boat is named that way because it opens up a side so that cars may be rolled onto its deck for shipment, and then rolled off at the end of the delivery. Again, there have not been any reports of cars falling into the sea.

The downside of this method is that car shipper will not guarantee a specific time and day of delivery since there are several deliveries to be made.

Enclosed car shipping, on the other hand, is done using a metal freight container. Cars are hauled inside a closed and locked container so that they are perfectly safe and protected against any external elements, which could include rain, hail, snow, dust, road debris and so on.

Enclosed car delivery costs

Enclosed car shipping requires close attention and care for each car, and this means additional costs. This method is much more expensive, about 70% more expensive than open shipping. It is designed to accommodate really expensive cars, such as sports cars, antiques, specialty cars, and so on.

Any owner of a Lamborghini or Jaguar would make sure that nothing touches their precious automobiles. There are no downsides to this method, except that it is very expensive. Some car shippers even make use of expensive freight containers with climate control features.

When shipping regular sedans, it is best not to pay for this method. Meanwhile, rail car shipping is car shipping done using the country’s popular train systems, such as Amtrak. Although this method is inexpensive and eco-friendly, it has two disadvantages: shipment can only go to where there are train tracks, and the car owner must be inside the train along with his or her car.

Finally, if these three methods of car delivery won’t work for you, another way of doing it is by simply asking a professional transporter to drive your car all the way to its final point of destination. Or, you can always self-drive if you feel like it.