Shipping a Car Across Country

What is the best way to ship a car across-country? Drive it. But if you don’t feel comfortable driving long distances, the best and most comfortable way is to seek the services of professional movers. Shipping a car across country is safer, more convenient and at times faster than doing it yourself.

Perhaps the easiest and fastest way to move your car to the other side of the country is pay someone to drive it for you. There are several automobile shipping companies that offer this kind of service for a price that is much cheaper than actually shipping a car across country. The two obvious problems for this option are (1) your car will do the traveling and accumulate mileage and wear-and-tear, and (2) you have to let a stranger drive your car for a long distance.

The other option is to look for a car shipping company that will transport your car on a carrier truck. A car transport truck is what you normally see on highways towing a pile of cars behind it. These trucks are normally 75 feet or longer. Shipping a car across country through a transport company is probably your better option if you want to guarantee the safety of your car, especially if you decide to transport through a closed carrier, as opposed to the regular, open-carrier method. Closed shipping may be more expensive but it has its advantages.

To look for the best shipper, you may check around the Internet or ask people you know who have tried shipping a car across the country. People who are close to you – relatives, friends or coworkers – are the best sources of information or recommendation which company to contract or not.

Another way of finding the best car movers is through a car dealer. Needless to say, car dealers contract the services of local car shippers every time. Go to a local car dealer and ask for contacts and recommendations. It would be best to ask from high-end car dealers, say, BMW or Mercedes. They move cars worth millions of dollars every week.

Also, when shipping a car across country, it is best to get brokers to help you. There are no national car moving companies in the US and so your broker will contact local car shippers that will take care of all your shipping details from the pick-up to the delivery.

When shipping a car across country, expect your transport company to ask you to sign an agreement that they are not liable for damage to the interior of your car. Check any items inside your car before the transfer to make sure nothing gets broken or banged on your car interior during the transfer.

You may drive your car to the terminal to save on pick-up and door-to-door cost. At the receiving end, you can again schedule to personally pick up your car from the terminal drop-off area rather than paying for them to deliver it direct to your garage.

Shipping a car across country may take a week or two. Schedule a convenient drop-off date and time for you and the shipper.