Hey folks,
I was wondering if anyone has had a good, recent experience with a commercial car shipping company for a cross-country move? I'm moving a minivan from California to DC.
I tried searching the forums, but I didn't seem to find anything with specific company recommendations, just a plug for a broker, Car Shipping Carriers.
Thanks for the advice!
We use Reliable a couple times a year.
No issues, care arrive when they're supposed to and damage-free.
There's a bunch of threads about shipping cars on GRM, but your two main choices are open or enclosed. Enclosed costs about double what open does, but obviously protects the cars better. The high end shippers (such as Reliable) are all enclosed.
I have used Reliable a couple times, and have nothing but good things to say about the experience. You'll probably be paying $2K+ to go from CA to DC though.
InterCity Lines. I used them in December to ship a BMW from NorCal to New Hampshire, cost $2100. Tried uShip with no success, brokers who I accepted offers from couldn’t get a hauler. YMMV.
Thanks all! It's a used minivan, so needless to say, open is probably the way to go....
I'm a huge fan of UShip. I've used them a bunch for moves ranging from 300 miles to 3000 miles. I've had nothing but good experiences. I like that you can look at the review history of the carrier bidding on your shipment.
Yes, UShip might be better than the quotes I am getting so far, which seem to be from extremely shady places.
Uship will bring out all the shady right away too. Your immediate replies will all be from brokers. The brokers are guys who want you to say yes to their price then they will try to find a real truck driver/owner to do the work for less than you pay them.
Once your listing is up on Uship, the chatting will start. It is key to know that EVRYONE can see the answers you give to the questions. So, if you get a $3k quote but reply back, "if you could do $2.5k, I would accept" then all potential suitors will see the comment about $2.5k so no one is going to come in cheaper.
However, you can use this to your advantage too. When they quote you $3k wite back and say, my target price is $1.5k. This will then tell all potential suitors what your desired price is.
On Uship be sure to accentuate that this is a car you already own. The shippers get tired of dealing with people who "might" ship a car. People that are shopping Ebay and are "feeling out" what it will cost to ship. Present yourself as REAL. Don't just give destination cities but rather give genuine, exact addresses.
On your time frames I recommend being a combination of immediate and eventual. Immediate might attract a empty truck who is your area today. He is willing to take the load if it is a sure thing and he car pick it up TODAY. For that "sure thing" he might do the work cheaper than normal because some money is better than no money if he is going that way already.
Eventual will attract the shipper who is building a load or planning for the future (like a week out) For me, on the immediate and eventual I use pick up days as soon as today (or the known date your done with the car) to as far out as 2 weeks (if your not in a rush to leave.)
I'm just gonna leave that thread here, like I seem to do in a lot of car shipping threads recently:
TL;DR - experiences vary, and it looks like the more recent experiences of a bunch of people weren't that great.
Oh, and a lot of brokers on uShip seem to have a problem with simple reading comprehension. If you tell them in the listing that you're trying to ship your running daily driver that you owned for several years already, the first two questions you're likely going to get are a) does it run and b) if you just bought it on eBay.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
The broker interactions today were.... not good. Like, I don't want to use any of them because they can't read or write. Call me old fashioned!
In reply to Dave M :
I used Door2Door as the broker two years ago when I shipped my RX-3 from San Bernardio CA to Easton PA.
I'd give you the name of the driver I used but he mostly does enclosed transport and you can get a much better price for open. I will throw out there however, that it was $1700 dollars to the driver and a $175 handling fee to the broker to ship an engineless brakeless station wagon in an enclosed transport with other cars worth more than my house.
The setup of transport was a bit longer than I hoped but the service of the driver was fantastic.
The only reason I didn't use reliable was because they quoted me something like $5k.
Thanks, I'll try the doortodoor folks. I might also dip into the Uship morass just for giggles....?
I’ve used a broker called TCI Logistics 5 times in the last 18 months or so. Three times from CA to Nashville, once from Austin to Nashville, and once from Kansas City to Nashville. I always deal with Kaleb and he has been great getting the shipments booked at reasonable rates. I’ve done both open and enclosed....just depends on the vehicle. I’ve also used uShip in the past and had good results, but I like this broker and never have issues with them, so just keep going back.
John Welsh said:Uship will bring out all the shady right away too.
Ugh. over a year ago i was looking for a saab 9-3 combi with the turbo and 6 speed. I found one in Cali and put a bid out to see what it would cost. I am STILL getting emails and phone calls from companies interested in moving a car I never bought.
You can also said some money if you ship Depot to Depot ,
I shipped a non running VW that we dropped off at their Newark NJ yard and picked it up at the Torrance CA yard ,
This was with Plycar and they own there own trucks.
Nice thing about doing it this way is the driver does not need to wait for you , and on the other side you have a few days to pick it up and not have the driver wanting to drop it off at midnight !
californiamilleghia said:You can also said some money if you ship Depot to Depot ,
I shipped a non running VW that we dropped off at their Newark NJ yard and picked it up at the Torrance CA yard ,
This was with Plycar and they own there own trucks.
Nice thing about doing it this way is the driver does not need to wait for you , and on the other side you have a few days to pick it up and not have the driver wanting to drop it off at midnight !
I'll try these Plycar folks, thanks. All the brokers were quoting for home service and didn't even know what I meant by terminal to terminal.
They are over on 190th st in Torrance in the back......
I have had them ship 2 cars. , Plus they ship other stuff so also have shipped a couple old 1950s stoves
In reply to californiamilleghia :
Thanks! The minivan is in the bay area so hopefully they have a Depot there too....
Dave M said:In reply to californiamilleghia :
Thanks! The minivan is in the bay area so hopefully they have a Depot there too....
Pretty sure they do , pretty big company
This might be a really silly question, but is there a reason you can't just road trip the minivan? I did a very similar trip last year (Carson City NV to Berkeley Springs WV, so about 200 miles shorter at the Western End and 100 miles shorter at the Eastern end) and it would've been an easy and enjoyable 4 day trip if I didn't have to deal with a broken starter in IL.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
Yeah it's just a matter of time off of work, unfortunately! Sometimes time is money, you know?
I use UShip. UShip farms it out, so even though you use them the vehicle may be delivered by one of hundreds of carriers. Most recently moved an F-150 from Phoenix, AZ to upstate New York, open carrier cast me $1100. Figuring gas, tolls, meals, hotels for three or four days and $1100 seems cheap.
Dan
I just wanted to say thank you for all the advice! I ended up using Plycar for enclosed transport and they were great!
In reply to Dave M :
Glad it worked out , they are pretty unknown ,
But I like that they use their own trucks so your car does not get shifted between companies
But you can ship to their Depot close to your house and go pick it up later.
californiamilleghia said:In reply to Dave M :
Glad it worked out , they are pretty unknown ,
But I like that they use their own trucks so your car does not get shifted between companies
But you can ship to their Depot close to your house and go pick it up later.
We ended up doing door to door as they didn't have a Depot in NorCal
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