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8 Tips to Help You Ship a Car This Holiday Season

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Home  |  Auto Shipping • Car Shipping • Car Transport • Vehicle Shipping   |   8 Tips to Help You Ship a Car This Holiday Season

Here is the tough news that you need to know: Trying to ship between 12/24-1/14 is the toughest time of year to ship a car. However, if you are aware and prepared for what to expect, it will at least keep your experience from becoming a nightmare. It’s important to understand that pricing and carrier availability in this industry is always based on SUPPLY & DEMAND.

During the holidays, the DEMAND of people trying to ship a car *greatly* outweighs the SUPPLY of available carriers; this already tough scenario is further aggravated by the fact that most carriers are off from 12/24-1/1 spending time with family and virtually NO pick ups or drop offs take place that week. When the carriers return to work on 1/2, there are infinitely more cars trying to ship ASAP than the available carriers can service, giving the carriers liberty to only service the very best paying loads and thereby causing price spikes during the first half of January.

Here are 8 tips to keep in mind if you want to avoid a lot of frustration.

  • Getting a carrier for pickup between 12/24-1/1 is near impossible and not realistic to expect
  • Ship well before Christmas Eve or after the first half of January to save money and headaches.
  • If not possible, then be prepared to pay significantly more to get a spot on a truck
  • Pricing will be higher than typical and can be nearly double to get a carrier particularly for the “snowbird” shipments from up north down to Florida and Arizona.
  • Beware of low price quotes, as a brokers can offer carriers any price you like, but if it is too low, your car will not get shipped on time or at all. Carriers will simply have too many better priced shipments to choose instead.
  • The risk of bad weather during early January can extend the lack of carrier availability causing the inflated prices to continue through more than the first two weeks of January
  • Make sure your broker has a fixed and transparent broker fee so you are not victim to brokers charging higher broker margins because of the holiday price spikes.If your broker doesn’t warn
  • You upfront about the holiday and early January shipping concerns, you should be concerned about their transparency and honesty.

Our goal is to empower customers to know what they are in store for during the holidays. Education, transparency and honesty is key if you want to have a smooth and safe car transport experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to Your Car Moving Questions

The hardest thing for people researching car moving companies to understand is that the prices they are getting are not hard and fast gaurantees, but rather ESTIMATES of what one company thinks it will take to get a vehicle moved promptly versus another company's opinion of what it will take. Don't be fooled, there are not carriers committed to take your vehicle at these quoted prices, the company you choose will still have to get to work getting a carrier to commit to move it at the price they quote you.

Your total price breaks down into two parts, the broker's fee (or 'deposit' as everyone calls it) and the carriers fee (your COD amount) Make no mistake about this, EVERYONE YOU ARE GETTING SALES CALLS FROM IS GOING TO BROKER YOUR MOVE. In this industry, there are brokers who try to fool you into thinking that they are the actual carriers and there are an equal amount of carriers who sell themselves on the fact that they have a truck or two but are not being honest about the fact that they broker out 90% of the orders they book. Here is a quick easy way to tell, if a company takes an up front fee, whether they call it a deposit or any other name, they are a broker. Carriers do not take any payment until the vehicle is delivered.

In our opinion, you are crazy to do so. Have you ever been paid up front for the work that you perform for your employer? Why would you pay a fee up front when there are reliable and trustworthy companies like ours that won't ask for it until we provide you with your carriers details?

The average transit time from pick up to delivery on any vehicle going coast to coast will be between one and two weeks. From there you can figure your transit time based on how far your vehicle is traveling, i.e. from either coast to the Midwest might average 3-7 days.

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