You might have heard that auto shipping can often be cheaper than driving long distances. But how much does it actually cost to ship your car?

The truth is that the cost of auto shipping can vary on a number of different things. Knowing what factors will influence the final price you pay can help a lot. If you know how to go about getting some discount, you’ll be able to get reliable auto shipping for less. But if you don’t know the industry, you might fall victim to dishonest quotes from unreliable companies.

That’s why you, as a consumer, should know what to expect whenever you want to ship a car.

Auto Shipping Costs

The best way to know what auto shipping will cost you, is to do some online research and get a few quotes from a few different companies. These quotes will be based on your car model and the distance you’re planning to ship your car, so they ought to be reasonably accurate.

Generally though, car shipping can cost between anywhere $0.46-$1.54 per mile. Factors that influence the cost per mile include:

• Distance: The further you’re shipping your car, the less a mile will cost you.
• Weight: Heavier cars cost more to ship because they have extra weight.
• The auto shipper: Some auto shipping companies will just charge somewhat more than others. While you should avoid working with companies that overcharge by a large amount, small price differences are normal.

Besides the above mentioned things, there are other factors that can influence the price you pay for auto shipping. Here are some other things that can affect the cost of car shipping:

• Insurance: You should only work with car shipping companies that will insure your vehicle. If your car is damaged during shipping, the auto transport company’s insurance should then cover the damages. However, if you’re given a form to fill in by an auto transport company, take a look at what kinds of insurance you’re paying for and only tick the boxes you think are most relevant. Just remember, insurance probably isn’t the best place to save on your car shipping.
• Season: Auto transporters are more busy during certain times of the year. Most companies are especially busy during the summer months. When demand for auto shipping services increases, the price goes up accordingly. What this means is that you should be able to score some reasonably good savings by shipping your car in the winter whenever possible.
• Delivery location: Many people take advantage of the convenience of having their car delivered straight to their door. But having your car shipped and delivered to a terminal rather than your house will be significantly cheaper.

All of these things will have an effect on the price you pay. So always pay close attention and learn more about what exactly you’re paying for when shipping your car.

While you’re shopping around for quotes, just keep in mind: a quote is something you should not pay for. Companies that don’t give free quotes aren’t worth your effort. Perhaps these companies hope you’ll think that all auto shippers charge for quotes, and so they hope to pressure you into choosing them by having you believe shopping for quotes will be expensive. But shopping for quotes should be free, so don’t waste your time with a company that expects you to pay for them.

Avoiding Auto Shipping Scams

There are a lot of scams in the auto shipping world. Unfortunately, many auto shippers aren’t concerned about your needs. Many of these scammers promise you some kind of discount based on things that can’t realistically be true.

Here are a few common auto shipping scams to avoid if you want to get the most out of your auto shipping:

• Incredibly low quotes: If an auto shipper quotes you significantly less than all the others, you’re likely dealing with a scammer. Prices that seem too good to be true usually are. It costs money to hire a truck to move your car. There are many expenses in car shipping, like fuel for the carrier truck, and insurance for your car. If a quote is very low, that money won’t even cover expenses, not to mention the company’s profit. Businesses operate to make money, so be suspicious of anyone who seems more concerned about offering you low prices than making money off the deal as well. These companies don’t work for nothing any more than the ones who quoted normal prices.
• Early deposits for discounts: Some auto shippers might try to pressure you into an agreement by telling you there’s some kind of temporary discount you can take advantage of. In these cases, they might tell you there’s a truck waiting for your vehicle and that you should make a deposit to secure your space on the carrier. It’s usually a lie. Don’t allow auto transport companies to pressure you into paying upfront fees. Usually this is just a way to get money out of you without having to do something to earn it.
• Free work: Some companies might try to convince you that they don’t charge anything for their services. In these cases, you’ll be lead to believe you only have to pay for the carrier, and not for the auto shipping company’s service as well.

To get the best deal on your auto shipping, it’s always best to work with a company you trust. Read online reviews and learn more about a company before allowing them to collect your car.

Auto transport can be a life-saver when you can’t drive a car a long distance, but you still need to move it. There are a surprising number of reasons why you might choose to ship your car. Some of the main reasons include keeping the mileage down and convenience.

However, if you choose the wrong auto shipping company, your attempt to save time and hassle might backfire. Unfortunately the auto shipping industry has built somewhat of a negative reputation. Many auto shippers have questionable customer service and poor business ethics in general.

Why Choosing a Good Auto Shipper Matters

Your experience shipping your car will depend mainly on finding a good auto shipper that takes your needs into consideration. The reason why you’re shipping your car, and the fact that you need it by a certain time, should matter to your auto shipper. But if you make use of a company that only aims to scam you out of more money, you won’t be saving yourself any effort by making use of a car shipping service.

Obviously, there’s no sense in wasting money on a service if you’re not getting what you paid for. If you paid to have your car delivered somewhere on a certain date for a specific price, you should get exactly what you agreed upon for the price you’re paying. You don’t want to pay more, but you also don’t want to pay the agreed upon price for poor service and a car that’s delivered late. For you to get the most out of auto shipping, everything should be in place.

Where to Find a Good Auto Shipper?

The easiest way to find anything nowadays is with a quick Google search. But just because a company came up in your search results, doesn’t mean you can trust them. There are a number of things you can look for when scanning through the information companies offer online.

One of the best places to learn more about any company you’re planning to work with, is to have a look at their website. So whenever you find companies through something like their Facebook page, be sure to have a look at their website, there should be a link to their website in the “about” section of their Facebook page. If you don’t see any links, try a Google search of the company name.

Alas, if nothing comes up after you did a search, it’s better to look elsewhere. Anyone can start a Facebook page and pretend to be an auto shipper, and they might even be a real auto shipping company for all you know. But the fact that this company isn’t willing to invest in a proper online presence should be somewhat alarming.

A website shows that the company is dedicated to providing you with information. And any company can easily set up a website for little to no money, so if they didn’t invest that time, it probably won’t be worth the bother.

What to Look For?

So, once you’ve done an online search and found some promising companies, there are a number of things to look at when making your final choice. The first thing is the amount of information a company provides on their website. Look for things like a business address, telephone number and email address.

Also have a look at the “About” pages on the companies’ websites, as these should describe exactly what kinds of vehicles the company ships and to where they ship. Not all auto shippers will ship to anywhere in the country, so a company that could’ve been wonderful otherwise might fall through the cracks once you know more about what they do.

Lastly, you’ll want to have a look at some online reviews before contacting a company. Remember, it’s okay if a company has both negative and positive reviews. Just read through them carefully to see if there are things that customers often complain about. The occasional complaint about a late delivery doesn’t mean the company is bad, especially not if they move thousands of cars annually. Circumstances beyond a company’s control can happen sometimes.

But how late were the cars in these cases? If uncontrollable circumstances causes a company to be late with your delivery, they should still do their best to get the car to you as soon as possible. Meaning a car that’s delivered a month or two late is simply unacceptable.

Another red light is if you see many complaints about the company charging customers more than they initially agreed upon when they go to collect their cars.

Contacting Auto Shippers

Once you’ve had a look and some auto shippers’ websites and you read through online reviews, you’ll want to reach out to some of the best companies and ask for a quote. Collect 5-10 quotes to get a realistic idea about what auto shipping should cost for you.

Be careful for quotes that are much higher or lower than average. Companies that quote too low often add extra fees you didn’t expect. In reality, they dishonestly use a lower-than-average quote to lure you in and get more money later. So it’s better to pay a higher price and know what to expect than to go for the cheapest company and cross your fingers they won’t overcharge you in the future.

Furthermore, all the quotes should be free. There’s no reason for any auto shipper to charge you for a quote. Why should you have to pay to know what a service will cost you? This is basic information you need to make the best choice, and trustworthy auto shippers respect that.

If you’re planning to ship a car, feel free to contact Suncoast Auto Transport for a quote on shipping your car and to learn more about working with auto shipping companies to move your vehicle.

Moving is already a chore, moving long distance only adds more hassle to your already long list. That’s because a long-distance move requires more thought, more organization and more paperwork than a move to the other side of town. Especially if you’re moving to a different state, renewing your personal information like your driver’s license and ID can be such a headache. But once the busy move is over, you’ll hopefully be able to settle and enjoy the weather, culture and scenery your new home offers.

Suncoast Auto Transport is located in Port Saint Lucie, meaning we’re in the best spot to help you in your move to or from the Sunshine State and any other state in the nation. In particularly, we help make your move easier by taking care of moving your car to your new home. That way you have the option of buying a plane ticket so you can easily fly to your new location. There are many reasons why moving your car with auto transport is easier and more cost effective than driving it down. Not only will you save on gas and accommodation bookings, you won’t have to worry about flat tires, adding mileage or the exhausting trip to drive your car all the way.

Once you start to plan your long-distance move, you’ll soon see the benefit of shipping your car instead of driving it, but there are many other things to consider during your more to make the transition and easy one for you and your family.

Planning Your Long-distance Move

To start planning your long-distance move, there are a few basic things you should know. These things will help you plan your move better so that everything can simply fall into place once you arrive at your new home. Of course you don’t want to spend the first few months it your new home trying to sort out unforeseen problems. That’s why you have to prevent certain problems from popping up to begin with. Here are some basics to keep in mind with your move.

Get to know your new space

Before you move, you should know exactly what your new space will look like. When you’re just moving to another house in the same town, this isn’t usually a problem – you’ve probably seen your new place, so you know exactly what you’re working with. Long-Distance moves, however, aren’t as simple. You might be moving to a place you’ve never even seen.

To make the move easier, you should know exactly what rooms your new home will have, as well as the measurements of each room. If you’re renting, ask the landlord or real estate agents to send you all the measurements with as many pictures as possible. You could also ask for the floor plan of your new home. While getting the floor plan might not be possible, but it would help you to plan exactly where you’ll put all of your furniture once you get in your new home.

To plan where you’ll put your furniture, you can measure all of your pieces with a measuring tape. Draw the floor plan on a piece of paper, making sure everything is proportionately in scale. On a separate piece of paper, draw rectangles that represent you furniture pieces, these should also be proportionately in scale with your floor plan. Write the name of each piece in its rectangle (like “Bedroom wardrobe” or “Dining room table”). After this, cut out the rectangles and arrange them on your floor plan to get a realistic sense of the space you have.

You’ll soon see that spaces can be deceptive. You’ll likely find places where you thought you had a lot of space, but they can’t take a lot of furniture, as well as spaces that seemed small that could take surprisingly more that you thought.

Only Move Things You Really Want

Start planning your move well in advance. Don’t procrastinate sorting through your things. If you putt off sorting through your things before a big move, you’ll end up throwing everything into boxes at the last minute.

To make your move easier, you should go through all your stuff and throw away or donate the things you don’t want anymore. Not only will you need less boxes to pack your stuff, using less space in a moving truck could save you some money.

When going through your things, you have to be realistic about what you’ll take with you and what you’ll get rid of. Remember, the less things you have to move, there more money you’ll save. Things that you should get rid of include old clothes and toys that your kids have outgrown, clothing that you never wear and potted plants.

If you have extra household supplies, like pet food, kitty litter, toilet paper, cleaning products or foods like rice, pasta and canned foods in your home, consider donating them instead of packing everything. Only keep enough so you’ll have everything you need at your new home the first week or two after you’ve moved.

If there are any furniture pieces you won’t be able to fit in your new home, getting rid of them before you move will save you time, money and hassle. After all, what’s the point of paying to have a piece moved only to sell it once you arrive at your new place? Selling it before you move will save you money.

We hope you move goes down smoothly and that your new home will be everything you’ve ever dreamed of!

With the Holidays a few short weeks away, you are busy wrapping gifts for loved ones and making plans to visit everyone. When you have your car shipped, we have our own wrapping to do. The significance of car(go) “wrapping” may appear glaringly evident and even simple, however there is a great deal of care and experience included with regards to keeping such valuable cargo–your car–secure.

For transport, frequently the car is secured over and around the wheels

What’s more, this criticalness isn’t only for truckers and transporters; this year has additionally been a dynamic one for government wellbeing examinations concentrated on cargo security.

First class auto transport, from truck to trucker, comes together–securely–through a mix of learning, expertise, encounter, and now and again even fervor.

Maneuver carefully

Securing an automobile for transport is a particular expertise that includes a ton of information, experience, and diligent work. More than just basically going down to a stacking dock, car haulers must be hands-on practically consistently. At Shipping A Car we trust that the unique care for our customers’ vehicles will pay off in long haul.

After the car has been driven onto the trailer, the truck’s water driven inclines lift and tilt the car into ideal position. At that point the trucker gets the opportunity to work strapping it in with a progression of tiedown ratchets and wheel straps.

The trucker begins with no less than four tiedowns, two each at the front and back of the car, to keep it from moving by any means. Some of the time there are uncommon mounting focuses on the vehicle, yet frequently the car is secured by the chasses and over and around the wheels.

A car can move side-to-side, advances or in reverse, and even vertically–a carrier is one place you don’t need your car skipping or shaking! Immobilization is of most extreme significance, yet arrangement is vital to keeping each car flawless. That is the reason legitimate car shippers like Shipping A Car just work with experienced auto transporters who have outstandingly high administration and fulfillment appraisals.

Engine Carrier Mathematicians

Did you know car haulers need a really decent handle of material science? He or she needs to make sense of how the car(go) will be influenced by gravity when the truck backs off, rates up, and turns, and even the effect of the wind! Actually, the tiedowns must have the capacity to withstand compel equivalent to at least of 50% of the vehicle weight, which is the reason this employment is not only a labor of love.

Exceptional Securements

Car haulers have a great deal of experience giving extraordinary care and thought to every client and car. Each vehicle has its own delicate territories and stress focuses, however experienced auto transporters know exactly how and where to strap-in each vehicle size and shape.

On more established cars, for example, well known works of art from the 60s, the metal might be weaker or even in part rusted, so truckers know to abstain from putting any additional weight on those parts. For this situation, the trucker would utilize uncommon canvas straps to hold the car, and conceivably additional tire strapping.

For larger than usual and overweight burdens, for example, a M35A and MRAP military vehicles, suitable hardware must be sent to oblige and secure the additional size and weight. In these cases, chains can be utilized (because of the sturdiness of the vehicles), appended to the edge, and in addition more grounded and more extensive straps and bigger fasteners that can take the additional weight.

Work of Love

Shipping A Car has shipped vehicles of each size and shape possible. Presently you’ve seen not just how and why securement is so critical for auto transport, additionally a few cases of the ways Shipping A Car ensures each auto goes taking care of business.

It’s a major responsibility, however we’re not just available, we appreciate doing it. Our car haulers have done the diligent work of figuring out how to care for this extraordinary cargo since they cherish the experience, the cars, and the fulfillment of getting each vehicle securely home.