Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country?

   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country? #1  
Diggin It

Diggin It

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I'm thinking, I'm thinking!
Tractor
LS MT125 TLBM
I'm looking at an SUV that is several hundred miles away. Yes, I know the risks of buying things sight unseen, but I'll fill in more details later.

Rather than traveling to get it and driving it back, which wouold mean a week or more on the road, I put feelers out for transporters.

So far, I have quotes ranging from $900 to $1700. I know from contracting and purchasing that the highest price isn't always the best and the lowest price isn't always the worst. Three quotes are clustered around $1,100 and a couple more are near that area. Probably will try one of those four or five.

If you've done it, do you have a recommendation?

So far:

Mercury
Linus
Get it done
UFT
Elite
Brookwide
Cheap Auto
Elite
US Star



I can't tell if any of them are trucking companies with their own drivers, or if they're all brokers/intermediaries.
 
   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country? #2  
I have done this several times. None of them own trucks. They are all brokers who put the job on a bulletin board to be bid by the thousands of independent drivers out there.
Mercury is a good name.
The cheap ones will not be able to secure a carrier and will ask for more money later. Possibly after you are already sucked into a contract.
 
   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country? #3  
If you go with any of them, verify what is covered for any damages to the vehicle prior to transport. Also sign up for the added insurance.

I had a friend who worked a side job for US Star. He made a ton of money, but the long hauls, jerks on the hwy, and questionable neighborhoods either to pickup or drop off were problems.
US Star is not one of the better ones. There are many complaints.

The best transporters are the ones with your vehicle hauled totally enclosed. Why is that? My friend had to spend motel nights to sleep over and the theft of car parts is the standard MO the haulers are prone to on their routes. He switched from flatbed to wide enclosed trailer, but it limited the vehicles he could haul.

The prices for long haul distances seems reasonable around the $1K-ish mark. Many of the haulers do work for used car dealers pulling vehicles from the south to the north.

Some of the larger freight flatbed full semi's would run loads to one area and return empty handed. I've seen some on the interstates loaded with vehicles and ATVs at times. Investigate diligently, know what is covered, what is not, check out the few narrowed down in your list too.
 
   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Mercury is one of the middle of the road numbers. US Star is higher.

As far as enclosed, I was thinking about rock of other flying debris damage, not theft overnight. Good idea.
 
   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country? #5  
I’ve shipped a handful of vehicles on uShip with good results. All pretty easy.
 
   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country? #6  
I had a dump truck shipped from west palm beach FL to TN. I don’t have any idea who shipped it, the dealer handled it.
 
   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country? #7  
Diggin It said:
Mercury is one of the middle of the road numbers. US Star is higher.

As far as enclosed, I was thinking about rock of other flying debris damage, not theft overnight. Good idea.
Click to expand...
I'm curious what are we hauling?
I had 2 hauled enclosed and 2 hauled open.

I contracted for enclosed and had the broker send an open carrier. The dealer called me, knowing this may not be right, we were able to send the driver off empty handed. The Broker wanted to charge me $200 saying they sent an open carrier because there was no such thing as a enclosed carrier - Can you f-ing believe that!?
New broker and happy recipient. Sometimes it's a struggle. Often the dealer will have a company they use.
 
   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country? #8  
When I bought the tiny truck, I listed it on YouShip, and a guy brought it from western Colorado to Idaho, for $500. He was hauling six motorcycles from Denver to Spokane, and fit the tiny truck on the trailer with a motorcycle in the tiny truck bed. He, was semi-retired, and took loads to see new country, and get his travel costs covered.
 
   / Have you ever shipped a vehicle across the country? #10  
If you care about your stuff as much as I do, I would put insurance on it, find a way to get the time off, fly to wherever the vehicle is, and drive it home myself. All the possible headaches that you may encounter with anyone else handling the move are just not worth the risk for me. If you cann,t possibly do it yourself, ask a good friend or relative if they would go get it for you at your expense.
 
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