So, first and foremost, I'm new to the 'car shipping' experience. Having recently decided to purchase a car half a country away and realizing that I didn't realistically have the time to go retrieve it myself, I needed to hire someone to do it. I'm simply sharing my experience here so that others can learn from my great (or terrible!) decision making. The cars in transit now, so the story is ongoing as of this writing.

Not having any personal experience in this arena, I was instantly thrown into the maelstrom of choice that appears to be the car shipping business and turned to you guys for opinions and experience to help. Based on recommendations from other board members (Here: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...mpanies-60972/), I decided on Passport Transport as they owned their own trucks, offered a competitive quote, and provided GPS tracking for the trailers the cars were moved in. Seemed a great way to be able to keep track of where it is without having to call in -- hooray for internet convenience?

I hired them on Friday 9/23 and the car (which was then in Texas), was picked up a week later on Friday 9/30. This was within the allotted time frame they promised, though it was the last day of said time frame. The place I was buying it from said that they were about 6 hours late picking it up. 9am was the agreed upon time, it was about 3pm when the truck actually got there.

In order to track the truck online, you need a 'tracking number' to pick up the truck. By Monday 10/3 I still didn't have one and called in the morning to get it. It "wasn't set up" and they'd get back to me within a couple of hours. By late afternoon I still didn't have one and called back in to check. I was transferred to the dispatch manager after being told that the particular truck my vehicle had been loaded on to didn't have the GPS tracker beacon. The dispatch manager was very polite, and explained that he didn't know why that particular truck's beacon wasn't working, but that he'd figure it out and call me back in about an hour. He did call back, and explained that they'd had a few GPS units go bad and had moved a few of them around plus some new ones and that they hadn't finished setting them up in the system. But that was all done now and he sent me the code.

So, all in all, a little rocky so far, but they've been within their promised time frames up to this point. I was concerned about a bit of a bait-and-switch gimmick when I was initially informed that I couldn't use their GPS tracking feature -- as it was one of the differentiating factors for choosing them as a shipper in the first place.

The car is expected to be delivered towards the end of this week, and I'm very much looking forward to getting it. Talk about one of the most anti-climactic purchases ever! I've owned it for almost 2 weeks now and still haven't even been able to sit in it. /lol

Mind you, the GPS tracking has shown it sitting in a truck stop in Arizona for the last 18 hours, so...

 

Passport shipped my trophy winning 71 XJ6 from Florida last year. It did take them a week to pick it up, and then 6 days to get it to St Louis. I had the tracking code in about 6 hours after it was loaded.
I noticed the truck sitting at truck stops for a few extended periods, after which another pick up or drop off was made. Also regulations require drivers to take rest periods after a number of hours of driving.
My car was much dirtier than I had expected due to storage, and would barely idle because of stale gas. However, the driver treated it with the same care as the 2009 Ferrari and the 100 point XK140 it shared the trailer with - oozing breather gasket and all.
I know its frustrating waiting for your new car, but feel confident it's in good hands.

 

Good post, people need to know about these companies and what to expect, which is not very good customer service. It's like they're in their own world, operating by their rules and that is that.

I learned the hard way with shipping cars across the US. This was about 5 years ago, and the car was to go from east coast to west coast. Awful experience, the shippers didn't even come on the day they told me, nor did they come the following day. They were over a week late in even picking up the car. Nor were they fans of answering my phone calls and keeping me in the loop.

When the car did finally make it, I had to pay the driver and he only accepted cash (warning bells, anyone?). Just a terrible experience, be careful when selecting a shipper. I thought I had done my due diligence, but please use caution.

 

Thought I'd update this on where things are. Car is currently in the Bay Area according to the GPS. They told me to expect it by the end of the week, so that's great news. I also should add that while they were later than the agreed upon time to pick the car up, they did call to say they were going to be late and a revised ETA that they did keep to pick it up.

I'll snap a few shots off when they show up for delivery.

This company also wants certified check or cash when they show up, so I'm not too sure that's unusual.

 

I used Passport to ship my Alfa Romeo from IL to OH in 1998 and had no issues. My parents have since used Passport to ship a MB back and forth from IL to FL every year for the winter season and have never had an issue. They have always been professional and efficient and I would not hesitate to use them in the future.

 

I got a phone call yesterday afternoon to target Sunday at noon for delivery. We'll see how close he gets!

 

Well, all is well that ends well! They were a couple of hours early, but called ahead and kept me informed of their arrival times. The car was taken care of and delivered in great shape. Overall, a fine experience for my first foray into buying and moving cars online.

I would definitely call these guys again when I need to have a car moved!

 

Good for you , it was nice to read a happy end