Black Coupe, caramel interior, two owners, clean carfax. Having a PPI done next week. Then having it shipped to FL. Any advice on shippers?

 

At the beginning of April this year I bought an XK in Ohio and shipped it to Arizona on an enclosed transport. From this experience I will say the auto transport business is a screwed up mess! Here is what I learned:
1. Regardless of what they tell you or advertise, almost all the shippers you will find on the internet are BROKERS not the actual truck owners or drivers.

2. Dealing with a broker instead of with the owner operator is not all bad. To schedule a pickup and delivery directly with the owner is probably more expensive and probably takes longer than dealing with a broker. In my case the few owners that I was able to contact directly wanted $2000 to $2800 to transport my car. It would take them days to weeks to get a truck to my pickup point.

3. There are several websites that you can register on and brokers will call you, endlessly, to ship your car. I am STILL getting calls. You have to supply your phone number and email address before they accept your registration.

4. The brokers will offer you wildly varying prices. In my case it went from $600 to $1800. Search the internet for autotransport review sites. There are several and you can use the reviews as a guide.

5. The brokers all want $100 to $150 up front. This is their commission that they want, and will keep, whether they ship your car or not, their fault or not. I refused to pay this until they could give me the driver's name, cell phone number, and insurance info. About half of them won't accept this and will lecture you about EVERYONE has to pay this up front to make sure you are serious. BS Half will find a driver without the upfront deposit.

6. After you think you have an agreement they will start looking for truckers with less than a full load going on your route. The brokers will get a better price because they are negotiating for what would otherwise be empty space on the trucks. After they find a driver they will call you back and tell you what the real delivery dates and NEW price is. It WILL be more than the initial low ball offer. IF you accept it, and after they give you the driver's information, give them the deposit. If you don't like their real price and delivery, then call another broker or two back and start obtaining the real price and delivery with them.

7. The initial price from the broker I used was $900 and the real/final was $1200. When the car was delivered the driver said the price would have been $2200 if I had gone directly with him. My 2012 XK convertible got to ride across country with some basketball player's cars he was shipping to LA. The XK was off the low end of the scale when compared to his Gull Wing MBZ, Maybach, Bentley, Aston, Project 7, and similar cars.

8. If you are buying a convertible, make sure they agree to put it on TOP so that it is not UNDER some beater leaking oil all over your canvas top.

If I would have had time I would have driven it back instead of shipping it.

Good luck!

 

I would only go with the ones used by the best . Either Intercity Lines or Reliable Lines. Deal directly with them as they have their own fleet. Go with enclosed transport.

 

Brought a car out from Chicago to Los Angeles about 6 weeks ago for $700.00. The dealer put out feelers for drivers at $700 and had a response from a driver immediately. The car was delivered in 4 days. If interested, I can get the name of the driver from the dealer.

By the way, congratulations on an almost new car!

 

All the brokers simply put the pick-up point, vehicle and offering price on the same online bulletin board for independent drivers to check on to see if it fits their schedule. The brokers advertise any price they think will get your deposit. The real price comes from the driver who accepts your shipment. Low price offers from brokers are usually ignored by drivers. Depending on where the car is and where it's going to may make for a long wait since the drivers want another shipment at the other end. I've had two Jags shipped from NJ to me. The first was $300, took 3 weeks on a rollback. The second was $450, took two days in an enclosed car hauler.

 

I've had great luck using Delta to ship myself to wherever the car is and then drive it back. Unless time is an issue, I wouldn't even consider shipping a car. Add a Friday and a Monday to your weekend, and you'll be able to get from anywhere in the country to anywhere in the country and back in plenty of time. You'd probably break even on the cost, but can you put a price on that kind of first date?

 

All transport brokers place your order to ship on the Central Dispatch System which is a computerized system available to auto transport drivers daily. It will provide the destination of pickup, the destination of delivery, model year and brand, running condition or non-running condition. It will advise Open or Closed transport requested, and the prospective trucker/shipper will bid on the job. It is very simple and there are 100's of auto transport brokers.

My last 5 vehicles were all shipped using a truck broker, open transport and never one single issue. There are literally thousands of auto transports running USA roads and highways daily.

An auto transport truck brokers average commission is $100-$200 up front paid via a Credit Card and delivery is a cash payment to the driver, no personal checks. Cashier checks are usually allowed.

Shipping a vehicle is no big deal and after you do it once or twice, you will have gained an education about transporting vehicles.

 

After reading this and going to a transport review site, I think maybe I'll drive up. This was complicated anyway because I'm trading in a car on the XKR. So I was looking at two shipments. I was going to have my car shipped up, rent a car in the meantime and then have the XKR shipped back.