Is Car Transportation Worth the Price?

Have you ever thought about what it might be like to ship your vehicle?  While it might seem like a bit of an odd thought at first, it’s what a surprising number of people end up doing each and every year! For the most part, we transport our vehicles when we’re taking a long trip or making a move across state lines.

Obviously, this isn’t always the case, but it is in a fair number of situations at least. If you’re going to be moving soon, you’re taking an extended vacation, or you’re looking for another reason to transport your car, then this is the article for you! We’ll be covering a lot of how this works, as well as how you can determine if it’s the right move for you. To get a head start on the background information, check out this page: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/0-306-48058-1_13.

What is Vehicle Transport?

Before we dive in much more, let’s briefly discuss what vehicle shipping is in the first place. As you’ve probably already gathered, it’s not too complex. The idea is that you have your automobile placed in a special type of shipping crate (whether that’s covered or uncovered depends on how much cash you want to fork up at the start), and then it gets transported to the location that you’ve mutually agreed upon.

Typically, customers have their cars moved to the location where they’re going to land, via whatever form of transportation they’ve selected. This makes the whole process much less stressful.

How Does it Work?

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s delve into how the process actually works. Most of the time, the depot that you select will be able to offer something known as door-to-door shipping. This includes places like Roadrunner car transportation service, which offers some further details on how that works. As the name suggests, though, it’s when the company sends a driver to pick your vehicle up and then later to drop it off at your destination.

It’s quite convenient for us as customers, of course, since it means that we don’t need to stress about how to get to the depot to pick up the vehicle or how to get back when we drop it off. Of course, we’re putting the cart before the horse to an extent here, so let’s start at the beginning.

When you decide that you want to have your car shipped, your first step will probably be to figure out where the nearest transport company is. Thankfully, many of them have locations all across the country, making them quite accessible. After that, you can begin to make some preparations on your end.

What might that include? Well, the company will need some proof of identity of course, so you’ll probably want to have your driver’s license, passport, state ID, or other documents on hand.  Additionally, they tend to ask for the registry paperwork for the vehicle and some proof of car insurance. This protects us as well as them in case something goes wrong if you were wondering why that’s necessary.

It’s very rare that there are issues in shipping.  With that said, things can happen. That’s why when you’re getting ready to have your car shipped, you may want to make a catalogue or document any current damage to the vehicle. This includes anything from a crack in a windshield (though you should probably get that fixed anyhow) to a small chip in the paint.

Essentially, you want to make sure that there’s a record of the state of your car before transport and then after, in the case that there is any damage. Now, this isn’t a very common occurrence.  Admittedly, though, if you go for an open shipping container rather than a closed one, there is a higher risk of an accident happening.

Is it Right for You?

Last but certainly not least, how can we figure out if it’s something that will work out for us?  It’s pretty simple, really – determine early on what your budget is, and if there’s a depot nearby to both your current spot and your eventual destination. With the latter, you’re probably going to be set, but it’s still a good idea to check.

You can get a quote from most car shippers on their website by plugging in the information for your vehicle. So, just make a note of the year, make, model, and approximate weight of the vehicle as you check out the site. This can give you a pretty good idea of what to expect out of pricing.

Additionally, decide on what type of shipping container you want. This will also have an impact on the cost.  Really, the length of the trip and the weight of the car are the biggest factors, though.