Car hauler, owner operator Q

When I tried this in 2008 I found quite a few cars going from Ca to WA. Very few going back. I was stuck many days waiting in WA and OR for cars.
Trying to haul cars without being associated with a major company is asking for trouble. At least this is what I found. I lost a lot of money trying to do it myself. YMMV.

 

Cars leaving the PNW always go dirt cheap, or at least they are posted with dirt cheap pricing. Got stuck up there 2 years ago for several days before bailing on the place. Saying bad words driving all the way over to Denver before finding anything. I will run empty to a better place than haul someone's stuff for free. Have never been back anywhere close to that area since, pretty country as a tourist, just not so much with a truck.

Somebody asked if there is money in the three car trailers? They have their fit & work in some locations better than others. It has been extremely sporadic over the last 12-15 months though, like everything else freight wise.

I am selling my 3-4 car at the moment & looking for either a specialized Low Pro to be able to load virtually any vehicle from H1's, vans, boats etc. or a 7 car trailer. Though I keep running real world numbers & also considering flipping burgers.

 

My sister is looking at shipping her mustang back to Tacoma, WA from FL due to her husband returning from Iraq. Now is it cheaper to drive 3154 miles or to cheaper to ship it?

Hunter

 

Definitely cheaper to drive it. Driving it is more time consuming. If she can drive 500-600mi a day it'll take roughly 6 days to get there.
3154mi at 30mpg= 105gal of gas.
105 gal at $2.50 a gal= $262.
6 nights in a hotel= $600 (or less if she isn't as picky as me)
Add maybe another $100 for food, coffee and such.

So 6 days time and roughly $1000.

I sincerely doubt you can get someone to haul it over 3k miles for less than that.

 

thinking about having an suv transported from colorodo to florida. what would you get per mile? just one car.LTL could not belive what a broker wanted to do me a solid and charge me.thanks for any and all replys.Walt

 

I checked centraldispatch and the cars from Co to FL are in the range of $525-650. My guess is that the broker is adding a $200 broker fee for you.

 

$1000.00 for the load.so if you had a full load of cars you would make 10.000.00 for the trip.

 

If he is charging you $1000 he will pay the driver around 750 and pocket the rest.

 

#### what a rip off.but on the other hand for 10 cars get paid $7500.00 thats a good deal.if I werent scared of heights I would give that a whirl.

 

The problem is how many days it may take to put together the load from the first pick until when the trailer is loaded. Your first two or three vehicles will need to be at the destination when you are still looking to fill out the trailer. Car trailers are expensive too, $35k for a decent used 7 car trailer & $70-$130k for a used 9 car rig.

You can go to Transport Reviews & check routes verse accepted rates as well as ratings from people. The main thing if you are truly looking to get your vehicle moved is to go with a highly rated carrier who owns the truck(s). There are many brokers who went to a two day broker boot camp that will throw the vehicle on the truck who will take it for peanuts.