Car hauling was good not anymore

All I can say judging by the amount of people that are moving to my area in SW Florida from the NE suddenly , and construction being balls to the walls.

Your going to need a bigger truck.

People don't drive anymore, they fly, and pickup their car from the car carrier.

You want to make money?

Find a way to integrate a way to transfer peoples pets and their cars .

Most old people these days have 2 dogs. It's expensive and a pain to fly the dogs down.
The old people will not drive them down in their car.

Soo. Pick up 3 cars on a wedge ,put a heated- a/c dog kennel under the wedge.

Charge 2000 for the car and the dogs. 3 cars 6 dogs. 6000

 

We seem to make a pretty good living from all those carpetbaggers coming from the NE and from out West. And vice versa. I still say the key to making money in this sector is to find a regular customer or two, like a dealership. We've been doing this regular run for a dealership in West Palm Beach which gets its cars from another outlet in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. That run has been keeping us fed through slow times (especially since I'm the only one in our small outfit with both a TWIC and a passport). But you will quickly become homeless trying to do this with anything less than a 7 car hauler.

 

There is still money to be made in the auto transport business. Some routes are surely much worse than others when you base it on pay. I do agree that there are some companies that are ruining it for the small business owners like yourself. Stick with it for sure. My parents owned an enclosed two car hauler and they did Michigan to Florida and sometimes Michigan to Texas. They would be there and back within 5-6 days and they would normally profit $3000 per trip. Also, they would only do three runs a month. So they worked for about 18 days and had 12 off. Seems pretty decent. They only used Central Dispatch for the longest time, but then stopped using it because they just worked on referral and repeat business. There is money to be made in the industry for sure.

 

Market is definitely over saturated at the moment. I see brokers posting for less and less every day and when I call and explain that we need more on the order they claim no bc gas in down. If gas were the only expense in this business, we'd be making a whole lot more money.
They haven't got a clue how much tolls, maintenance, insurance, and other expenses cost. Get a grip brokers.

Now, we have a fleet of 3 car haulers and have recently added a mini 5. It's not easy making money with that. It's doable but it takes skill both of the dispatcher and the driver. Everyone has to be on their A game.

 

That's the exact size of our fleet and, from personal experience, I can say that you tell the truth. Lately, though, we've been getting repeat business from very satisfied customers, and it's funny how it doesn't take much to stand out. A lot of our competition consists of a bunch of fly-by-night, barely insured scrubs with Jerry-rigged equipment ; quite a few of these guys barely even speak English! With competition like that, little things like customer service go an awfully long way...

And don't get me started on the brokers. Whenever we get direct referals from customers we end up finding out just how badly a lot of these guys will lie to these people. They write checks with their mouths that we end up having to cash with our butts. Plus, these nimrods overcharge the heck out of the customers and take quite a hefty fee for themselves. Direct referrals end up being a win-win for both us and the customers.

 

Exactly! We are getting repeat business but these guys want their cars moved for next to nothing. I'm having a hard time justifying accepting that though.

 

Hey leave us guys from the wild west outta this. We don't want anything to do with your traffic , tolls, and height laws

 

The brokers are getting out of hand. I live in Houston Texas. I use to run Houston to Dallas everyday. Normally around 200 plus for each car. Now ppl are having a problem paying that. They tell me I only pay 100 per car. I say okay well let that 100 per car guy take it with no insurance. That's the only way you can make. Is having no insurance.

 

We're responsible people over here and we have a great support system for the customers and drivers so when a broker tries to tell me something below market is "fair priced" it really pisses me off. There's no other way to put it. It pisses me off. We're all in this business to make money, not maybe break even and have to live miserable lives trying to live off the government bc they haven't got a clue.
We got our support staff in place to make the most out of each driver's allotted time. The brokers are barely doing their jobs. They get the client and barely explain anything. They don't tell them how much is owed at delivery, they don't check if the vehicle is running or not. I catch "brokers" not even posting the cars in the same metropolitan area as they are actually located. It has become a joke. I even caught one trying to work with their suspended DOT since 08. I called them back and tried to cancel. They begged me not to and changed the order to cod.
I don't even know what to think of brokers anymore.