shipping a car

You seem like a nice person so if any of this comes across as sarcastic or mean please do not take it that way.

There is alot of stuff involved in moving cars. Your car is not the only one out there being moved. If your car is the only one going to your area from the origination point it will seem like it.

The more money you pay the quicker it will be moved. If you put your car up for .75 to $1 / mile it will get someone interested enough to start building a load around it. On the other hand if you put your car on for .40 / mile it will only be a last resort to fill a trailer if nothing else is available. Then there are the ones in the middle that don't pay bottom rates and dont pay top rates either. I consider them filler cars, which is just a car that fills the trailer.

Everyones personal radius is different so if they can't find a load from your pickup to your dropoff destination they will move on to something else.

As for finding a truck you can try a google search for car haulers in your area and start making phone calls. You didnt state what cities were involved for your move so I am not sure what you are paying per mile. A guess would be about .55 / mile so my thought is you are not jumping out to anyone and you will be a filler car. Filler cars have a better chance of being moved quicker compared to last resort cars.

Also some brokers have trucks themselves but if they are not in the area or not interested in the load they post it to a board somewhere instead of hauling it themselves.

 

Oh, my mind went to lousiana not los angeles.

According to your mileage you are paying about .26 / mile to the truck. Which is a little below average. The average at this point in time is about .32 / mile and yes that .6 cents makes a big difference to the people looking for cars.

I see a car on a board now that is paying .30 / mile and has been listed since 12/21 if that gives you any indication. There is another on there that is paying .48 / mile and it has been on there a few days now as well.

I would say it is not that popular of a route coming back to ca as it is going from ca to the east coast.

I have heard alot of bad stuff about uship. Personaly have never dealt with that site.

 

girl,

Problem is that you aren't paying enough. Drivers operate on very tight margins, and as Yost pointed out, no one is going to go out of their way to pick your car up for that kind of money.

Now I understand that you worked with a broker who told you it would be $900 to do the route. But what you have to understand is how these guys price the job. They don't have their own trucks, so they have to estimate the price OR get a price directly from a driver. Now, when a broker estimates a price, they're using experience from PAST moves from the most part. Unfortunately, what has happened in the past DOES NOT necessarily dictate what will happen in the future. Even if a broker is using current information (i.e. jobs listed on the Dispatch Board,) that information isn't necessarily relevant. For example, if one were to look at your route on the board right now, you'd see a variety a pricing for the same route. Some of them move, some of them don't. Why? Who knows. Even $/mi isn't a fool-proof means of pricing. For example, shipping a car from Maine to Georgia takes roughly the same amount of time as it takes to ship a car from Mass. to Florida, but it costs 2x as much. Why? Because it's a crappy route and no one wants to do it.

The point is that drivers get to choose their jobs. I've personally given jobs to drivers that I thought I would never get moved, but then again I've had jobs that I thought would get picked up instantly sit around for a minute. It's fickle, really.

Your best bet is to do this: bump up the price incrementally with your broker. This way you won't have to pay any more than you have to. If you decided that you DON'T want to use an auto transport broker, you're probably going to have a tough time finding someone to do it. Truth be told, you really don't have the resources that a broker has to find drivers. If you go around cold calling haulers, you'll probably find that they don't do the route that you need or don't have a load put together in order to accommodate your request. And it's precisely that reason why brokers are useful: they have networks of drivers that they work with all the time.

Hope this helps

 

The info on the posts above is spot on. The more you pay, the faster it moves. I am a power only carrier, moving someone else's trailers, the rate is directly proportional to the service.

 

At that rate, you are going to have to wait for a larger hauler that needs to fill a spot and that is going that direction anyway. It might take awhile at that rate. There are a bunch of hotshot car haulers out there that might beable to get your car moved quicker. This is because they run 3 to 4 place trailers. The only problem is that you are going to pay alot more then what you are willing to pay. I know that I would not have touched it for even 50 cents a mile. Closer to 1.00 per mile 70 cents would be the least I would have gone but that would have only been if I was in the area picking up another to go the same direction.

I used to get 1.50 a mile per car for hauling Mercedes from one test facility to another. Usually from Bemidji Mn to Aurora CO or Port Huron Mi.

 

And if you end run around a broker.... you've lost valuable insurance protection as the broker could be held responsible for damage along with his trucker.

I'm not a broker and don't advocate their use...just my opinion.

Also try movers. Big ones. Sometimes the van is not full and if you can wait, the local agent can keep your car in his whse. while waiting for a van headed west.

JMO

 

How much should I pay to ship a car from L.A. to New York?

 

Look on ebay motors. I seen plenty of links on how to move cars.

You might advertise on Craigslist for a drive away too. That's the cheapest way. Just make sure you have insurance.