Cost to ship a car cross country

Probably, not any other country in the world is that depending on the cars. People need it almost on a daily basis. Additionally, there are some cases when the car has to be delivered from one spot to another one within quite an essential distance.

For example, when going somewhere for a long period of time (winter vacation or even moving to a new house), many people prefer to take a plane or a train as nowadays it’s not that expensive but much faster and convenient. The same time they can become concerned about how to ship their car.

The factors of the cost

We cannot talk about the cost to ship a car across country without taking into consideration some important aspects.

One of them is the transport itself which you are willing to use to deliver your car. There are only two main types so it will not be very difficult and challenging to make a choice:

• Open transport is definitely the cheapest way to ship a car. Your vehicle will be placed on a special open platform among dozens of others. This way is not only the cheapest but also the most popular one which means that the delivery time can be significantly different (much faster) than if you choose less popular type;
• Enclosed transport gives you two main points. Firstly, here your car will be fully protected from the bad weather conditions (which is significant considering that the delivery will be pretty long and cover many states with different circumstances), insects and birds as well as the people’s eyes. The last is very important in case the driver of the truck will have to make a stop for a night. Secondly, the price is changing drastically if you choose this type of transport. Normally, the cost to ship car across the country in this case raises up to 60 percent.

You can also choose the locations you wish your car to be picked up and dropped off. If you choose your home, office, garage or a particular spot, it’s called door-to-door delivery. It’s pretty convenient but can also become costly, especially if you choose the locations far from the main routes and big cities. Another option here is terminal-to-terminal transportation. In this case to ship a car cross country will cost you less but you will need to arrange the delivery of your car to and from the carriers’ terminals or ports by yourself which also can cause some difficulties.

Additionally, there are some other factors you should keep in mind when choosing a company and a particular timing for the car’s delivery:

1. Seasonality. It’s not surprising that in some weeks or months people have more interest in transportation services than in others. For example, in regards to the moving to new houses obviously that it’s much better and easier to do in the summertime while winter in most states is considered to be quite a quiet season. On the other side, people from very cold North states prefer to move to the south before the coldness is coming so there will be a high demand for the car’s delivery in regards to the particular direction (the same but vice versa is normally happening in spring). If you can afford to wait until winter and are not in hurry, choosing winter for the transportation service can save you a couple of hundred dollars;
2. Waiting time. First of all, it should be mentioned that arranging the delivery in advance will be mutually beneficial both for you and for the transportation company. You as a client will get a better price or advanced discount while the carrier will be able to perform better scheduling. But there are a lot of cases when advanced deals are not possible and we have an unexpected necessity to transport the car. Here you should know that even if the whole distance from point A to point B can be covered in a couple of days, for the transportation company it may take a couple of weeks as it needs to take other orders and change the routes to deliver cars to other owners. And if you are willing to receive your vehicle much faster than of an original offer, you will need to pay extra for so-called expedited, or express delivery;
3. Car’s parameters. Before making a deal, you need to inform the transportation company about any adjustments or changes you have made to the original car’s construction. The deal is that the cost calculator you can find on the carrier’s website is applicable only if the car is exactly the same as it should be. And any additional kilos or inches can affect the final cost to ship your car cross country.

Average pricing

To be more familiar with the average cost to ship a car across the country, you can take a look at the following information.

Considering the cheapest offers it will take between 600 USD and 1,000 USD on the main routes of the carriers. The insurance in this case is also considered to be a standard one covering 75,000-100,000 USD.

For example, if you need to deliver a bigger car (like SUV or minivan) from Florida to New York, it will cost you about 800-1,100 USD while the same route for a traditional sedan normally will not cost you more than 850 USD.

When choosing a transportation company by price it offers you need to be especially careful as there can occur some hidden expenses and the final quota will be even higher than of competitors. The best and the safest way to avoid such misunderstanding is to check the reviews from the recent customers. Definitely, if they have faced with some misconducting from the carrier’s side, they will leave appropriate detailed feedback. And we highly recommend you to do the same.