Thanks to the internet it’s easier than ever to find car hauling companies and get a quote to see how much it’s going to cost to transport a car. In fact, you can get an instant quote from us 24/7:
While getting quotes is easy to do, it can be overwhelming to find a reliable and trustworthy auto transport company you can trust to deliver your car.
When you begin your search, you’ll come across auto transport brokers and car carriers. There is also a hybrid model called, broker-carriers. We wrote extensively about brokers vs. carriers in another article so be sure to check it out, but we’ll highlight the differences here before we dive into the benefits of working with car hauling companies when shipping a car.
Two Types of Car Hauling Companies
Auto transport brokers and car carriers are the two main types of car hauling companies. As mentioned, there is another type as well called broker-carrier companies, which J&S Transportation is, but we’ll focus on brokers and carriers in this article.
There are pros and cons to each type, but if you do a little research, you should be able to find which one is the best fit for you.
Auto Transport Brokers
A broker basically acts like a middleman between you and the carriers. They don’t have their own fleet of trucks, so they don’t actually ship your vehicle themselves. They rely on a vast network of carriers to ship your vehicle.
The main benefit of using a broker is they offer you a wide selection of carriers to choose from without you having to do all the legwork of finding one. A broker can get quotes and information on dozens of carriers within a couple days. And because most brokers are experienced professionals, they know what to look for in a carrier to determine which one is going to be best for your shipment. Most consumers don’t have the time or interest to research and vet out car carriers.
There can be some downsides to working with a broker. Some brokers will just farm your information out to a bunch of carriers. The result is you get hounded with emails and phone calls from carriers vying for your business.
The other thing you might not know about brokers is most of them are looking for a carrier who will ship your vehicle for the lowest price so they can maximize their profit. Sometimes that works out o.k. but, in many cases, it usually means getting stuck with a disreputable and untrustworthy carrier who is willing to work for cheap.
Another potential problem when brokers try to find the cheapest carrier for your vehicle is it can take a while to fill your transport order. Reliable and trustworthy carriers don’t want to work for peanuts and if the price is really low, even the cheap carriers may not be able to ship your vehicle for the price the broker is offering. This scenario can lead to long delays in getting your car shipped and in a worst-case scenario, your vehicle may never get shipped!
The other tactic some brokers do is they’ll quote you a really low price just to get your business. The car shipping business is a very competitive industry. Brokers want your business! Unfortunately, when they give you such a low quote, they often times can’t find a carrier to fill your order and still make money.
Instead of taking a loss or breaking even, they’ll come back to you and tell you it’s going to cost more to ship your car than they originally told you. That isn’t a comfortable conversation for the broker or for you. If the broker gives you a quote that sounds too good to be true it usually is. Proceed with caution!
The final thing you have to watch out for when working with brokers is the quote they give you may not be for door-to-door delivery so be sure to ask. It’s cheaper to ship a car terminal-to-terminal. Remember what I just told you. Brokers want your business and they’ll often times quote you a really low price. An easy way to do that is to give you a quote from a carrier that only does terminal-to-terminal delivery because it’s cheaper to ship a car that way.
If you’re working with a terminal-to-terminal carrier, their terminal yards may not be conveniently located from you. Depending on your location, you may have to drive hundreds of miles away just to get to the terminal yards. There may also be terminal yard storage fees if your car has to stay in the yard for any length of time.
Door-to-door delivery is when your car is shipped from your home or business to another home or business. Terminal-to-terminal is when your vehicle is shipped from one of the carrier’s terminal yards to another. Door-to-door shipping is a little more expensive but it’s the most convenient and most popular way cars are shipped today.
Car Carriers
Car carriers are usually companies with their own fleet of trucks, but they can also be companies comprised of independent owner/operators who have their own trucks.
One of the benefits of working directly with a carrier is you’ll be dealing with the same company from the beginning to the end of your auto transport order. There isn’t a middleman, i.e. a broker, to “muddy the waters.”
There is also usually much better communication when dealing directly with carriers vs brokers. If you have questions or if there is a problem with your auto transport order, you can call the carrier directly for answers. You don’t have to rely on a broker.
Benefits of Transporting Your Vehicle with Car Hauling Companies
There are many reasons people need to ship a vehicle. Maybe you’re relocating for a job or are a retiree in the North and are making the annual snowbird migration South.
Thanks to the internet and popular auto websites like eBay Motors, CarGurus, CarMax, and many more, consumers are opting to buy vehicles located many miles from their home.
Unless you want to make a long-distance road trip yourself, your best option is to use car hauling companies to ship your car for you! It’s less expensive, and easier and less stressful than driving the car yourself.
Here are just some of the many benefits of using a car hauling company to ship your vehicle vs. driving yourself:
- It saves you money. It’s often less expensive than making the trip yourself! Gas, food, lodging, and possible toll roads and air fare quickly adds up.
- It saves you time. Traveling to pick up your vehicle and make the road trip back home could mean a few days on the road while you miss work or a weekend together with your family.
- It saves wear and tear on your car. Why put hundreds of miles on your car when you don’t have to?
- It saves you from potential breakdowns on the road. Why risk a potential breakdown driving the car yourself? Do you really want to deal with finding a tow truck, hiring some random mechanic, and potentially having to stay overnight in some random town or city?
- It’s energy efficient. If everyone decided to drive their vehicles themselves instead of shipping them long distances, imagine the amount of fuel burned.
When you consider the hundreds of thousands of vehicles shipped every year, you can definitely see the benefits of shipping a car with a car hauler instead of making the long-distance road trip yourself.
Research to Find the Best Auto Transport Companies
Use the wealth of information available on the Internet. Google the companies you’re considering working with and see what you can find. What is their BBB rating? What are customers saying about them on TransportReviews.com and Google? Check out their websites. Do they give you a compelling reason why to work with them?
Ask family, friends or neighbors who have had their cars shipped. What companies did they use and what did they think of them?
Also make sure the auto transport companies you are looking at have been in business at least a few years. Less reputable companies have been known to pop-up with new names every few years to take advantage of unsuspecting customers.
Make sure they are properly licensed and insured. You can find that out by searching their company on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) website.
Finally, familiarize yourself with their dispute resolution and damage claims procedures. While damage is rare when shipping a vehicle, especially when working with a reputable auto transport company, you want to prepare for the worst.
J&S Transportation Gets the Job Done Right!
J&S is primarily a car carrier with our own fleet of trucks, but we are also a licensed auto transport broker. We offer you the best of both worlds!
We will ship your car door-to-door on our own trucks whenever possible. If we can get your vehicle delivered quicker by brokering it to one of our partner carriers without compromising safety and the excellent customer service we are known for, we will.
And if we do have to broker your order, we’ll be your only point of contact throughout the entire process. We don’t play games either by giving you a low ball quote just to earn your business. In fact, you’ll find our quotes may be a little higher than our competition. That’s because we want the best staff, best drivers, and the best partner carriers and you can’t get the best “on the cheap.” Like everything in life, you get what you pay for. When you work with J&S you get great customer service and prompt delivery at a fair price!
We pride ourselves on our straight-forward and honest communication. We will tell you what we can do, not what we think you want to hear. Our first priority is customer satisfaction, not doing whatever it takes just to book a car.
Give Us a Try Today by Getting an Instant Quote!
