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Tips for arranging Auto Transport

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  • Tips for arranging Auto Transport

    Vorshlag is located in Plano, Texas, but we have customers that send us cars from all over the world to have complicated fabrication work, chassis repairs, or engine swaps performed here. As such we end up dealing with transporting cars almost every month. Some folks will drive a car to us from 15+ hours away, then fly home, only to have to do the same thing on the return leg. Even if the flight is cheap enough, what is your time worth? So transporting cars often makes the most sense.



    BROKERS VS CARRIERS

    We have used a variety of transport companies ("carriers") to move cars across the USA. It looks appealing to do this through a transport broker. A broker can be helpful to get a lot of competitive quotes to move something from point A to point B. We have successfully used a freight broker for moving pallets across the globe for a dozen years, which makes it easy. They will deal with DHL in one country and maybe UPS Frieght in another, and deal with all of the customs paperwork. We have had the best luck moving pallets with FreightQuote.com, for instance. Sometimes we get wildly different quotes, when one company is busier than another, but we can usually go with the lowest quote bid and get something moved at the least cost.

    For whatever reason automotive transport brokers tend to suck, and aren't as easy to work with as the freight brokers. So far I haven't found a transport broker, or the hundreds of smaller auto transporter carriers they book with, that I have been truly happy with.



    Car transport is one of the most difficult things to get done easily, quickly, and without damage. Loading a car, especially a specialized race or sports car, onto a big trailer made to hold 10+ cars is harder than you think.

    ENCLOSED LIFT GATE STACKER VS OPEN TRANSPORTER

    When we load a car into our enclosed gooseneck car trailer, we have to use a special series of ramps (12' + the 6' door) to get a super low vehicle or one equipped with a low hanging splitter up in the trailer.



    When the buyer showed up with an open trailer to buy our 2011 Mustang, which had a very low splitter, it wouldn't go up the ramps. Luckily we had an extra set of 6' RaceRamps that we used (and sold to him) to get it loaded and unloaded at the other end. The moral is: think about this when picking a carrier. An open transport usually doesn't have great ramps, but an enclosed stacker trailer with a lift gate can load damn near anything, no matter how low it is.


    A lift gate with a stacker enclosed trailer is perfect for loading cars with low clearance

    The auto carriers usually don't have that capability unless you are using an enclosed 53' carrier with a lift gate at the rear, as shown below. That is the BEST way to transport a car - there are no crazy hydraulic ramp sections that move up and down like on an open multi-car carrier.


    Enclosed carriers are setup with an upper and lower level, with a lift gate that is very low

    We usually see cars damaged (from small to large) about 1/4 of the time they get transported to or from our shop on open carriers. Over time we have learned that we HAVE to be there and help the drivers load and unload cars from the trailers ourselves, to minimize the chances of foul ups. This is where most of it happens - during initial loading. If they plan their trips correctly they don't have to remove and reload the same car, but often they do. At least if we are there when it is loaded we can show them the tricks to driving a car, where to watch for scraping, and where it is safe to tie down, so hopefully if they reload it later they know how to do it right.


    With open transporters they have lots of hydraulic ramps they can raise and lower, which is a mess

    On more occasions than I can count, the truck driver for some carriers couldn't drive a manual transmission car, and I have had to load or unload the car myself many times. I've seen one guy smoke a clutch on a car where he thought he could drive a stick.... "WHOA, stop, get out. Just let me do it." I remember unloading one BMW (which drove but had no seat) while sitting on a milk crate, driving it up a steep ramp with no e-brake, nearly blind. It was pretty hairy, but I got it "off the mountain" without damage. The truck driver was terrified of trying to remove that one. Just BE THERE when they load and unload if you can.



    It is always baffling how clumsy and careless some these transport drivers often are. They will hook chains onto anything easy to grab, and we have seen dozens of BMWs with bent rear lateral control arms that had hook marks on them. Pretty much any E36 or E46 series BMW that has ever been transported or on a flat bed wrecker will have taco'd rear arms like the picture above. Always watch them load - you likely know more about your car than they ever will.



    I watched one guy unload a half dozen cars, then when he went to load our customer's car, he bumped into it from behind with another car as he loaded it onto the trailer. I was about 100 yards away when I heard it, turned, and still saw both cars still moving. Then he lied to me and said he didn't hit the car in front - both of which had matching paint damage! Luckily we take copious pictures of the cars before the are loaded, I showed him the "before and after" damage, and he eventually owned up to the bump.



    A BMW was shipped to us from a pacific island before. It was a mess by the time it got here, first by ship then by truck. All sorts of new high performance parts were stolen from inside (likely as it was loaded on the island - theft at the port is apparently common there) and at some point they used a freakin fork lift to move it (it was not running), which caved in the floor. All told there was roughly $4000 in damage claims that the customer had to use his own car insurance to cover - the low cost transport company he had used played a lot of games and buried him in paperwork, so he just called his insurer to deal with it.



    Also, when you use a transport broker you don't just communicate with the broker, but instead will get a barrage of dozens of emails and calls from individual transport companies for many weeks, mostly from what sound like Russian mobsters. If you want to avoid those hassles, stick with the biggest carriers with the best reputation and call the carrier directly for a quote. The two best known carriers that we know of are Reliable and Intercity.




    This article below has some good tips on what to do when finding a transporter. They specifically say to NOT go through a broker (like we have done a dozen times, unsuccessfully) and to only call the company you have researched directly to schedule the pickup. It might cost a little more, but there are fewer dangers and 1000% less spam.


    This second article below is from HOT ROD magazine. It is even better and gets into the details of what to look for when choosing a carrier, and again - discourages using brokers and small transport companies with shady backgrounds.


    The timing and schedule these glorified wrecker drivers keep is fluid, at best. If or when you are ready to transport a car, you will want to find a good place with easy, business hour access for an 18 wheeler to leave the car with.

    THE WORST CAN HAPPEN


    Our painstakingly custom build, GRM $2011 Challenge winning BMW E30 with LSx V8 and widebody

    Lastly, I would always boost the insurance on the car in question right before it ships. Why? Well our GRM Challenge E30 was one we built, owned and sold to a guy who had it transported to California. It actually left our shop in an enclosed transport from Intercity. Enclosed costs a good 30-50% more but they seem to be much safer.



    This driver had to move 3 cars to make room for our little V8 BMW here. But with some help he got it loaded without any damage, and it made it to the end customer unscathed.

    After that guy owned it for about a year, he sold it again to make more room for his collection of Porsches. This was a magazine cover car we had built, which was fairly famous, so he didn't lose any value when he sold it. The 2nd guy that bought it used a transport broker, who booked it with a cheaper, open transport company.



    The idiot driver in that situation had made a mistake and left a "jump box" connected to the battery of a different car loaded on the transport (often they are moving vintage cars or otherwise old cars with dead batteries, so they will use jump boxes to move dead cars around when they load/unload). With the jump box connected to a battery, the cables were jostled in transport, started a fire, and that burned up 3/4 of the vehicles on the trailer, including our little V8 BMW. The broker and the transporter blamed each other, and they both washed their hands of it. Last time I checked the 2nd buyer had never gotten a dime from insurance.



    It sickened me to see how ruined our old car was after this preventable fire. We had spent 1000+ hours building this thing, and even through we had sold it for a good amount, and the next guy had fun with it, it still killed me to see it burned to slag by a transporter's stupid mistake.



    Just know - anything can happen when you transport a car. Use the best, bonded, well known carriers like Reliable and Intercity and more likely you won't have these headaches. Otherwise, make the buyer arrange and pay for the transport and get your money up front before it leaves!

    Good luck
    Last edited by modernbeat; 10-12-2016, 09:43 AM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

  • #2
    Re: Tips for arranging Auto Transport

    Terry, if you're interested I have used an auto transport broker in the past with good success shipping cars cross country. (I work in the auto industry)

    If you want, i can send you his details.

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    • #3
      Re: Tips for arranging Auto Transport

      Originally posted by McCarthy View Post
      Terry, if you're interested I have used an auto transport broker in the past with good success shipping cars cross country. (I work in the auto industry)

      If you want, i can send you his details.
      By all means - please share the details here. That's what this thread is for.
      Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
      2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
      EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Tips for arranging Auto Transport

        I've had good luck with A-1 Auto Transport, inc. - not sure if they're a broker, but they're definitely not Russian mobsters lol. This is a really good post, but I don't really understand the difference between a freight broker and transport broker? They sound like the same thing to me.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Tips for arranging Auto Transport

          Great write up! I will prefer a car transport than driving it 15hours away.

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