You might have noticed that the preparation for shipping a car will include having a quarter tank of gas in the vehicle according to many car shipping websites. This is true for a typical vehicle shipment. However, if you have a car that is not operable, you can still ship it with auto transport companies such as Britt Trucking. The difference is that it will need to be transported on a special car carrier that makes use of a winch in order to pull your vehicle safely onto the carrier. This will cost a bit more than shipping a car that is running but it will be much cheaper than getting it towed a long distance.
Some people might be hesitant to get a free instant quote from a car shipping company because they think they will need to disclose a bunch of personal information. That is simply not true. You will typically only need your name, phone number, make & model of your car as well as the pickup city and delivery city. You do not even need exact addresses in order to get an auto transport quote. The same is true for Britt Trucking instant online quotes.
Some people look at the cost of shipping a car and become a bit more hesitant. Typically, if you ship a normal sized vehicle on an open-air car carrier with no upgrade options, your shipment will cost between $800 and $2,000. The exact cost will depend on several factors, but it will depend primarily on the distance of your shipment. Regardless, when you compare the cost of auto transport to driving your car to its destination itself, you will find it is actually very affordable and can even save you money overall.
In October 2022, if you were to schedule a shipment for a 2018 Toyota Corolla from Boston, Massachusetts to Miami, Florida, it would cost $1,235 with no upgrades and one-month notice. Now, let’s break down the cost of driving your own car from Boston, Massachusetts to Miami, Florida at the same time. The cost of gas would run about $175. The trip itself would take almost exactly one day, so let’s say you need a one-night stay in a hotel. About halfway in Charlotte, North Carolina that would cost $100. You will also need to stop and eat a few times which can be pricey at rest stop restaurants and/or room service at your hotel. We can estimate each meal at these restaurants will be $15 more expensive than if you were eating homemade meals for a total cost of $45.
Now, let’s add depreciation. After the first few thousand miles, cars depreciate at about fifty cents per mile driven. The trip from Boston to Miami is about 1,600 miles driven. So, your car would depreciate approximately $800 due to that trip. So, $175 plus $100 plus $45 plus $800 equals $1,200. However, we still have not factored in opportunity cost of taking a day off from work to drive all the way to Florida. For some, a day of PTO/vacation time might be equivalent to $200 after taxes. For others, it can be $500 or more. These numbers will vary greatly depending on many different details regarding your particular shipment. The point is that shipping your car is much more affordable than you may think.
Many auto transport companies, including Britt Trucking, can ship almost any vehicle you can think of, not just typical passenger cars. This includes busses, recreational vehicles, trailers, construction equipment, motorcycles and even boats. The only difference is that many of these non-typical vehicles will require a form of specialized transport because they cannot be shipped on a typical car carrier.
For example, a bus or a construction vehicle, like a bulldozer, are oversized. Thus, they will need to be shipped using an oversized-vehicle transport service. This service will utilize a large flatbed trailer to transport these large vehicles. Specialized vehicle shipping will typically cost more because the supply of carriers with the ability to facilitate these shipments is far fewer than typical car carriers.
There might have been a lot of positive things about car shipping that you were not aware of prior to this post. You can ship a vehicle that is not running, online quotes only require very basic info from you, shipping a car is much more affordable than you think, and you can typically ship almost any kind of vehicle. If you have any further questions or would like a quote over the phone, you can call our team of auto transport experts!
