The destination sets it. We publish real prices on the California routes we hold data for, and they run from about $1,300 on a Texas run up to about $1,950 on the longest Florida lanes. Fresno is not one of those routes yet, so rather than move a Bakersfield or Sacramento figure up the Valley and get it wrong by a few hundred dollars, we price your actual pair of zip codes. Put both of them and the vehicle into the calculator and you have the number in about a minute.

It is, and Fresno is the most populous city in the United States in that position. When the interstate system was laid out in the 1950s, I-5 was routed up the empty west side of the San Joaquin Valley rather than through the cities. What serves Fresno is Highway 99, which is a four-lane freeway for all 425 miles between Bakersfield and Sacramento. Caltrans has recommended for years that it be brought up to interstate standards.

No, and in one way it helps. Highway 99 links Bakersfield, Tulare, Visalia, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Modesto and Stockton in a single line. A carrier working the Valley can load in one city and top up in the next without leaving the freeway. Fresno sits in the middle of that line. The one thing worth doing is giving a pickup window rather than a single morning, so your car catches one of those runs.

Drive it, most of the time. Los Angeles is 220 miles, San Francisco 185 and Sacramento 170, and all three are about three hours. Our published line is that under roughly 300 miles the numbers usually favor driving, and we would rather say so than sell you a load. There are three cases where shipping still wins on a short California run. A second car nobody is traveling in. A trip where you would have to buy a flight or a one-way rental to get home. Or two vehicles and a single driver.

Count the pickup window first, then the road. The window is six days on standard and three on expedited, from the date you name. Once the car is loaded, figure one to two days anywhere in California. Two to four to Phoenix, Portland or Seattle. Four to six to Texas. Five to seven to Chicago. Seven to ten to New York. Federal hours-of-service rules cap the miles a driver can cover in a day.

It is a spread of days instead of one booked hour. Six days as standard, three if you go expedited, both running forward from the date you choose. The reason is that your car is one of nine or ten on a trailer, and all of them have to fit one sensible route. You get a call the evening before with an actual time, so nobody spends a day at the window. On a Valley pickup a wider spread is worth real money.

Ten days to two weeks is normally plenty. That is less notice than most cities this size need, and it comes from sitting on a corridor that runs loaded in both directions all year. Give three weeks if you are moving in the last two weeks of August, which is the busiest stretch, or if your dates cannot move at all.

It affects the day rather than the trip. The average July high here is 98 degrees and plenty of days run past 100, so drivers work Valley pickups in the morning from June through September. Take an early slot if you are offered one. Check your tire pressures the week of pickup, since heat moves them. And keep anything heat-sensitive out of the car, including aerosols, electronics and medication.

It is the one thing that can move a Fresno pickup by half a day, and it is easy to plan around. Tule fog is a dense ground fog that sits over the San Joaquin Valley from late fall into early spring, and visibility can change within a few feet, so drivers start later and let it lift rather than pushing on. Give a window rather than a fixed morning between November and March and it stops being your problem. There is no snow or ice here, so that is the whole of the winter story.

Almost always. Fresno is a wide, gridded city and a 75-foot trailer has room to turn in most of it. Northeast Fresno, the Bullard and Hoover areas, southeast Fresno and Clovis are all straightforward. Two spots need a word at booking: the older blocks around the Tower District, which are narrow with cars parked both sides and trees overhead, and any gated community or an address inside Old Fig Garden. Either way we agree the plan beforehand, and a nearby meeting point costs you nothing.

Everywhere in it. Clovis, Madera, Sanger, Reedley, Selma, Kingsburg, Fowler and Kerman come off the same runs, as do Visalia, Hanford, Tulare, Porterville, Merced, Los Banos, Turlock, Modesto, Stockton and Bakersfield. The foothill towns out toward Oakhurst are regular work too and want a few more days of notice.

Yes, and it is one of our regular long runs at about 2,100 miles and five to seven days on the road. We keep a page for that route with the detail on it. Fresno to the Midwest and the East Coast is where most of our work here sits, because that is where shipping clearly beats driving.

Open for almost everything. It is how new cars reach dealerships and it is what nine out of ten customers choose. Enclosed runs about 80 percent more, because a hard-sided trailer carries two to six cars instead of ten. It earns its money on a classic, an exotic, fresh paint, or a car you would rather keep out of Valley sun and summer dust on a long run east.

In Fresno it usually does. The size is what decides it: a loaded trailer runs about 75 feet nose to tail and stands 13 and a half feet, and it needs somewhere to swing round and get out again. A wide gridded city gives it that in most places. On the few streets that do not, the driver picks a roomy spot close by and squares it with you first. That costs nothing extra and adds a few minutes to your morning.

Yes, for every mile. The cover sits with the carrier hauling your car, as Carrier Cargo Insurance. We get that carrier's certificate the moment a truck is assigned to your order, and you are welcome to a copy of it. Anyone can also verify a carrier independently. FMCSA SAFER is a free federal lookup that returns operating authority and insurance on file against a USDOT number. Ours is 2887232, and our MC number is 969368.

Usually yes, within reason. Most drivers will take a few things as a courtesy. Keep it under about 100 pounds, pack it neatly, and keep it out of sight from outside the car. Think a few boxes in the trunk rather than a carload. The one thing to know is that you are paying to move the vehicle, so the carrier's insurance covers the car itself. Keep anything you would hate to lose with you.

Yes, provided the wheels turn, the steering works and the brakes hold, and provided the trailer has a winch on it. No set surcharge, but budget $200 upward of the running price. Flag it when you ask for the quote so we send a winch truck rather than find out on the driveway. A car that has sat out a few Valley summers is worth mentioning even if you are fairly sure it will start.

Wash it, so the driver can see what he is writing down. Run the tank down to about a quarter. Fold the mirrors, take the roof bars off, empty the cabin. He needs one key and nothing else. Take your own photos before he pulls up, which is two minutes well spent. Say at booking if the car sits low or has been modified. In summer, check the tire pressures a day or two beforehand.

You pay a deposit at booking and settle the rest with the driver when the car arrives. Cashier's check, money order and cash all work at that end. If you would rather deal with it in one go, put the full amount on a card when you book. Plans change often enough that we keep cancellation simple: nothing to pay while your order is still waiting for a carrier. After a truck has been assigned, call us early and we will sort it out with you.

No, but it does have to be somebody who will look properly. A condition report gets signed at pickup and again at delivery, and that piece of paper is your protection, so it needs someone actually walking round the car. Any adult you trust can do it. Tell us who at booking, with a phone number, and the driver contacts them rather than you.