Six stages. You get a quote, you choose open or enclosed, you book and receive a pickup window, a driver inspects and loads the car, one truck carries it the whole way, and you check it against that same inspection at the other end. From the day you call to the day it lands is usually one to three weeks, and most of that is the pickup window rather than the driving.

Two parts, and the first one is longer than people expect. Your collection window is six days on standard and three on expedited, counted from the earliest date you name. Then the road: one to three days for a regional run, three to five across a thousand or fifteen hundred miles, seven to ten coast to coast. Give ten days to two weeks of notice on a busy route and three to four weeks in peak season.

Your car is one of nine or ten on a trailer, and one route has to make sense for all of them. So you get a band of days rather than an hour: six on standard, three on expedited. What you do get is a call the evening before with a real time, so nobody sits waiting. Widening the window is the single most useful thing you can do, because it makes your car the easy one for a driver with a space left.

Roughly $450 to $900 under 500 miles, $900 to $1,600 from 500 to 1,500 miles, and $1,600 to $2,500 past 2,500 miles, for an operable mid-size vehicle on an open trailer. Those are national bands and a given route can sit either side of them, because how busy the corridor is matters as much as the distance. Our cost guide publishes real routes with the miles and days against each figure.

Five things. Distance, vehicle size, how busy the route is, the season, and how flexible your dates are. You control the last one and partly the fourth. A pickup truck takes more deck space than a sedan and prices accordingly. A corridor with trucks running it all day prices better than a quiet one, which is why a long busy lane can cost less than a short quiet one.

Open for almost everything, and it is what nine out of ten customers pick. It is the same kind of trailer that delivers new cars to dealerships. Enclosed runs about 80 percent more, because a hard-sided trailer carries two to six cars instead of ten, so fewer vehicles share the cost of the run. It earns its money on a classic, an exotic, fresh paint, or a winter run through road salt.

It depends where your time is sitting. Expedited does not make the truck go faster, because federal hours-of-service rules cap the miles a driver can cover in a day. What it does is halve your collection window, six days to three. On a coast-to-coast move that barely dents the total. On a short run where the drive is a day, the window is most of your timeline and those three days are the ones worth buying.

The condition report, and it is the most important piece of paper in the process. The driver walks round the car with you at pickup and records every existing chip, scratch and dent on it. At delivery you compare the car against that same sheet before you sign. It is what protects you, which is why it is worth standing there for the thirty minutes rather than handing over the keys and going back inside.

Yes, for every mile. The policy is Carrier Cargo Insurance and it belongs to the carrier moving your vehicle, not to the company that booked it. Once a truck takes your order we hold its certificate and you can ask for a copy at any point. You can also check a carrier yourself on FMCSA SAFER, a free federal lookup: search a USDOT number and it returns operating authority and insurance on file. Ours is 2887232, MC 969368.

No. One truck loads it at your address and the same truck sets it down at the other one. Nothing is dropped halfway and no second company takes charge of it. Fewer people touch the car, and the cover runs without a break between the two driveways. A handover point is where insurance questions usually start, and this process does not contain one.

In most places, yes. What decides it is size. A loaded carrier runs about 75 feet nose to tail and stands 13 and a half feet, and it needs somewhere to swing round and get clear again. Where a street cannot give it that, the driver picks a wide spot a few minutes away and agrees it with you beforehand rather than on the morning. There is no extra charge for a meeting point.

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.

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.

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 a winch truck is sent rather than the problem being discovered on the driveway.

Someone does, but it does not have to be you. Both ends sign the condition report, and that sheet is your protection, so whoever stands there has to walk round the car properly rather than wave the truck off. A friend, a relative, a colleague or a neighbor all work. Give us the name and number at booking and the driver goes to them.

Ten days to two weeks on a busy corridor. Two to three weeks for a small town or a thin market where carriers come on purpose rather than passing through. Three to four weeks in peak season, which means the snowbird months in both directions and the summer moving rush. If you already know your date, book it and stop thinking about it.

A deposit is due when you book and the balance goes to the driver at delivery, by cashier's check, money order or cash. You can also put the whole amount on a card up front. If you cancel while the order is still waiting for a carrier there is nothing to pay. Once a truck has been assigned, call as early as you can and it gets worked out with you.

You get the driver's number once a truck is assigned to your order, which in practice beats a map. He knows where he is, what is ahead of him and when he expects to reach you, and he will tell you. We also call with an update whenever you ask for one.

It is rare, and the process for it is the reason the condition report exists. Note it on the delivery sheet before you sign, photograph it there and then, and tell us the same day. The carrier's cargo insurance is what the claim goes to, and having the pickup report, the delivery report and your own photographs from both ends is what makes it straightforward.

Check the numbers rather than the website. Every legitimate operator has a USDOT number and most have an MC number, and FMCSA SAFER will show you the operating authority and insurance on file against either one for free. Look for a real street address, a published phone number and a named person behind the business. Ours are USDOT 2887232 and MC 969368.