Long Island to Florida Car Shipping

The cost to ship a car from Long Island to Florida is typically $1,250 to Orlando and up to $1,500 to Miami, on an open trailer, and takes between three to five days in transit time.

Those are mid-size car prices. An SUV or crossover usually adds $150 to $200, and a full-size pickup more again. Enclosed transport runs about 80 percent more than open.

Prices are estimates and move with fuel. The calculator on this page gives you the live number for your car and your dates.

Three to five days on the road after pickup, across roughly 1,150 miles to Central Florida and about 1,280 to Miami.

Transit is counted from pickup, not from booking. Your pickup happens inside a window that starts on the date you ask for. Six days standard, three days expedited.

The driver gives you a direct number so you can check in while the car is moving.

Because of what trucks are already doing. Our Florida to Long Island page publishes $825 to $1,150 for the same car on the same road. Going the other way it is $1,250 to $1,450.

Plenty of trucks come north into the New York area loaded and need a load going back out. Fewer are looking for one heading south, so southbound costs more to fill.

It is worth knowing if you are comparing the two pages or planning a round trip. The two directions are different products.

October through December. That is the snowbird run south, and it is the busy direction on this lane.

March through May is busy the other way, as the same cars come home. June to September is the quietest stretch and usually the easiest to book.

If you are shipping in the fall, book two or three weeks ahead and you will have good choice of truck.

All of it. Central Florida, Orlando, Kissimmee, Tampa, Melbourne and Daytona, sits in one price band. South Florida, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, sits in the band above it.

North Florida and the southwest Gulf coast are quoted live rather than published, because we do not have a current band we would stand behind for them.

We have a staffed office in Kissimmee, so Orlando-area deliveries have a local team at the far end.

Not a staffed one, and we would rather say so. Huntington Station is one of our six service areas rather than a staffed office, so it has no walk-in address.

Your order is handled by our people on the phone, and a licensed, insured carrier does the driving. At the Florida end we do have a staffed office, in Kissimmee.

Your car is collected from your Long Island address and delivered to your address in Florida. There is nothing to drop off.

Usually yes, with one local wrinkle worth planning around. A car hauler is about 75 feet long and cannot use the parkways, so it travels the Expressway and local roads.

That means the driver may ask to meet somewhere with room rather than come down a narrow residential street. A shopping center lot a few minutes away is normal and costs you nothing extra.

Tell us the pickup address when you book rather than on the day. Planned ahead it takes minutes.

Six things. Both ZIP codes. The size and weight of the car. Whether it runs. The season. How flexible your dates are. Open against enclosed.

Season does more on this lane than on most, because the snowbird run concentrates demand into a few months in one direction.

Flexible dates help next. A wider window lets a driver fit your car onto a trip already heading south.

Plan on about 80 percent more than open. A $1,300 open move is roughly $2,340 enclosed. A hard-sided trailer holds two to six cars where an open one holds ten, so each car carries more of the cost.

Worth it for a classic, an exotic, fresh paint, or a car too low to clear a ramp. For a daily driver, open is the right call.

Nine out of ten cars on this route go open and arrive fine.

Yes. Every carrier we assign holds Carrier Cargo Insurance, and it covers your vehicle while it is on the truck.

Once your car is assigned to a truck and carrier, the certificate of insurance is on file. Ask us and we will send it over.

You and the driver both sign a condition report at pickup and again at delivery. That document is what any claim rests on, so take your time with it.

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 first so the condition report is accurate, then photograph it from every angle in good light. That is the most useful thing you can do.

Leave about a quarter tank of fuel. Fold the mirrors, take off a roof rack or spoiler if it comes away easily, and turn the alarm off.

Hand over one key. Tell the driver anything unusual about starting it.

Two to three weeks ahead in the fall, one to two the rest of the year. Pickup runs inside a window that starts on the date you request. Six days standard, three days expedited.

A deposit is due at booking and the balance at delivery, commonly by cashier's check, money order or cash. You can also put the full amount on a card at the time of booking.

Paying by card up front is popular. It lets you spread the cost rather than hand over money at the curb.

Yes, and on this lane it is common. Plenty of snowbird moves have one person at the Long Island end and someone else waiting in Florida.

Name the person at each end when you book and give us their number. Whoever books does not have to be the one standing there.

They do need to walk the car and sign the condition report, so pick someone who will take their time over it.

Check the numbers first. Smart Auto Move Inc runs under USDOT 2887232 and MC 969368. You can look both up on the FMCSA SAFER system in under a minute.

We are BBB accredited with an A plus rating, and our Google profiles and their reviews are public.

The biggest red flag is a quote far below everyone else. If four companies say $1,300 and the fifth says $700, ask that fifth company straight out whether the price is confirmed. A number that low usually comes back up later.

Because a car moves when a driver agrees to take it. If the number is below what drivers accept on the route, nobody picks it up and the car sits.

That matters more in October and November than at any other time of year here, because the trucks heading south are already spoken for.

People often think a deposit is the warning sign. It is usually the opposite. A company that asks for nothing up front may not be confident it can book the price it quoted.

Yes, as long as it rolls, steers and brakes. The driver needs a winch, so we match you with a truck that carries one.

There is no flat fee for it. It usually adds $200 or more over the same car running, and the exact figure depends on the truck.

Tell us at quote stage. A car that turns out to be non-running on the day is the most common reason a pickup gets rescheduled.

You get the driver's direct phone number, so you can call or text while your car is on the road. We also send email updates at the milestones.

Where the carrier and truck support GPS, we pass that on too. Plenty of trucks carry no reliable tracking system, and we would rather say so than promise a map that does not work.

Most customers find a quick text the day before delivery is all they want.

Cancel any time before we assign a carrier and your deposit comes back to you. Once we assign one and send you the driver's details, that money is spoken for.

It is not gone, though. You can push the move back and use it on a later shipment.

Plans change. Tell us early and we will work around it.

Yes. Nassau and Suffolk both, from Great Neck and Hempstead out through Huntington, Smithtown, Patchogue and Riverhead.

The North Fork and the South Fork are further out and add a little time at the pickup end, so give those a slightly wider window in summer when the roads are busy.

Give us the exact pickup ZIP at quote stage and you get the figure for your address rather than for the island.