Not a useful one, and that is the single most helpful thing to understand before you compare quotes. A 300 mile hop and a 2,800 mile haul are both car shipping, and averaging them produces a number that describes neither. What we publish instead is four distance bands, from $450 to $900 at the short end up to $1,600 to $2,500 coast to coast, so you can see where your own trip is likely to land.

Take the driving distance between your two addresses rather than the straight line on a map, then read across the table above. If you sit close to a boundary, tell us both addresses and we will place you properly. Most people are within a hundred miles of knowing their band before they ever pick up the phone.

Because distance sets the starting point and the route sets the rest. A lane with plenty of vehicles moving along it fills a trailer quickly and prices calmly. A lane with less traffic means the driver has to cover the miles to his next load out of your job. Same mileage, different economics, and it is worth knowing which one you are on.

Population at both ends, freight already running that way, and the season. Big metro to big metro along an interstate is about as busy as it gets. A small town two hours off the highway, delivered in the middle of winter, is the quiet end of the scale. Everything else sits somewhere between the two.

Not at all. Plenty of our work goes to places the trucks do not run past every day, and it gets there. The only thing worth doing differently is asking early, because a few days of flexibility on the collection date is usually all it takes to turn a quiet lane into a comfortable one. We would rather tell you that up front than surprise you with it.

The price we quote you is the price you pay. It holds as long as the vehicle, the route, the condition of the car and the shipping details stay the same as you described them. If nothing changes on your side, nothing changes on ours, and you can read the full terms on the promise page.

Only if something about the job actually changes, and then we would talk to you about it first. A different car from the one quoted, an address moved to another town, a vehicle that turns out not to start, or a service upgrade you ask for will each move the number. A quiet week on the lane will not, because that is our problem rather than yours.

Sometimes a genuinely well matched carrier makes a lower number real, and that is good news for you. The other version is a figure chosen to win the booking, with the real price arriving later once the car has not moved. You can tell the two apart by asking one question: is this price held if nothing changes? We answer yes in writing.

Check it against the bands on this page. A cross-country figure well under $1,250 or a short hop priced at $250 is telling you something. Then ask what happens if no carrier accepts the job at that number, and listen carefully to the answer. An honest quote survives both questions comfortably.

Both full addresses rather than just the cities, the year, make and model, whether the car starts and drives, the date you would like it collected, and anything unusual about the vehicle. That is about ninety seconds of information and it is the difference between a ballpark and a price we can stand behind.

We cover the whole of the mainland United States, coast to coast and border to border, and the bands on this page apply across all of it. City pages and state pages fill in the local detail for many markets, and if yours does not have a page yet it makes no difference to the service you get.

Both are possible and both are quoted individually rather than from this table, because part of the journey goes by sea and the mainland bands simply do not describe it. Call us with the dates and the two addresses and we will put a real number together for you.

A week to ten days suits most lanes comfortably. Stretch that toward two weeks in the busy summer months, around the January move to the south, and for anywhere rural. If you need something sooner than that we can often still help, and expedited service exists for exactly that situation.

You give us the date you want and we work from a window around it: six days on a standard order and three if you choose expedited. Once a carrier is assigned you get his details, and he calls you directly before he arrives so you are not sitting waiting.

Because the driver is carrying eight or nine other vehicles and federal rules cap how many hours he can drive in a day. Anyone naming an exact hour before the car is even loaded is guessing at it. What you get instead is a dependable range, then a call as he approaches so the two of you can fix the details.

It makes the start quicker rather than the road. Expedited narrows your collection window from six days down to three; the journey then runs to the same federal hours rules whichever service you picked. On shorter trips the window is most of your total timeline, so buying those days back matters more than it does coast to coast.

Open transport is what around nine in ten vehicles travel on and what every figure on this page assumes. Choose enclosed when the car is a classic, an exotic, something low to the ground, freshly painted, or simply hard to replace. If it lives on a driveway in all weathers already, open is almost certainly the sensible answer.

Around 80 percent above the open price for the same trip. There are fewer enclosed trailers on the road and each one carries fewer cars, which is the whole reason for the difference. For the right vehicle it is money well spent, and we will tell you honestly when we think your car does not need it.

Yes, and it is a routine job for us. The car needs to roll, steer and brake so a winch can bring it onto the trailer, and the carrier needs the right equipment, which not every truck has. There is no flat fee for it; budget from about $200 upward on top of the normal price and tell us when you book so we match the right driver first time.

Almost always, and they travel every day of the week. Extra height, extra width, a lift kit or heavy modifications change how many other vehicles can share the trailer, so the price moves with that. Give us the details and anything non-standard and we will quote it properly rather than adjusting it later.

You can, and two cars collected from one address usually cost less each than two separate bookings. The driver is doing far less work for the second vehicle, and that belongs in your price rather than ours. Mention both when you call and we will quote them as one job.

We do, and both have their own pages with the detail that matters for them. Auction vehicles in particular have storage deadlines and release paperwork that reward booking early, so tell us the lot and the deadline when you call and we will work backward from it.

There is, and both have a page of their own on this site. Mention it when you get in touch so it is applied from the start rather than added afterward, and if you are moving on orders or to a campus, tell us the dates you are working to and we will build the schedule around them.

Carrier Cargo Insurance does, and it belongs to the trucking company assigned to your vehicle rather than to us. It runs from the moment the car is loaded until it comes off at the far end. We hold the certificate as soon as a carrier accepts the job and you are welcome to see it at any point.

No. The driver who loads your car is the driver who unloads it, with no depot stop and no second company halfway. Most damage disputes in this industry start at a handover point, so your trip simply does not contain one.

Keep it light and low. Up to around a hundred pounds in the trunk is generally fine, though personal effects are not covered by the carrier's cargo policy and the extra weight counts against the trailer's legal limit. Nothing valuable, nothing fragile, nothing you would be upset to lose. The vehicle is the thing that is insured.

Wash it so the condition report is easy to read, leave about a quarter of a tank of fuel, remove the toll tag and anything loose, fold the mirrors in and photograph any marks it already carries. Have a spare key available. The driver inspects the car with you at both ends, and a clean car turns that into a two minute job.

You will not get outbound sales calls from us, and we do not sell your details to anybody else. We will contact you about your own order, which means the carrier's timing, the collection and the delivery, because that is the part you need. If you would rather have all of it by email, just say so.