For someone who wants to transport his vehicle out of the city or out of state, auto shipping companies make the process of transporting cars smooth and fast. However, getting your car shipped is another investment on its own. This is the reason you should research a number of car shipping companies to get the average car transport cost and accurate auto shipping quote ahead of time. This will not only help you prepare for extra expenses, but also you can shop around the best and reliable car transport company.
Even if you are a car shipping company, you can give your customers a better experience when you provide them with a genuine quote. This will help you maintain full clarity, so you won’t surprise them with hidden prices and possibly losing your customers.
However, while getting a quote, you should know the factors that can affect the rate. It cannot be same for all states and cities, so scroll down to see the three key factors that can affect your car shipping cost to help you with your preparation:
Distance
It is an obvious factor- the longer the distance is, the more it will cost. This is because of fuel consumption, labor cost, tolls, and mileage. Thus, you must consider if you are shipping from the west coast to the east coast or somewhere in-between.
The distance also impacts the time frame of the shipping process. It may take from three days to a week or more depending on the distance to transport your car to its destination. It significantly depends on the distance and location.
The distance from the city to town or city to city is also important. For instance, if you are shipping your vehicle to a rural area, the driver may have to deviate from the usual route, the costs can be higher in this case. On the other side, if it is shipping to a big city, it may have the company’s well-known routes that can bring down the transportation cost.
Weight of the Vehicle
Another important factor is that it affects the car shipping quote is the weight of your vehicle. Car transport trucks have a certain weight and space limit they can haul. For instance, a 40-foot carrier can ship around two to three cars at a time. If you have a bigger car, it will take more space, leaving less space for other vehicles that can affect the number of vehicles it can transport at one time.
Further, bigger vehicles weigh more, thus increase the fuel consumption of the car carrier and cost you more than the cost you would pay for shipping a hatchback.
Calculating the average transportation cost through a car shipping quote calculator usually considers the car model to calculate the weight.
Weather
As with some industries, the car shipping industry also faces high and low seasons. It tends to be more expensive to ship your car in the winter season than in the summer. This is because of the routes that get affected by snow, resulting in more complications while driving.
Plus, winter is the time when retirees flock to the warmer states like Florida and Texas. This, as a result, increases the traffic and so the shipping quote. However, there are some days like in between Memorial Day and Labor Day, when the costs are hiked up no matter what the season is.
Conclusion
Besides these three main factors, there are so many other factors that affect a car shipping quote. Consider planning everything to understand the cost and prepare for the additional expenses. Talk to more and more transport providers and collect their rates to choose the best one!
