The day has finally arrived. The big move is here. All of your boxes and bags are packed and loaded up, ready to be re-located to your new residency. All that remains to be shipped are your own personal means of transportation- your automobiles. Finding a proper company to take care of shipping your car is a decision that should be researched. Rates and other such information should be gathered and compared. Once a decision has been made and a company has been chosen it is time to prep your automobile for the actual trip.

When shipping your car there are many questions which may arise. Do I need to drop the vehicle off or will it be picked up? Is it possible to transport personal belongings in the car while it is being transported? Is it cheaper for me to drive it as opposed to having it professionally transported? These questions are endless and can easily be researched and answered by respected auto transporting companies. There are also certain “tips” which if taken into consideration can help with the efficiency in which the transportation takes place. One request which many transportation companies make is that before shipping a car, no more than 1/4 of a tank of gasoline should be present in the tank at the time of the move.

The reason for this is to assist in the fuel efficiency of the truck which is actually transporting the other vehicles. One gallon of gasoline weighs approximately 5.93lbs to 6.42lbs per gallon depending on type, temperature, and blend. Blends containing methanol as opposed to water or benzene will vary in weight per gallon. Obviously, the maximum capacity of the tank will vary depending on the size and make of the vehicle. Assuming that the trucks car load consisted of ten vehicles, averaging eighteen gallon tanks- all of which were filled up to maximum capacity, the truck would be carrying 1155.6 lbs of gasoline added on to the weight of the gasoline in the trucks tank.

Now, using the same scenario, we will calculate the weight of gasoline when the autos tanks are filled only 1/4 of maximum capacity. If there are only 4.5 gallons of gas in each of the tanks, the weight is reduced to a combined 288.9 lbs. This is a significant drop in weight and can contribute to the overall efficiency of the transport. The less weight the truck is hauling in cars, the more resourcefully it travels per gallon. So when you're prepping your car for cross country transportation, remember, in this case less is better!