How to Avoid Annoying Delays in Your Auto Transport Services
When shipping a vehicle, one of the first things that you really need to prepare yourself for is the waiting. Auto transport takes a while, and from the moment you start getting quotes until the time your vehicle is delivered, entire weeks could pass, and that scenario is a bit more common than you’d think.
While delays aren’t all that uncommon in the vehicle shipping industry, they do happen from time to time, and doing what you can to minimize the amount of delays that you experience can go a long way in making your shipment that much easier on you.
There are several things that you can do to make sure that your shipment goes smoothly, starting with the ones below.
1. Make sure to give your representative accurate information
This is really important, particularly when it comes to your vehicle. Your vehicle information is a crucial part of your auto transport price, with the weight of the vehicle perhaps being the most important.
For most vehicles, the year, make and model will suffice – while a standard sedan-sized car will be cheaper than a full-size pickup truck, since it weighs less and is smaller, there are other factors that will go into your price including whether or not the vehicle is running, or whether it can roll, brake or steer.
If there is anything different about your vehicle that makes it different than a regularly running vehicle, make sure to tell your representative, particularly if it is not running or if it has been modified to be larger than usual. Non-running vehicles need a winch to be loaded and unloaded, and not all carriers have them, and if your vehicle is too large it won’t fit on a standard auto transport carrier, so a specialty truck will be needed.
2. Don’t (always) book with the absolute cheapest company
Getting multiple vehicle shipping quotes is important for a variety of different reasons, but one of the biggest advantages you get with multiple quotes is that you can compare prices and services and ultimately choose the one you feel most comfortable with.
Many people just go with the lowest-priced option, but that can actually lead to delays especially if you’re shipping in an area with few carriers and high demand.
Lowball pricing is rare in the industry today, but since every company prices a shipment differently, some quotes will be better than others. Avoiding the lowest price may not always be best, and there are plenty of routes that will likely get your vehicle moved just fine at the lowest rate, but more often than not low prices end up in delayed pickup since no carrier wants to take it at such a low price.
3. Make a plan and stick to it
You’d be surprised at just how often customers cause delays, and most of the time it’s because they were ill-prepared for the auto transport process. It’s okay – we all make mistakes, but that’s why we’re writing this blog, so you don’t have to make the mistakes others have made. Since auto transport services take a while, depending on the route, with most averaging anywhere from 3-7 days from pickup to delivery, you need to be prepared to be without your vehicle for that length of time, or perhaps longer.
Give yourself time to meet the driver at pickup and delivery (or, if you cannot, make sure to have someone lined up who can), and also make sure that you read all the paperwork. Going into your shipment with a cohesive plan regarding where you want your vehicle picked up from and delivered to and how to handle being without your vehicle will help tremendously when it comes to getting your vehicle shipped quickly and without delay.
If you have further questions regarding ways to prevent delays in your next auto transport experience, you can give us a call toll-free at 800-930-7417 to speak to one of our live auto transport experts. They can give you a quote right over the phone, answer questions, give advice, and even help you place a reservation if you’re ready to. You can also get a free quote today via our online auto transport quote request form. Let American Auto Shipping help you with your transportation needs today.
Since 2007 Dave has written all the content and blogs for American Auto Shipping and during this time added the duties of customer support and transport logistics.
He currently resides in Washington with his three kids and their mom and cat. A fan of Marvel movies and good stories, when not shipping cars Dave can be found working on his novel, enjoying a good book or playing some tournament HALO.
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