Transporting an automobile is expensive and time-consuming, so it’s only natural to want to kill two birds with one stone and throw some stuff in the trunk or the cab of your car in hopes that it can ride along with your car. The logic behind this is sound – household movers are expensive and if you’re without a car, how will you get your stuff from A to B? But the problem is that most auto transport carriers can’t physically transport household goods – it’s against the law. But there’s a small little loophole that you can exploit if you’re careful: it’s called “junk in the trunk.” Junk in the trunk is simple: you can have anywhere from 50-100 pounds of personal items in the trunk of your car, but NO MORE. Weight limits are taken very seriously, and if ten cars on a carrier each have 50 pounds of stuff in their trunks, that’s 500 extra pounds that the carrier has to account for. We recommend avoiding putting stuff in the trunk of the car unless absolutely necessary, and never under any circumstances should you transport sentimental or valuable items – make sure they’re things like clothes, blankets and pillows. No electronics, either. Remember: anything you put in the trunk of your vehicle during transport will NOT be insured by the truck’s insurance. Pack at your own risk.
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Auto Transport Tips: Junk in the Trunk
Auto Shipping to North Dakota
When you’re looking for auto shipping to North Dakota, chances are you’re going to be in for higher prices and longer pickup windows. North Dakota is far from a shipper’s paradise – there are few people living there, few major interstates that are worth traveling on (due to the lack of customers), and the weather during half the year is absolutely atrocious. But even through all that, there are still carriers willing to take a load or two to North Dakota – provided you pay. That’s why shipping costs are generally higher to North Dakota; auto shipping carriers need to be able to make up for all the money they won’t be making by traveling there.
When you’re shipping to North Dakota, try and ship if the summer months if you can. Not everyone can pick when they ship, but if you can, the summer months are almost always your best bet in terms of finding the best auto shipping prices. There are more carriers on the roads during the summer months and there are a lot more routes through the northern states that are more commonly traveled during the summer than the winter. If you’re looking for more information about auto transport to or from North Dakota, you can read our article about the state here.
Auto Shipping Routes: New York City to Los Angeles
NYC to Los Angeles is one of the most popular auto shipping routes in the U.S. today. They are the two largest cities in the country and have strong ties to the automotive and auto transport industries. Most carriers won’t be able to pickup or drop off within the downtown areas of either city, mainly because neither is really built to be able to accommodate such a large truck. Therefore, most of the time you’ll need to arrange with the carrier to pickup and deliver on the outskirts, or in a small suburb of the city. The nice thing about auto shipping from New York City to Los Angeles is the fact that it is one of the most popular auto transport routes today, which means that you should be able to find some good deals on shipping to and from either. You can read more about both cities by visiting our Auto transport Los Angeles and Auto shipping New York City pages.
Fleet Managers Show Renewed Interest in Propane
While you can’t find a company that manufactures propane-powered trucks, fleet managers have been intrigued by propane converters for their fleets for quite some time. As gasoline prices continue to rise, the cost of a gallon of propane has remained relatively stable. This could be a good way for smaller fleets to control their gasoline prices and save a few bucks to boot. While auto transportation companies have a much more difficult time converting their own auto transportation rigs, as they’re much larger and need a lot more power, it’s something that could be a solution for the overall gasoline crunch that we’re finding ourselves in (once again).
GM Europe, Peugeot Could Form Alliance
The European auto market has been on rocky slopes for some time now, and the idea of “automotive alliances” between manufacturers has been the rage for the past few years. Fiat, at one point, was considering allying themselves with Peugeot, but the deal fell through and now General Motors Europe is looking to fill that gap. Peugeot executives are looking at the alliance as a way to piggyback off of GM’s success – in their words, “Peugeot and Opel lack scale.” An alliance with GM would therefore make sense, as the company could then compete with European juggernauts Volkswagen. Auto transportation companies in Europe operate under different sets of rules than U.S. companies, but I imagine that their industry trends are much as the auto transportation industry in the U.S. – maybe they’ll let us know how Peugeot and Opel cars move in the near future.