Vehicle shipping is a long and arduous process, and anyone and everyone who knows vehicle shipping can tell you some vehicle shipping horror stories. But vehicle shipping isn’t just doom and gloom, and lots of times you can be woefully misinformed about how the industry works and just who does what in the vehicle shipping industry. We’ll break down how vehicle shipping works in this article, so read on to find out more about it.

In the vehicle shipping industry, there are really only three types of companies: vehicle shipping quote companies, vehicle shipping brokerages, and vehicle shipping carriers. Vehicle shipping quote companies are mainly online-based – they maintain websites that provide multiple vehicle shipping quotes from different auto transport companies. American Auto Shipping is one such site – simply fill out our free online vehicle shipping quote request form and you’ll receive ten free vehicle shipping quotes from ten different auto transport companies. These types of websites are incredibly useful because they essentially do all the shopping for vehicle shipping quotes for you in one fell swoop.

A vehicle shipping brokerage, on the other hand, is a type of company that is incredibly beneficial in the vehicle shipping industry. For starters, they help keep the prices much lower than if the vehicle shipping carriers were the only companies. Brokerages have to maintain a balance between the customer and their vehicle shipping carriers, so they have to keep the prices lower for the customer than higher for the carrier, if that makes sense. Not only that, but when it comes to your vehicle shipping they handle all the paperwork and most, if not all, the money. Vehicle shipping brokerages keep track of your vehicle as it is on the road and provide useful information regarding vehicle shipping and give you helpful tips on how to make your vehicle shipping easier.

While vehicle shipping quote companies make vehicle shipping easier for carriers, and brokerages make it cheaper, the heart and soul of the vehicle shipping industry has been, and most likely always will be, the vehicle shipping carriers. These companies are a dime a dozen, but that’s good news for you – it’s easier to find a carrier when there are thousands to choose from. They are the ones that are actually shipping your vehicle, so they are easily the most important of the three – without them, your vehicle won’t move. They are governed by the rules set down by the U.S. Department of Transportation and are highly regulated and enforced in order to make sure that vehicle shipping is a safe industry. All vehicle shipping carriers are required to carry at minimum $750,000 worth of insurance to protect the vehicles they ship, and they have to pass stringent weigh stations – if they are even a pound over the maximum weight limit, they can face serious penalties and fines. Vehicle shipping carriers are working hard to abide by the rules, so please help them – make sure that you have nothing that can add more than 50 pounds to their weight total, and remember – there are nine other vehicles on the transporter with you. The more you help the vehicle shipping carrier, the better your vehicle shipping experience will be.

The more you know about the vehicle shipping industry, the more you can understand why the companies operate the way they operate, which will lead to a much more pleasant vehicle shipping experience.