Auto Shipping FAQ: How does Auto Transport Work During the Holiday Seasons?
The auto transport industry runs year round. Summer or winter, sunshine or rainfall, hell or high water, there will always be someone out there hauling around a load of cars for customers. Of course, this doesn’t mean that every region in the United States is open year-round – this is especially common during times of heavy winter weather or when major storms such as hurricanes threaten certain areas.
During the holiday seasons, though, shipping a vehicle is a much different endeavor, as some companies are taking the time to spend it with their families, some are not, and finding one that can do something during the holiday season becomes more difficult.
Surprisingly, holiday seasons are not as popular for customers as you might think. Let’s start with Christmas. As one of the biggest holidays of the year, Christmas is a time when a lot of businesses, regardless of industry, close up shop for the day to avoid being “scrooges.”
Retail and fast food are notable exceptions – you can almost always rely on Walmart or McDonald’s being open at least some time during the holiday. But auto transport works different in that not everyone shares the same holiday hours. It’s not like the industry is run by one company; there are thousands out there that ship vehicles, each with different hours, different policies and different holidays they take off.
Holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the 4th of July are classic “stay home” holidays for carriers, who try to empty their trucks before the holiday actually falls.
This way, they can spend a day or two with their families before starting the grind back up. But during other holidays, such as Columbus Day, Labor Day, or other, “smaller” holidays, many companies will simply continue on the road and keep moving vehicles. These holidays have less impact on the business world, the car transport industry included, so most of the time you won’t have any problems.
If you’re shipping during any of the major holiday seasons, we highly recommend speaking to your car shipping representative before you actually have your vehicle picked up, to understand more about their policies and procedures regarding vehicles shipped during a major holiday season.
Minor holidays likely won’t see the disruptions that major holidays do, but it’s always best to talk to your shipper. If you have concerns about getting a vehicle picked up before a holiday, or getting it delivered somewhere before Christmas, you’ll want to discuss timeframes with a representative and get their take on what your specific route might require.
Holiday shipping is about as hard as anything else during the holiday season, so don’t fret it. We highly recommend filling out our free online auto transport quote request form any time of the year, even on Christmas Day, so you can get free, competitive quote to ship your vehicle right away. If you have questions about our services, you can call us any time at 800-930-7417 to speak to one of our own agents…though we’re typically closed on holidays, so if you don’t get a hold of someone on Christmas don’t be surprised. We have families too.
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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