Auto Shipping FAQ: What is an Auto Transport Inspection?
If you’ve been researching the auto transport industry at all, you likely know a bit about how it works, who does what when it comes time to ship your car, how the payments work, etc.
A lot of times, companies that you deal with won’t explain everything – while they fill you in on the basics, and give you the most important information first, they often gloss over the more…minute details of shipping a vehicle, and for a number of reasons.
Flat-out deceit is not a tactic employed by the best in the business, but there are times when brokers may withhold information from you until later on in the shipment – one of those thing being the auto transport inspection.
Simply put, when you ship a vehicle, you will be required to be present at both pickup or delivery – if you can’t be there, you can designate someone as an agent, but that’s a topic for another blog post.
Anyway, you or someone you know has to be there at pickup and delivery to sign paperwork and, together with the driver of the truck, perform an inspection of the vehicle. The inspection is an incredibly important aspect of shipping a car, as it gives you a safety net should anything untoward happen while your vehicle is shipped.
You should rest assured knowing that damage during the shipment of a vehicle is rare, but we won’t lie to you – it does happen, and this is why the inspection is so important. You see, it’s actually so important that you have to do two inspections – one at pickup and one at delivery.
The pickup inspection gives your shipper and his insurance a baseline look at your vehicle – in other words, they’ll note any existing damages on a little slip of paper, in order to know what the car was like before it was shipped.
At delivery, you’ll do a second inspection of the vehicle, this time comparing those damages marked at pickup against the condition of the vehicle at delivery. Any damage sustained during transit has to be covered by the carrier’s insurance.
A poorly-inspected vehicle can result in denied insurance claims due to insufficient evidence; this usually stems from an inspection report that was filled out incorrectly or was not legible or clearly marked, so make sure you pay attention to what the carrier is doing when inspecting your vehicle and that you are an active part of the inspection process.
This goes for any agents you designate to inspect your vehicle as well; if you need someone to inspect your vehicle for you, make sure you impress upon them the importance of doing a thorough inspection, lest something go wrong and you get screwed out of an insurance claim.
Luckily for you, damage during the auto transport process happens to less than 5% of all vehicles shipped, and if you book with us, our top-rated carriers have a number that’s closer to 1-2%, so you’re getting top-notch services only from the best in the business.
You can get a free quote to ship your vehicle with American Auto Shipping by filling out our free online auto transport quote request form. You can also contact us over the phone at 800-930-7417 to speak to an agent. They can answer questions, give you a free quote, and even help you place a reservation if you’re ready.
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.
- When to go with an Enclosed Transport - October 2, 2023
- Understanding California’s EV Mandate - August 1, 2023
- Top Reasons Auto Shippers Are Delayed - January 9, 2023
