Auto Shipping Glossary: Pickup and Delivery Windows
When transporting your vehicle, you’ll find that instead of guaranteed pickup and delivery dates most companies will likely give you pickup and delivery windows, which work a bit differently.
Because of the inherent nature of the car shipping industry and the sense that a lot of different factors can delay a shipper from arriving at a pickup or delivery location, your auto transport company will give you a time frame for when you should expect the transporter to get there.
Additionally, most auto shipping companies will give the name of the driver and their contact information to you so that you can more directly schedule your pickup and delivery times with the driver when they are close.
Obviously, pickup refers to when your vehicle will first be loaded and delivery refers to when you get your vehicle on the other side. You need to know that pickup and delivery windows can vary based on what type of vehicle you are shipping, where you are shipping from and to, and when exactly you need it shipped.
Sometimes like how it needs to be shipped can affect your pickup windows, which typically are going to be the most varied. Once your vehicle is loaded onto a truck, delivery will take however long it takes, be it two days or five days or eight days, but generally your transporter will tell you approximately how far they drive in a day and when you can expect them – and the closer they get the more communication you will have with the shipper, to make sure you’re both meeting in the same city and state when you say “the Hardee’s parking lot off I-75” or something.
If you are interested in getting quotes to transport your vehicle, you can fill out our free online auto transport quote request form. If you do, you’ll get an instant quote to ship your vehicle immediately. No waiting, no hidden fees, just a price to ship your vehicle that won’t change. You can also contact one of our representatives any time at 800-930-7417. They can answer your questions, give you a quote, book your shipment, and more.
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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