General Info About Flatbed Car Transport Services
The vast majority of vehicles on the road today can be shipped via a standard auto shipping carrier. These are vehicles that see daily use – going to and from work, taking the kids to school or soccer practice, you know, daily driving stuff.
These vehicles see plenty of use, wear and tear, so most of the time they can go on the carrier that exposes them to the elements the same way their drivers do every day.
Luckily, standard open carriers are the most common on the road, but there are other types of carriers out there. Some vehicles out there deserve special treatment due to their expense, and are often shipped enclosed to help protect their value. And then there are those that need flatbed car transport.
Flatbed car transport is a specialty type of service that is used only on an as-needed basis. In other words, you usually can’t simply request flatbed car shipping, and really, you wouldn’t want to for a standard car.
Flatbed haulers are not nearly as common as your standard open carrier, or even an enclosed shipper. This means, naturally, that they’re going to be harder for your agent to find, which means longer waiting times for scheduling and pickup.
A standard carrier can usually be found in a few days, depending on your pickup location and the route you need to ship on. Flatbed car transport services can take weeks to find and book, so you don’t want to use it unless you have to.
But how do you know if you need to ship a car on a flatbed hauler? Well, that answer is pretty simple – your representative will let you know. Really, there’s not much else to say here – flatbed haulers ship vehicles that are too large or cumbersome to fit on a standard auto transport truck, but your agent can’t know your vehicle is too large until they know what it is.
This means that you’re going to have to talk to some shippers and see what they can do for you. If your vehicle is large, say a lifted pickup truck or a commercial cargo van, it may be wise to have the dimensions of the vehicle – the length, width, height and approximate weight – on-hand and ready to give to your agent along with the year, make and model and other information they may require.
If you are interested in shipping a vehicle, regardless of whether you think you need flatbed car transport or not, take a minute to fill out our free online auto shipping quote request form. It’s completely free and shouldn’t take you more than a minute or two. Once submitted, you’ll get a free quote to ship your vehicle right away. If you would like a quote over the phone, have questions in need of answers, or would like to book a shipment, you can contact one of our agents any time, toll-free, at 800-930-7417.
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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