How Climate Change Could Affect Auto Transport
We’re not a political website. We’re a car transport company; we don’t take sides. But we do believe in science, because science drives our industry. Trucks get better fuel mileage and prices get lower because science makes our industry better. So when it comes to global climate change, science says it’s real, and it’s getting worse. We love science, and we believe in science.
As temperatures continue to change due to human influence, things are going to get worse. Wildfires in California are getting worse each year. Hurricanes are strengthening. Droughts are more severe. We may ignore the hot-button issue that is climate change – but it doesn’t care whether we ignore it or not. It’s going to change regardless of what we believe. And this is likely going to lead to drastic changes in our lives – and if not ours, the lives of our children and grandchildren.
But we’re going to focus on how climate change could affect auto transport prices and services, because that’s what we do here – we ship cars. But make no mistake – global climate change will impact far more than the people who transport vehicles for a living.
Article Overview
How climate change could affect auto transport – how it’s changing
Wildfires. Hurricanes. Flooding. Drought. All of these are effects caused by the increased CO2 in our atmosphere. And if you follow our blog posts at all, you know that we try to keep up on the crazy weather, because crazy weather can have an adverse effect on carriers, routes, and cars being shipped.
Take a look at California – wildfires are becoming increasingly common, and they’re getting stronger. Not only that, but they’re getting harder to contain. They come on the heels of record-breaking triple-digit temperatures. And it’s not just California, either. The Pacific Northwest, including Washington State and Oregon, has been suffering through its own heatwave. Temperatures in the high 90’s, for weeks on end, in a region that is comfortable at 65 degrees and sweating at 75, is not normal. Likewise, weeks-long strings of triple digit temperatures in northern California are not normal.
This is not normal.
How climate change could affect auto transport – carriers
Carriers have to endure the weather more than anyone else in the industry. They have to load cars in it. They have to unload in it. They have to haul tens of thousands of pounds of other people’s expensive cargo in it. So is it surprising that extreme weather isn’t something drivers want to deal with?
Flooding in the northeast leads to fewer sites to pickup or deliver vehicles. Standing water can damage loads, so carriers will avoid flooded areas. Heatwaves in the south and west can cause trucks to overheat. Heavy snows in the winter months can choke out certain regions and leave customers scrambling to find a carrier willing to run a route through the snow.
In other words, climate change will almost assuredly affect the routes that carriers travel along. It will likely affect what areas they can effectively get to and access. It will likely result in higher prices. Some companies may go under because the routes they prefer are too dangerous. So it’s very likely that within a generation we could see fewer carriers and higher prices for fewer routes.
How climate change could affect auto transport – brokers
Climate change is going to have wide-ranging impacts on all peoples across the globe. In the United States, we will likely see fewer people shipping vehicles, and those that do ship cars finding it harder to actually ship them.
It’s hard to say how climate change could affect auto transport brokers because they’re office-based, not on the road. So a lot of the issues brokers will face will likely come after carriers are already experiencing them. Customers will likely find it harder to ship to certain areas at certain times. Brokers could wind up with lots of freight on the national load boards and no carriers willing to move it.
They’ll probably see a drop in customers as regions get more difficult to access. Many scientists agree that climate change will result in rising sea levels. We haven’t seen much of that yet (probably part of why people deny climate change is real). But rising sea levels will likely flood coastal cities. Considering some of the most popular auto shipping locations are coastal cities, well, it could mean that huge customer bases just disappear.
This is gonna be fun.
Conclusion
This isn’t our typical blog post. But we aren’t seeing anyone else really talking about how climate change could affect auto transport brokers, carriers, customers, services, prices – basically, the industry.
A lot of this is speculative. But global climate change is not speculative – it’s real. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. And we have no idea what’s going to happen. But we know it won’t be good.
Make sure to take a minute to fill out our free online quote request form. It’s free, easy, takes only a minute, and will get you a free quote immediately. You can use this quote as a basis when finding a quality auto transport company. Or, you can give us a call any time at 800-930-7417 to speak to an agent. They can answer questions, give advice, and even give you a quote right over the phone. So don’t hesitate – make sure to use American Auto Shipping for all your car transport needs. Because we care.
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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