Auto Shipping FAQ: Why Does it Take So Long To Get My Car Picked Up?
Car shipping is much different than many other forms of shipping things. A car is not a small envelope, after all, so shipping it is going to require jumping through a few more logistical hoops.
One of the biggest complaints that any auto transportation company receives is “my car hasn’t been picked up yet!” Which, to be fair, is an okay point to raise. You’re shipping a car, and you need it picked up.
But the thing is that shipping a car is not like delivering a pizza. In this blog post, we’re going to discuss why takes the amount of time it does to get a vehicle picked up. We’ll discuss factors that impact how quickly your vehicle is picked up and talk about things you can do to make your pickup go faster if you need it.
Article Overview
An overview of how auto shipping works
Some people don’t realize that it can take a while to get their car picked up because of how auto shipping actually works. And that’s okay – if you’ve never shipped a car before, of course, you wouldn’t know how the process works.
That’s why we’re going to lay it out right here. Moving forward, you should have a decent understanding of what to expect when shipping a car. You can also read our auto transport process from start to finish page for more information.
Shipping a car does not have to be complicated. You start with getting some quotes from different auto transport companies, decide which one you want to book with, then book your shipment. You’ll often pay a small deposit or down payment to your broker – the shipper you hired – and they’ll start looking for a carrier to pick your vehicle up.
This can take anywhere from a few hours to a week or more, depending on a lot of different factors (and we’ll get to those in just a bit). Once your vehicle is assigned to a driver, they’ll make their way to your pickup location, and then load your vehicle. From there, you just have to wait until they arrive at the delivery location, they’ll deliver the vehicle, and you will pay the driver at delivery.
There are some things that might be different for some shipments, but the vast, vast majority of them are handled in the way outlined above.
So it can take weeks to get my vehicle picked up? Why?
“Weeks” is a bit of an overstatement. Most vehicles are picked up within about a week of their first available date. For example, say you book your shipment on the 6th of the month with a first available date of the 7th, the next day. On average, it’ll take anywhere from 2-5 days to get a carrier out to your vehicle for pickup. This is wildly simplifying the process, and there are a lot of factors that will impact the average pickup window, of course. But it’s a good estimation.
This is just an average, so your actual pickup windows and pickup dates will vary. But for most shipments, it won’t take weeks to get a carrier out.
Here at American Auto Shipping, we have over 20 years of experience in shipping vehicles. In all that time, we’ve seen our fair share of weird things. We’ve seen cars get picked up within an hour of booking, as well as cars that have waited weeks because they are in poor condition or in a poor pickup location. We’ve seen just about everything there is to see in the car shipping industry. We’ve seen a thing or two in our day. So we know a thing or two about how this all works.
However, it’s important to understand some of the things that will play a role in how long it takes to get your vehicle picked up. So keep reading.
Factors that can impact how long it takes to get a vehicle picked up
When it comes to factors that impact pickup windows and how long it takes to get your car loaded onto a truck, there’s a fair amount of them you need to be aware of.
For starters, what route is the vehicle traveling along? Busy pickup and delivery locations, such as major cities, often see faster than average pickup times due to the popularity of the locations and the route. Less popular routes and pick-up locations may see longer wait times for pickup as well, as there are fewer carriers servicing those routes.
Another factor that will go into the time it takes to get a vehicle picked up is what kind of auto transport carrier you need. Open haulers are by far the most common and are the fastest and cheapest to find. Enclosed carriers are great for expensive, rare, or luxury vehicles, but are more expensive and not as common. Flatbed trucks are used only for the largest vehicles and are seen only on an as-needed basis. For the record, its vehicles requiring a flatbed hauler that often take the longest to get picked up.
Another major factor that plays into this is how much you’re paying for the shipping service. The car transport industry runs on a delicate balance between auto transport carriers and car transport brokers. Remember, you pay a small down payment to the broker, whose job it then is to find a carrier for you. This often results in negotiations to get vehicles moved. Carriers want to make as much as they can per vehicle; the brokers are trying to find carriers for customers at the lowest possible price.
This means that, sometimes, vehicles are priced too low. If there are 50 other cars on the same route as you, that’s 50 other customers vying for a spot on a truck. If there are only a few trucks on the route but lots of demand, prices skyrocket because carriers can take the highest-paying loads first, causing lower-paying loads to sit and wait for prices to drop.
This can be a problem. That’s why we use an auto transport rates calculator to ensure that all the quotes we give are accurate when given and priced to get your vehicle picked up when you need it picked up. We also understand how to provide the cheapest auto transport services possible while still maintaining that standard pickup window.
What you can do to make pickup faster
While there is no guarantee that your vehicle will 100% be picked up on the date you need it, you can do a lot to make your odds better. And before we go further, we need to assure you that most vehicles we ship get picked up within the standard window. 1-5 days to find a carrier, and 1-7 days to get it picked up. That’s standard, and, on average, 85-90% of vehicles move on time with standard pricing and services.
But sometimes that’s not good enough, and sometimes it doesn’t work. When that happens, the easiest answer is more money. But NOT more money to the broker! If vehicles aren’t moving within the standard window, it’s not because the broker isn’t making enough money – it’s because the carrier won’t be earning enough to move it. This is, by far, the most common reason vehicles sit – the carriers just don’t see the load as worthwhile.
This can be because of other vehicles on the route, or the demands of the route, or the distance between the pickup and delivery locations. Regardless of the reason, if this is why the vehicle is sitting and not moving, more money to the trucks will get it moved. Every time.
Here at American Auto Shipping, we often offer carriers part of our own money to get vehicles moved if they don’t move fast enough. While it’s not common, it has happened. When it does, it means we’re not doing enough, so we’ll take a financial hit to make sure your vehicle gets picked up as soon as possible.
Ship a car today with American Auto Shipping
We offer multiple levels of service for all our customers that will get their vehicle picked up when they need it. Standard, of course, as well as priority services (for those that need a 1-3 day window) and even expedited services (for a 24-hour pickup window). Each level of service comes with its own pricing structures, with priority and expedited being more than standard.
If you’re interested in shipping your vehicle with a company that knows how to get vehicles picked up on time, give us a call! We have representatives standing by to help you get your vehicle picked up when you need it picked up. You can get a free quote as well by filling out our online quote request form. Or, you can call us at 800-930-7417 to get a quote over the phone from a live person. No waiting, no hassle, just a quality quote to ship your vehicle at a rate we’re sure you can afford.
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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