Auto Shipping Glossary: The Agent
When you ship a vehicle, the person that you will have the most contact with is known as your auto transport agent. Simply put, your agent is the one that is supposed to be there for you during your entire shipment; you book your order with them and then they get your vehicle moved. There are a few different names for them including car transport representatives, customer service representatives (or CSR’s), auto transport agent – a rose by any other name, really, but the end result is always the same: they’re the people who are going to get your vehicle moved for you and they should be your go-to contact person for any information, questions or problems you may have.
Your car shipping agent, or representative, is your go-to for any question or concerns, and normally your representative will be the person that takes your information and books your auto transport services. They’ll set up the entire thing and, in most companies, actively attempt to find a carrier for you in a professional and timely manner. It is their job to ensure that you fully understand what is happening and also their job to take correct information for pickup and delivery locations, vehicle information, and contact information from you, book your order, then find a truck. They are also required to go over their company’s terms and conditions with you before you book your order, so make sure that they do that for you – and if they don’t, make certain to ask them to.
Some companies separate their sales departments (where your agent is) and their dispatch offices – usually the largest companies do this, to allow a better division of labor that keeps everyone focused on singular tasks to maximize efficiency. Not all do, however, particularly smaller companies with only a few employees. It doesn’t take a lot to run an auto transport company nowadays – thanks to the internet, a lot of the internal processes that go into shipping a vehicle are very much streamlined and work quite well. Regardless of how your shipping company is setup, your agent’s job is to ensure that you get all the information you need once your vehicle is dispatched, including arrival windows and explanations as to how things are going to go. You should always keep the name and contact information of your agent until the order is completed.
If you’re interested in shipping a vehicle, and need somewhere to start, take a minute to fill out our free online auto transport quote request form. When you do, you’ll get a free quote to ship your vehicle right away. We are a top-rated company that only works with top-rated carriers. If you have questions about our services, or need some help getting your free quote or understanding more about the way vehicles are shipped and how the industry works, give us a call any time to speak to one of our own live representatives 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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