Why Auto Transport Routes Vary in Price
Your auto transport carrier ships vehicles along a specific route. This should be pretty much common knowledge, but we’ll go over it again anyway, just in case. Every auto transport carrier charges a price to ship a vehicle along their route, and if they have to deviate from that route they’ll likely charge more.
Most every carrier company does this, and it’s sort of how the auto shipping industry works. With thousands of different carriers in all fifty states, as well as thousands of brokers across the country, finding a company that can ship your vehicle is as easy as filling out a quote form or two, booking your order, paying some money and waiting.
But just because you’re paying Cindy Lou’s Car Shipping $X for your shipment doesn’t mean that Todd’s Auto Transport can’t do it for $Y less than what Cindy can. This is where – and why – auto transport prices vary, and sometimes it can be pretty drastic.
Auto shippers run the routes that they do for a variety of different reasons, but some of the reasons that are the same across the board include easy access to customers, lower-than-average fuel prices, knowledge of the route and others.
These are big factors when it comes to auto transport prices, and auto shippers have a lot of expenses that they need to factor into the prices they charge, particularly fuel. Fuel is one of the industry’s most expensive costs despite the entire industry running on it – without diesel fuel, there wouldn’t be auto transportation services (or any other type of long-haul transportation, for that matter).
But just like car shipping prices, fuel prices vary from place to place. Some areas of the country have cheap gas prices, while others have what seem to be exorbitant prices. Auto shippers have to factor that into their pricing, as well as other things such as how long they’ll be stuck in traffic (for the bigger cities like Los Angeles and the New York metro area, anyway), how far off their preferred route they’ll need to drive to pickup/deliver your vehicle, how many other customers are shipping along that route, when you need it picked up, and much, much more.
This is a big reason why auto transport routes vary in price. Some companies have six or eight cars coming out of wherever you’re shipping from, and maybe two or three heading to your delivery location. They’ll likely charge less than a company that only has two cars coming out of one area and you’re the only one going to your delivery location.
Company A can charge less per vehicle because they have plenty of vehicles on their truck; Company B is likely going to have to charge more to travel the same distance because they have fewer customers paying, at least initially. Once your vehicle gets put on a truck, the price usually doesn’t change unless it’s for a major reason, so keep that in mind when searching for an auto transport company.
This is also why you want to get multiple quotes before deciding on a company to ship with; sometimes, the best price doesn’t always stay that way, and sometimes the higher price gets your vehicle picked up more quickly. Talk to a representative for more information; to get a hold of one, you can call us toll-free at 800-930-7417 and speak to one of our own live agents, or you can fill out our free online quote form and get a free quote from us immediately.
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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