Auto Transport to Major US Cities
Major cities in the US are the number one auto transportation locations in the country. With more people than rural and suburban areas, it just makes sense. This is why auto transport to major US cities is such a driving force in the industry.
Shipping between two major cities is common, and the bigger the cities, usually, the faster your car moves, provided it’s priced properly. More trucks operate between major cities than they do anywhere else. New York to Los Angeles, Boston to Miami, Seattle to Dallas, these are all popular transport routes. And they’re popular because they’re home to millions of people.
This is why understanding auto transport to major US cities is so important, and why we highly recommend reading on. Knowing what to expect when shipping to or from a major US city will help you make better decisions and, overall, help you have a better car shipping experience.
Article Overview
An Intro to Auto Transport to Major US Cities
The first thing you need to know about shipping to a major city is that it’s generally pretty easy. Big cities attract carriers because there are lots of people. Lots of people in a given area means lots of potential freight. And, of course, more freight means less down time and more time shipping cars.
These are all major advantages when it comes to shipping to or from a major US city. Carriers want to go to where the cars are of course – it’s all about location, location, location.
It really helps that most major cities sit along major interstate highways as well. We’ll talk more about how the interstate highway system is a godsend for cross-country freight movers, but for now, just know that easy access to interstate highways means faster transit times and lower prices overall.
Major cities also make pricing more competitive overall. With so many loads to go around, carriers can’t really be picky about what loads they take. They have to find good-paying freight quickly lest someone else snatch it up! So when they roll into major cities they’re quicker to take loads.
In this way, carriers move freight more quickly and customers pay less. It’s really a win-win when you compare it to rural or even suburban shipping services, which can see higher prices and longer wait times due to lower demand from other customers.
What about Suburb Cities?
Suburb cities, or cities that sit within 25-50 miles of a major city, are great too! As the automobile became more prevalent in the daily lives of Americans, it became clear that living in cramped, overcrowded urban centers wasn’t great. In the 1940’s and 50’s, estate developers saw opportunities on the outskirts of city limits, and the suburb was born.
Oftentimes, these bedroom cities are just as easy to get to as a major city itself. So, for instance, around Portland, Oregon, you have cities like Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Gresham. These are bedroom cities. These cities are usually included in the overall metro area statistics. Also, they are often included when talking about Portland in general. But they aren’t actually Portland.
Sometimes, this is a good thing, especially when we’re talking about older cities that were built up before the popularity of the car. We’ll get into that more in a bit, though. But bedroom cities can be great pickup and delivery locations for carriers. They are often more spacious, which usually means it’s easier for carriers to maneuver within their boundaries. Not only that, but bedroom cities often are home to a lot more strip malls and outlet malls than big urban areas.
These, along with shopping malls, make for great meetup locations for carriers. They can easily maneuver into those large parking lots to load and unload vehicles. This is more difficult to do in cramped downtown areas, many of which they can’t even get in to begin with!
Also, bedroom cities also tend to sit along major interstate highways. So I suppose it’s time we talk about them…
How the Interstate Highway System Makes it Go
As we all know, the interstate highways that criss-cross the US are super important. They allow us access to all the different major cities in the country via one massive road network. A system of over 55,000 miles of roads, it is the largest man-made structure on the planet. And without it, auto transport to major US cities would look a lot different.
The interstate highway system is what allows carriers to get from Los Angeles to New York in 7-10 days. It allows them to hit numerous other cities on the way and keep their trucks full of cars. Without it, prices would likely be much higher, as they would have to rely on a mish-mash of state routes and local roads.
But something else the interstate highway system does is it allows for bigger transport trucks. Those state routes and local roads may not all be able to handle a ten-car hauler. Most every interstate highway definitely can. They’re designed with trucks like that in mind! The entire system was developed as a way to move men and materiel around the country in the event of a war on American soil. So being able to move tanks and trucks and jeeps along them would be vital to the war effort.
Of course, we’ve never had a war in the 20th century that saw fighting on American soil. So it’s mostly all for civilian use (though the military does move men and materiel along it still). But without Dwight Eisenhower’s vision of an American Autobahn (seriously), we wouldn’t have one at all.
Alternatives to Auto Transport to Major US Cities
There are lots of different cities in the United States, ranging from small towns and villages to massive metropolitan centers. Some smaller towns sit along interstate highways, but most don’t. State highways, maybe, and those are definitely frequented by carriers. But not all of them.
As such, your best alternative to a major city is a bedroom city, like Henderson to Las Vegas, or Palm Beach to Miami. And this is because of the fact that major cities are just plain hard to maneuver around and get in and out of. Many of them were built prior to the invention of the automobile so its streets aren’t designed for vehicle traffic to begin with. Many have been widened over the years, but places like Portland and Seattle still have original road layouts from a hundred years ago!
Carriers can’t fit in major downtown areas, and in some areas they’re expressly forbidden from them, such as Manhattan. So carriers can’t even get into some places for pickup and delivery! This means that an alternative will be required.
Many carriers will find places along the interstate to meet you. Again, outlet and strip malls, or just regular malls, are great meeting places. But others, such as rest areas and truck stops, have been used as well. Make sure to communicate with your driver about an alternative if it’s required.
The most popular cities to ship to and from
While you can’t control where you’re shipping from and to, necessarily, some cities are more popular than others for different reasons. When it comes to the most popular places to ship to and from, Los Angeles and Miami are high up there. L.A. is where the action is, and Miami is where the action – and the retirement home – is. At least, for most people.
Miami is popular among snowbirds and is a focal point for car shippers because of them. Whether they’re shipping down or shipping up the eastern seaboard, there’s usually a lot of freight coming in and out of southern Florida.
San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle are also big auto shipping hubs along the west coast. Moving east, Denver is popular, as is Dallas, Texas. Areas further north aren’t as popular due to lower population in states like Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, but there’s plenty of carriers going through there that can stop in Topeka or Lincoln or Des Moines. Minneapolis is a pretty big auto transport hub as well as Cleveland and the Great Lakes cities like Detroit.
Of course, you can’t go wrong with New York City and its 9+ million people. Further south, New Jersey is popular, as is North Carolina and even Atlanta, Georgia. So if you’re close to any one of those cities, it shouldn’t be hard to ship your vehicle.
How American Auto Shipping Can Help
If you’re interested in shipping a vehicle, let us help you! We are a top-rated auto transport company, A rated with the BBB and a five-star company on Transport Reviews. We maintain our pristine record by working only with reputable and reliable carriers. Also, we make sure all of them are fully licensed and insured and we maintain a large do not use list for carriers that aren’t trustworthy.
Make sure to fill out our free online quote request form or give us a call at 800-930-7417. If you do, you’ll get a free quote to ship your vehicle, or you can speak to one of our representatives. They can answer questions, give you a quote over the phone, book your shipment, and more. So no matter what you’re shipping, or where it’s going, we can get it moved.
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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