Car Shipping Costs in November vs December: What Changes

Ask us what it costs to ship a car in November and December and the honest answer is: it depends which way you're going and which half of the season you book in. These two months sit side by side on the calendar, but they behave like two different markets. November is the tail end of snowbird season, when trucks headed for Florida, Arizona and Texas fill up fast. December is the quietest stretch of the shipping year. We've watched that swing happen every fall since 1999, and it is big enough to plan around.

Here's how we put numbers on it. Every estimate range on our site comes from a published formula — road distance, the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly diesel price, a season-and-direction factor, and vehicle and trailer multipliers. The method page lists every value, and our quarterly Car Shipping Cost Estimate Index freezes those inputs so the numbers can be checked. For this post we ran the same formula for November and for December, holding diesel at the Q4 2026 Index inputs. These are estimates from a formula, not quotes: the real price always comes from the company you book with.

Start with November. In our method, a route counts as southbound when the delivery point sits more than three degrees of latitude south of the pickup — roughly 200 miles. In November those routes carry a 15% seasonal premium, because that's when retirees and seasonal residents move their cars south and trucks headed that way are in demand. Northbound routes run 5% under normal, since carriers want loads that bring them back north. Everything else carries 5% over normal.

“November and December sit side by side on the calendar, but they behave like two different markets.”

The direction effect is easy to see on a single corridor. New York to Miami — 1,285 road miles — comes out at about $1,070 to $1,680 for a sedan on an open carrier in November. Flip it, Miami to New York, and the same road runs about $970 to $1,310. Chicago to Miami lands at about $1,090 to $1,710, Minneapolis to Phoenix at about $1,210 to $1,890, and a coast-to-coast New York to Los Angeles run at about $1,540 to $2,410, with 7 to 11 days in transit.

December is a different picture. Once the snowbirds have landed and the holidays take over, demand drops in every direction, and our method takes 8% off normal everywhere. New York to Miami falls to about $940 to $1,270. Chicago to Miami runs about $950 to $1,290, Minneapolis to Phoenix about $1,050 to $1,430, and New York to Los Angeles about $1,340 to $1,820. Northbound routes barely move, because they were already running under normal in November.

Fuel is the other big lever, and right now it's pushing up, not down. EIA's U.S. average on-highway diesel price was $6.276 a gallon for the week of October 19, 2026 — $2.656 higher than a year earlier. Our method compares the current weekly price with its trailing 52-week average, so when diesel runs well above that average, every route carries a fuel adjustment on top of the season factor. A sharp move in diesel between now and December would move real offers with it.

Holidays change the calendar more than the price. Car hauler drivers work under federal hours-of-service rules: no more than 11 hours of driving after 10 hours off, nothing past the 14th hour on duty, and a 30-minute break after 8 hours behind the wheel. Those limits don't take holidays off, and many drivers plan to be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so pickups that week can stretch. If a car has to be somewhere by a family date, give it room on both ends instead of booking for the last possible day.

Weather does the same thing on the northern and mountain routes. Colorado requires commercial drivers to carry chains on I-70 west of Morrison from September 1 to May 31, whatever the forecast, and storms can close mountain passes outright. As we covered in our winter routes post, many coast-to-coast trucks drop south to I-40 or I-10 in winter even when it adds miles. That's part of why cross-country transit times stretch in December, and why any delivery date is an estimate, not a promise.

So how do you use all this? If you're heading south with the snowbirds and your dates are flexible, early December can be the cheaper window by our method — the southbound premium is gone and the holiday crunch hasn't started. If you have to go in November, book a few weeks ahead so you're choosing from more offers. Heading north? November is already a soft month in that direction. And for an SUV or a pickup, expect the range to sit higher; enclosed transport runs about 50% over open on the same route.

Here's how it works with us. We put your shipment in front of vetted, licensed auto transport companies, they compete with their best offers, and you choose the one whose dates, route and price fit your plans. You book directly with that company, and you never pay us a cent. Shipping a car before the holidays? Get your free estimate, and check the range for both months before you pick a date.