Can I Ship a Vehicle That Doesn’t Steer?
When you ship a car, one of the first things that you will be asked – even before you book, mind you – is whether that vehicle rolls, brakes and steers. These are important components that can affect your price, as carriers like to drive the vehicles they are shipping up onto the truck to secure it into place. Loading a vehicle that can move under its own power is the fastest and most cost-effective way to load and unload a vehicle from a car transport truck, but auto transporters understand that not all vehicles are going to be fully operational – it’s one of the things about auto shipping that they have to put up with. That said, if you try to ship a vehicle that doesn’t steer, you have to make sure to tell someone right away.
If a vehicle can’t be steered under its own power, your driver is likely going to have to get creative with the loading and unloading process. Most of the time, they park the truck then maneuver the vehicle into place so they can load it. If a vehicle doesn’t run or steer, this becomes a lot more difficult. Non-running cars can usually be pushed into place so it can be winched, and a similar process will likely be used to load and unload a vehicle that doesn’t steer. At the same time, though, actually getting it into place is going to be more difficult, and chances are you’re going to have to do a lot of the work in that regard.
That being said, you can usually ship a vehicle that doesn’t steer, but it’s going to require a lot of communication between you and your representative so that the carrier knows exactly what is going on. The more information the carrier has about your vehicle, the better the job they can do. For instance, many carriers require a VIN number in order to make sure they’re picking the right vehicle up. Knowing that a vehicle doesn’t brake or run will help them formulate their approach to loading and unloading it and also let them know if they need to charge you more. Yes, many carriers will charge more for the inconvenience, but when loading a standard car takes anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, but when you try to ship a vehicle that doesn’t steer that gets even more difficult. Telling your shipper early on and letting them formulate a plan will go a long way to making everything easier for you, your agent and your auto shipping company down the line.
If you are interested in shipping a vehicle, even if it doesn’t steer, you can fill out our free online quote request form and get multiple quotes emailed to you for free from some of the best car transporters in the industry. We clear each and every company you get a quote from for both dependability and reliability, and that means we make sure they are fully licensed, bonded and insured. They also use top carrier companies, ones that understand what it takes to ship a car that doesn’t steer, so you can rest easy knowing you’ll be in good hands every step of the way. If you have questions about our services, or would like some help getting you free quotes, you can contact one of our agents any time, toll-free, 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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