How We Estimate Car Shipping Costs
Every price range on this site is produced by one published formula from public data: road distance, the weekly U.S. diesel price, the season and direction of travel, and the vehicle and trailer type. It is an estimate, not a quote. Your final price comes from the licensed auto transport partner you choose.
The formula
- Base cost = fixed charge of $300 + mileage cost. Mileage is priced in marginal tiers, like tax brackets, so the estimate can never fall as the trip gets longer.
- Fuel adjustment = 1 + 0.206 × (this week's diesel ÷ 52-week average − 1). 0.206 is fuel's share of a truck's marginal cost per mile.
- Season × direction: a monthly multiplier that depends on whether the trip runs southbound, northbound or neither (more than 3° of latitude between the ZIP codes).
- Vehicle, trailer and pickup multipliers for vehicle class, open or enclosed carrier, rural pickup or delivery, non-running vehicles and expedited pickup.
- Mid-point = base × fuel adjustment × season × vehicle × trailer × pickup × condition × urgency, kept at full precision.
- Range = mid-point ±15%, or ±22% when distance under 500 miles, a seasonal multiplier of 1.10 or more, or a straight-line (fallback) distance. Each end is rounded once to the nearest $10; the low end never goes below $350.
- Transit days = ceil(miles / 500) + 1 to ceil(miles / 350) + 2.
Inputs in use right now
Diesel this week
$6.529/gal
Week of Sep 21, 2026 · live from EIA
52-week average
$4.632/gal
52 weeks · fuel adjustment +8%
Pricing month
September 2026
Pages re-render at least daily, so the month and diesel week stay current.
Parameter version
2026.09.1
Last updated 2026-09-23. Changes are listed at the bottom of this page.
Every parameter, with its source
Mileage tiers
| Miles | Rate per mile in that tier |
|---|---|
| 0 – 500 | $0.90 |
| 500 – 1,000 | $0.55 |
| 1,000 – 2,000 | $0.35 |
| 2,000 – 3,500 | $0.30 |
Fixed charge: $300. Loading/unloading, dispatch and paperwork cost that does not scale with distance. Calibrated so a ~100-mile open sedan move lands near $400, consistent with published short-haul benchmarks (U.S. News, Forbes Advisor, ConsumerAffairs 2025-2026 car-shipping cost guides).
Marginal (tax-bracket style) tiers so the estimate never falls as distance rises. Targets for an open sedan in a neutral month: ~$390 at 100 mi, ~$750 at 500, ~$1,025 at 1,000, ~$1,375 at 2,000, ~$1,525 at 2,500 — in line with the ~$1/mile at 1,000 miles and $0.40-0.70/mile cross-country figures the major consumer guides report.
Fuel
Fuel share of marginal cost per mile: 0.206. American Transportation Research Institute, An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, 2026 update: fuel $0.482 of $2.336 total marginal cost per mile.
Series: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly U.S. No 2 Diesel Retail Prices, dollars per gallon (api.eia.gov v2, petroleum/pri/gnd, product EPD2D, process PTE, duoarea NUS). Published weekly: surveyed Monday, released Tuesday.
Baseline diesel price D0 is the trailing 52-week average of the same EIA series, computed from the data each time — never hard-coded. Checked every 6 hours; a new value appears within a day of EIA's Tuesday release.
Season × direction
| Month | Southbound | Northbound | Neutral |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | -8% | -8% | -8% |
| February | ±0% | ±0% | ±0% |
| March | ±0% | ±0% | ±0% |
| April | -5% | +15% | +5% |
| May | -5% | +15% | +5% |
| June | +8% | +8% | +8% |
| July | +8% | +8% | +8% |
| August | +8% | +8% | +8% |
| September (now) | ±0% | ±0% | ±0% |
| October | +15% | -5% | +5% |
| November | +15% | -5% | +5% |
| December | -8% | -8% | -8% |
Southbound when the delivery point is more than 3 degrees of latitude south of the pickup (roughly 200 miles); northbound when more than 3 degrees north; otherwise neutral.
Seasonal demand pattern documented across the industry: snowbird southbound surge in October-November and northbound return in April-May, summer relocation peak June-August, and the December-January lull. Multipliers are our own estimates of that pattern, held in this file so they can be recalibrated against partner quotes.
Vehicle class, trailer and pickup
| Factor | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Sedan / coupe | ±0% |
| SUV / crossover | +12% |
| Pickup / large SUV | +25% |
| Van / minivan | +20% |
| Oversize / modified | +50% |
| Enclosed carrier | +50% |
| Rural pickup or delivery (either end) | +10% |
| Not running | +20% |
| Expedited pickup | +20% |
Larger and heavier vehicles take more trailer length and weight allowance; the multipliers reflect the 10-25% SUV/truck premium and the 40-50%+ oversize premium reported in the consumer cost guides.
Enclosed carriers move fewer vehicles per load; the 40-60% premium is consistent across published guides.
Rural pickup or delivery adds deadhead miles. A ZIP Code Tabulation Area is treated as rural below 1,000 people per square mile (2020 Census population and land area). Applied once when either end is rural.
Not running: Non-running vehicles need a winch or forklift and a carrier equipped for them. Expedited: Guaranteed-window pickup means the carrier reroutes or leaves capacity empty.
Distance
Primary: openrouteservice directions, driving-hgv profile (road miles for a heavy vehicle), between ZIP Code Tabulation Area centroids. © OpenStreetMap contributors / openrouteservice.
Fallback: Great-circle distance between the two ZCTA centroids multiplied by a 1.20 road-circuity factor, labelled as an estimate. Tables built from a fallback distance say so in their footer and use the wider band.
ZIP locations: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (internal point latitude/longitude, population, land area), TIGERweb.
Transit: Typical multi-stop open-carrier progress of 350-500 miles per day plus a day at each end for pickup and delivery scheduling.
What the formula produces today
Open carrier, sedan, metro pickup and delivery, neutral direction, at stated road distances
| Road distance | Estimate range | Per mile (mid-point) | Transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 150 mi | $370 – $580 | $3.13 | 2–3 days |
| 500 mi | $690 – $940 | $1.62 | 2–4 days |
| 1,000 mi | $940 – $1,280 | $1.11 | 3–5 days |
| 1,500 mi | $1,110 – $1,500 | $0.87 | 4–7 days |
| 2,000 mi | $1,270 – $1,710 | $0.74 | 5–8 days |
| 2,500 mi | $1,410 – $1,900 | $0.66 | 6–10 days |
Formula v2026.09.1 · EIA U.S. diesel $6.53/gal, week of Sep 21, 2026, 52-week average $4.63 · September pricing · road distance as stated.
Estimate, not a quote. Produced automatically by our published formula from public data; your price comes from the licensed auto transport partner you choose. How we estimate · Get your free estimate
Fuel: U.S. Energy Information Administration. Routing: © OpenStreetMap contributors / openrouteservice. ZIP locations: U.S. Census Bureau.
What this is, and what it is not
This is an estimate, not a quote. Every number is produced automatically by the formula above from public data; nothing is written or adjusted by hand per route. Your final price comes from the licensed auto transport partner you choose.
- Automated. Nothing is written or tuned per route. Route, state, city and cost pages all call the same code with the same parameters.
- Public inputs only. Fuel: U.S. Energy Information Administration. Routing: © OpenStreetMap contributors / openrouteservice. ZIP locations: U.S. Census Bureau. We do not scrape or use other companies' prices.
- Lower 48 only. Alaska, Hawaii and the territories need ocean or Canada routing the formula does not model, so no range is shown for them.
- Calibrated, not measured. The multipliers describe documented industry patterns; they are not a promise of any partner's price. Partners set their own rates.
- Who sets the price. American Auto Shipping is a vehicle shipping agent and disclosed agent for the licensed auto transport companies listed here. Before you book with any company, check its authority on the FMCSA's Protect Your Move site.
Changelog
- 2026.09.1 (2026-09-23): First published version. Replaces the flat-band city-page formula, which dropped in price at band edges.
Questions about the estimates
No. It is a range produced automatically by the formula on this page from public data. No one at American Auto Shipping writes or adjusts a number for a specific route. The price you pay is set by the licensed auto transport company you choose; we are a disclosed agent for those companies and do not transport vehicles, collect payment or sign shipping contracts.
From the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly national No. 2 diesel retail price, published every Tuesday. We check it every six hours and compare the latest week with the trailing 52-week average of the same series to set the fuel adjustment. If the live feed is unavailable, the last fetched week is used and labelled as such.
Because the formula does not know your exact pickup street, the carrier's current load, or the day of the week. The band is ±15% around the formula mid-point, widened to ±22% for short trips under 500 miles, for peak-season months, and for any pair where road routing has not been cached and a straight-line estimate is used instead.
No. Every input is public: EIA diesel, U.S. Census ZIP locations, OpenStreetMap road routing, and published industry cost studies. We never scrape other companies' prices. The multipliers are our own estimates of documented industry patterns and are versioned in this file so any change is visible.
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