How to Ship a Car You Bought Online

Edmunds.com

How to Ship a Car You Bought Online

Edmunds.com offers Online Car Buyers tips for choosing Auto Shippers to transport a car purchased far from home.

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missyatpdqauto

It takes between 7 to 14 days to ship across the country, not a month. The truckers carry the insurances. It is federally mandated in order to ship freight in the U.S., They always maintain a liability for KBB or FMV value in the dreaded case of total loss. (The differences are notable between an open carrier and an enclosed truck.) Truck companies also have cargo insurance which will repair most damages, in order to make the vehicle whole again.

Never ship terminal to terminal. There are too many "cooks in the pot" with this type of shipping. If damages are incurred it is very difficult to establish a chain of occurrences determining who or which company, exactly, is responsible for the repair of the vehicle.

"Door to door" is a term. If the truck can be maneuvered down the street successfully and there are no low hanging branches as well as no limiting local restrictions preventing the delivery, then it will indeed be a door to door service. If the road is not accessible for some reason mentioned above, then the driver will coordinate the drop at a nearby large parking lot, such as a school or a market. There he/she will unload the vehicle for inspection.

The driver will fill out a BOL, a Bill Of Lading. It is a walk around visual inspection of the vehicle before he takes possession to load the auto on the truck. It looks just like the paper you receive when you rent a car. There is a drawing of a generic vehicle and two views.
The driver will fill out the form and have the person releasing sign-off on the condition of the auto at the time of loading. The driver will leave behind a copy of the BOL. Upon delivery it is imperative that the consumer receiving the vehicle carries out a thorough, rigorous inspection before signing any papers. There must be a visual of the roof, hood, undercarriage, exterior and bumpers. The truck driver will present an original of the BOL. If all is good, there is a sign-off on the BOL and it will suffice as the receipt of the shipment for the customer.
IF NOT OKAY at that exact moment whereas damage has occurred, the consumer must immediately contact their broker... right then and there, in order to have assistance with completion of the BOL form. That is how it is done. Never alone! As a consumer you must always have an emergency number for your brokerage. The broker should guide you step by step while on the phone, with the driver present, and before paying. I am going to shout this next sentence so it is ingrained in your mind... DAMAGES MUST BE WRITTEN ON THE BILL OF LADING TO PURSUE AN INSURANCE CLAIM.

An educated consumer is the best client! Ask questions and I will respond here at this forum.... Missy

slorenzen

A good friend bought a 2014 Audi S6 on cars.com for a good price, and had it shipped from Boston to Eugene, Oregon.

Car looked great, but when he opened the door, it was a total ashtray. spent almost $1000 to try to get the smell out. It's better, but the stink will take YEARS to really go away, if ever.

A real heart breaker, for sure.

That was one question he never DREAMED of asking, whether it had been smoked in...

Mr_Shiftright

That's a problem all right. If it doesn't go away in a few weeks, he might have to pull the interior out and redo all the seat padding. I think that's where most of the stench ends up.

carboy21

As in Ebay , never buy a car unseen !!

Its not a toy you can return back to Amazon

Mr_Shiftright

Some people have good luck buying cars on the blind, some have really bad luck. Me? I'm fairly risk-averse when it comes to big ticket items.

feerls1

missyatpdqauto

January this year i had my truck transported by a big name company. They scratched my truck which resulted in $1400 in damages. A claim was filled out and approved in February. At the time i was working with a young lady that handled my claim. She said it was in accounting waiting to be sent out. I didn't see anything so i called and she was no longer with the company. Everytime after i called after that they would transfer me around then would end up at a voicemail. Do i need to take this to court to receive my claim? Thank you.

feerls1

missyatpdqauto said:

It takes between 7 to 14 days to ship across the country, not a month. The truckers carry the insurances. It is federally mandated in order to ship freight in the U.S., They always maintain a liability for KBB or FMV value in the dreaded case of total loss. (The differences are notable between an open carrier and an enclosed truck.) Truck companies also have cargo insurance which will repair most damages, in order to make the vehicle whole again.

Never ship terminal to terminal. There are too many "cooks in the pot" with this type of shipping. If damages are incurred it is very difficult to establish a chain of occurrences determining who or which company, exactly, is responsible for the repair of the vehicle.

"Door to door" is a term. If the truck can be maneuvered down the street successfully and there are no low hanging branches as well as no limiting local restrictions preventing the delivery, then it will indeed be a door to door service. If the road is not accessible for some reason mentioned above, then the driver will coordinate the drop at a nearby large parking lot, such as a school or a market. There he/she will unload the vehicle for inspection.

The driver will fill out a BOL, a Bill Of Lading. It is a walk around visual inspection of the vehicle before he takes possession to load the auto on the truck. It looks just like the paper you receive when you rent a car. There is a drawing of a generic vehicle and two views.
The driver will fill out the form and have the person releasing sign-off on the condition of the auto at the time of loading. The driver will leave behind a copy of the BOL. Upon delivery it is imperative that the consumer receiving the vehicle carries out a thorough, rigorous inspection before signing any papers. There must be a visual of the roof, hood, undercarriage, exterior and bumpers. The truck driver will present an original of the BOL. If all is good, there is a sign-off on the BOL and it will suffice as the receipt of the shipment for the customer.
IF NOT OKAY at that exact moment whereas damage has occurred, the consumer must immediately contact their broker... right then and there, in order to have assistance with completion of the BOL form. That is how it is done. Never alone! As a consumer you must always have an emergency number for your brokerage. The broker should guide you step by step while on the phone, with the driver present, and before paying. I am going to shout this next sentence so it is ingrained in your mind... DAMAGES MUST BE WRITTEN ON THE BILL OF LADING TO PURSUE AN INSURANCE CLAIM.

An educated consumer is the best client! Ask questions and I will respond here at this forum.... Missy

I left a comment above for you.

missyatpdqauto

Pursue your case in small claims court. Unfortunately,  my experience has been that you can win  a sum , but .... it is almost impossible to make make them pay out.  You can then put a lean on the company so they cannot sell off their assets and run away into the night.

michael5175

Thank you for your advice on shipping a vehicle. I found it quite helpful. Two questions:

1. Do some companies claim some damage is acceptable? For example, if I were to have a car shipped and it arrived with stone chips on the hood that weren't there before loading, do some/all shipping companies claim that type of damage is to be expected and, therefore, acceptable?

2. Is it better (safer, cheaper, easier to deal with) to go with a broker who finds a shipping company or deal directly with the shipping company?

Thank you!

will5050

I am trying to get my SUV shipped over seas. But I have no idea how to get in touch with a good carrier to do so. Anyone got any suggestions?

glenn7187_

You can contact transportmyautomobile.com where they do overseas shipping at a affordable cost. The shipment are licensed and insured with door to door service available.

Mr_Shiftright

COSDEL is a good shipper.

Jahames

I used a shipper last month called a1autotransport.com and their website had a ton of info about the topic, including prices if anyone wants to know about prospective costs. It's never really "cheap" but some of the companies were significantly higher than others based on the quotes I got, including uship who is mentioned in the article here. My understanding is that prices can change a lot between companies and even shipping dates & times, so it's a good idea to see what else is out there before signing a contract with a car shipper.