Car Shipping Checklist
Car Shipping Checklist makes transporting your car easy and safe
Car Shipping Checklist and the things to know before scheduling your move.
- Car Shipping Tip #1
- When shipping your vehicle it is important to let us know at the time you are getting your quote if the vehicle has oversize tires, lift kits, whip style antennas, etc. Over extended side mirrors can create problems also. The transport driver needs to know about anything that is not stock equipment on your vehicle.
- Car Shipping Tip #2
- Make sure your brakes are good. That means totally functioning. Parking brake also. When the transport driver is putting your car on the trailer he MUST have brakes that are functioning as they should. If your brakes are NOT working the car will have to be winched on slowly and there is a fee for inoperable vehicles. That fee is approximately $150.
- Car Shipping Tip #3
- Is your car leaking? If it is leaking fluids of any type we need to know. A leaking vehicle will have to be placed on the lower rack of the transport so it does not drip on the car under it. VERY important. Leaking brake fluid can take paint off a car. Also a leak may lead to brake or engine malfunction.
- Car Shipping Tip #4
- Tires holding air? This is another safety issue. Let us know if there are tires that go flat before the driver loads it.
- Car Shipping Tip #5
- Car alarms. Do you have one? Is it functioning properly? We don’t want the alarm going off and no way of turning it off so please let the driver know if that is the case.
- Car Shipping Tip #6
- Is everything secure? Do you have all your personal items out? Are the doors, fenders, etc all properly secured or bolted? Loose side mirrors? Whip antennas or car antennas secure? These are all things that need to be checked for secure shipping.
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Best Auto Transport Company Rule Of Thumb Number 1
You might know someone that has purchased a car off Ebay. Ask them who they used to ship their car. Again, word of mouth is great stuff. It’s free knowledge coming from a known source and knowledge is power when it comes to finding the best auto transport company.
- Best Auto Transport Company Rule Of Thumb Number 2
- Search The Better Business Bureau. A quick look around on the bbb.org will display companies that rate anywhere from A+ to F. Our suggestion is to look for any unresolved disputes. A good company sorts out the problems. If a transport is 2 days late delivering and the customer is upset then that company should do their best to work with the customer. That’s just an example and a hypothetical one at that. Unresolved complaints are sometimes a good sign the company doesn’t care about their customers OR even their own company rating with the BBB. There is much to be learned inside the BBB.
- Best Auto Transport Company Rule Of Thumb Number 3
- Another method to find the best company is the phone call to the FMCSA. They are the government regulators inside the industry and they can help you research a company. Look for revoked status (past or present) cancelled insurance policies (repeatedly) and length of time in business. The FMCSA won’t share official industry info about safety records or cars damaged, etc. THAT is a great example of where a GOOD auto transport broker can be worth their weight in gold. A GOOD broker will protect you, shield you from bad transports. Finding a good broker is another story. You need to look for a broker through word of mouth to find a good one. The BEST auto transport brokers don’t look for customers using the fill-out-one-form method used by many transport websites.
- The best brokers are going to be BUSY without advertising. Those brokers are quietly moving cars all over the world. Find a good one and when you do stick by them. They don’t always have an easy job and a little patience will go a long way. Having a good broker on your side is important. Just ask those Porsche sales guys or the Cadillac salesmen. They sell cars online and without a quality company on their side they would soon fold. Professional salespeople who ship cars daily know the importance and value of finding the best auto transport company to work with. That is gospel truth and also what keeps the auto sales industry moving. With a great company to work with those cars would never make it to the dealerships and ultimately the showroom floors.
- Best Auto Transport Company Rule Of Thumb Number 4
- Another way some people are searching to find the best auto transport company is to look up the owner’s name. In this age of technology people are adapting. They are exploring new ways to keep bad companies away. One of those is with GOOGLE searching. Another would be open court records. Find out who owns the company website and who owns the company. WHOIS will tell you their name and address. Plug that name and city and state into open court records in that region.
FMCSA
- Best Auto Transport Company Rule Of Thumb Number 5
- When searching online try to avoid the paid sponsored ads. Often times those ads are at the top in a shaded, lightly colored block. So you do a search for “best auto transport company” and you get paid ads AND natural “organic” search results. Those natural listings are the companies with the best websites and reputations usually. They are ranked high by the web search engines because they have been around a long time. Or maybe their “trust” ranking is very high or it may be it’s based on how many other websites look to them for the information they share. Paid listings versus natural listings vary in quality GREATLY in many many cases.Anyone can buy an advertisement from a web search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) but what you CANNOT buy is a reputation or industry trust. The best auto transport company is often times the one who doesn’t have to buy advertisements because word-of-mouth has built a customer base for them that just keeps growing.
- Best Auto Transport Company Rule Of Thumb Number 6
- On one last final note we would urge you to avoid the online transport review sites. They shop and sell their web space for advertising dollars to ANY transport that will pay them. Online transport reviews are “peppered” with reviews designed to get upset companies calling. They end up paying the review websites’ “sponsored ad” fees to have their own negative reviews removed. Don’t look for the best auto transport company in the online reviews websites. Our suggestion would be to stick with The Better Business Bureau or at the very least a website with a reputation for honest reviews.Also the review websites don’t police incoming reports. A disgruntled customer can submit anything and do it without having facts verified by the review website. Jealous competitors literally waltz in and out of these “review” and “rip-off” sites dropping all kinds of horrible reviews to destroy their competitor and gain his customers. This kinda thing happens EVERYDAY. All in all the online transport reviews are bad news…VERY bad news. Go to BBB.org. They get involved in disputes and offer unbiased information. They are a highly valued tool for you to use in the search to find the best auto transport company to ship a car.
While researching our car shipping checklist we found our friends at OldRide.com had some additional important information available
to their readers and we decided to share it with anyone visiting our site and considering a car shipping venture.
Take a peek at their Auto Transport Checklist if you like.
Another great article was posted on WIKI recently titled Choose an auto transport company
Car shipping across country can be a daunting task and that’s why our car shipping checklist will save you headaches.
At Nation Wide Discount Auto Transport we take pride in our customer service.
We look forward to assisting you in your car shipping needs.
Nation Wide Discount Auto Transport
a fully accredited auto transport BBB service
We have an A+ rating.
For a quote call 715-573-4040.
See our car shipping rates explained page to get an idea how pricing is determined in this industry.
Auto Transport BBB will get you to our A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau.
car shipping checklist