Does anyone know of any RELIABLE shippers. I need to move my cars from Indiana to Las Vegas and the horror story reviews I’m reading online are terrible!

 

I personally don't know anyone as I asked dealers for their preferred transporter that had a minimum of 500,000 in Cargo insurance and requested proof of insurance.

 

I have he’d good experience using Exotic out of Orlando and with Reliable.

 

Thanks for the info guy....second time someone mentioned Reliable.

 

Excellent experiences with Intercity. I ship cars long distances quite regularly.

Worst experience with Plycar.

 

I went through this obnoxious hunt for a reputable shipper when I bought my GT. It was in Pennsylvania, not near a convenient airport and too far for me to want to drive.

Here is what I figured out (this does not apply to MTO's above post about Intercity. Intercity is an actual transporter and have a good reputation and charge a significant premium)

1. There is a "working" message board that you (we) don't have access to. Brokers post origin/destination and an offer price. If it's on a busy route, it will get chosen. If it isn't, it won't.
2. There isn't really a "market rate" for shipping. Again, if it's something convenient, like when a shipper is returning from a drop-off, they might pick up your car for a song. On the other side, if it's a special, and long, trip, they won't pick it up for anything under crazy high rates, because they don't want to deadhead back.
3. 100% of the ads for car shipping, including the "not terrible ripoff" ones are just middlemen trying to see you their access to this message board. Some are more honest than others, but in the end, you're not hiring a company, you're posting an offer to hire an independent (either open or enclosed) who is not related to the broker who is putting your info up on the board. Glossy websites, "cost estimators" and all that are all fake; the only thing that happens is your car and origin/destination gets posted on this message board. Hopefully, the broker will double check insurance and such. That's pretty standard, I doubt any broker is better at this than any other. I guess some brokers may be familiar with some transporters, but it seems like the overwhelming majority of transporters are one-man shows, so insurance will always be iffy.
4. I found what seemed to be the most middle-of-the-road folks to post my job. I had been talking to a very aggressive other broker, but I got turned off and went with the more predictable one. Aggressive broker was pissed and let me know, he saw my transport posted on the message board and knew he lost a sale.
5. What I think happens is they estimate how much it will cost, in my case, $1,000. They then offer it for $600, if someone picks it up, they pocket the $400 difference. Remember, they're brokers, so they're like used car salesmen, they'll take what you're willing to pay.
6. I don't have the email tree on this computer, I'll try to dig it up. But I thought I was going to get it done for something reasonable, then I realized that all these brokers that were trying to maximize their profits were keeping a chunk. What happens if you under-offer, is that the transport offer on the message board sits there and doesn't get picked up. So if you go to the broker with the most aggressive website and price estimate, you're probably just buying a long wait until you up the ante.
7. There seems to be zero control over when the car gets picked up and when it gets dropped off. The car gets picked up when the transport stops to pick it up, it gets dropped off once the transport has dropped his other cars and stops by. I had VERY specific instructions, I knew I had to be in town so there was a specific window. They put it on the job description, but it wasn't paid any attention to. Car showed up at 9:30 at night in the rain with about six hours notice.
8. My transport was a long trailer and a big Ford pickup. Nice driver, took good care of the car, it was tied down very well, I didn't have any complaints about him. The broker gave me the transport driver's cell number about halfway through the transport, so the broker wasn't particularly useful, other than posting the trip.

All-in-all, I think I paid about double what the "request free quote" sites quoted, not that they actually quote, they just take all your info as a lead-generator and give it to the broker, who in many cases may be some dude in his underwear smoking cigarettes in his trailer trying to score $200 at a time by getting between you and the guy with the pickup truck and trailer.

Lastly, get started early and accept the fact that you're going to have to be extremely flexible about your times. You're going to have to be flexible about when it gets picked up, how long it's in transit and when it gets dropped off.

It's an extremely underdeveloped industry, but once you understand you're just paying some dude with access to post your trip and offered price to a message board you don't have access to, it takes the stress out of the whole thing. It is what it is. And, assuming the broker doesn't just pocket the premium, offering more gets better service. A transporter might not make a four-hour detour to pick up your car for an extra $50, but he might for $200, so there could be a huge difference between offering $750 and $900. Or in your case, $1,700 versus $2,100.

Why are you shipping your car to Vegas, anyway?

 

Thanks British. Yes I’ve been looking for a while now and I’m getting the low ball $600-750 range but when I actually talk to a broker is jumps to $1000+. I’ve been on a lot of review sites for all the company’s that’s been emailing and texting me and I honestly don’t see how this industry isn’t regulated with all the scamming that’s going on.Haulers asking for more money once they are at the drop off point. No window of pick up or drop off times as you stated. Ppl taking off work for the day only to waste it. I honestly think the brokers are in cahoots with drivers at some point. It’s crazy.

I’m moving to Vegas once I finish painting the last 3 rooms and the house sells. Wife been out there for a month working and getting the business off the ground.

 

Vegas is 2,000 miles away, I don't think there's a chance in the world you'll get it done for less than $1,000, $.50-$1.00/mile seems to be the range. They'll post it, but that doesn't mean it will be picked up. I offered what I thought was a fair price and it still took a week or so for it to get picked up.

I'll see if I can dig up the broker I used. They were fine, they had a good reputation and didn't rip me off as far as I know. I mean, they just posted my offer on the message board and notified me when it got accepted, then later notified me when the car got picked up (already knew it, dealer emailed me that it was picked up). Later they told me the day it was arriving, then sent me the transporter's cell number, which took them out of the customer service game, for what that was worth, which was not much.

It all worked out ok, but I want to warn anyone who is reading that you aren't directly hiring a vendor, where you could check reputation, and be able to interact directly with their customer service/driver. Nope, you just have a broker who can then call them with a question and call you back. I didn't get the driver's info until the very last minute, which I'm sure was on purpose.

 

I’ll second intercity but last I used them was several years ago.

more recently I had a 25’ boat shipped ‘water to water’ and used UShip.

Great price, and no problems. Most of the folks here are independents, so you will have to really vet the reviews of those who respond. If you are near a major interstate like route 80 as is your drop off point, you will get more responses.