Ship a Car Direct Blog

We know you want to pack your car before shipping it. Everyone planning to ship a car across country full of stuff assumes it would be an easy way to save costs on moving. Unfortunately, we can’t recommend loading your car with stuff before shipping it on an open carrier. We occasionally receive pictures from our drivers of what customers want to include during their transport. Don’t be like these folks. It will actually cost you more in the long run: in funds, in drama, and/or delays.

Your car shipping quote is priced for an empty vehicle. As we mentioned in a previous blog post, the weight of a vehicle effects how much gas is required to transport it. Even if you only want to include a few bulky items, it adds up.  If every vehicle on the auto hauler has a few items, the total weight load is significantly increased throughout the transport. A driver may be willing to transport your vehicle with some items in it for an additional fee, but we can’t negotiate or guarantee the charge in advance for you.

But let’s be practical, leaving items in the car may increase the risk of theft. When your car is on the open carrier, anything visible in your vehicle is visible to every vehicle the truck passes. While your vehicle is insured during transport, items left in the vehicle are not covered. You may be willing to risk theft, but your driver may not want to take the gamble on your behalf – and he’d be most affected by any incident.

Most importantly, though, your driver has to be able to load your car safely on and off the hauler. When a car is packed, luggage obstructs his view. If the truck arrives to the pick-up location and finds your car packed to the ceiling, your driver will ask you to remove items or he will have to refuse to load your vehicle. (And even if he doesn’t load your vehicle, he is entitled to compensation for making the trip to your location.)

It’s less hassle to leave your vehicle empty of belongings. Leaving stuff in your car may accrue additional surcharges, or it may invite theft, or it may cause your driver to refuse your load. If you have any follow-up questions about leaving stuff in your car for car shipping, give us a call: 866-221-1664.

The number one question most customers have is “Can I Ship a Car with items inside?”

Well here are the facts, along with some guidelines to help you.

First comes the bad news (of course), which is that the FMCSA (i.e. the licensing board for ALL car shipping companies) strictly states that no car carrier (or broker) is allowed to ship a car with items inside.

But, like anything else, that doesn’t mean that people (and car carriers) don’t do it.

It is definitely possible to do, but you need to be careful if you want to avoid any extra charges.

The general rule of thumb is; keep the items out of sight and under 100lbs.

That’s the best advice of all for you to follow, especially if you are looking to avoid added costs.

The reason is this – a car carrier will burn more fuel with every extra pound that is on it’s back, so you want to keep the weight of what you put inside the car minimal.

Also, keep in mind that the truck driver has to drive your car onto the back of an 18 wheeled car hauler, possibly even up top, and then *back* it off again on delivery. So, it’s enough of an acrobatic feat as is, you don’t want to make it worse, so you want to make sure he can see out all of the windows.

The best practice is to keep the items in the trunk and light, light, light.

*IF* you can stay within those guidelines, then the chances of your being charged extra are slim to none.

But, let’s be honest – you’re reading this post because you want to put A LOT more than that in your car for transport. Right?

Well, it’s still possible, but the fact of the matter is, if it’s excessive, you may have to play a little game of “Let’s Make a Deal” with your driver on the day of pick up.

Here is the key advice for those of you in that situation – Make sure that the items in your car can be easily removed.

The reason for this is simple; if you and the driver can’t come to a reasonable agreement, you want to be able to easily remove the stuff from the car so that the driver can take it.

But here’s the number one thing working IN YOUR FAVOR – The driver has committed that space on his truck for your car, and the LAST thing he wants to do is drive away without your car on his truck, because that means he has to find something to replace it – which costs time & effort & *money*. (So he REALLY wants to strike a deal too, he just needs to cover his added expense.)

9 times out of 10 our customers are able to strike a fair bargain that leaves everyone happy, so just be smart and keep it down to the essentials when trying to ship a car with items inside.