Car shipping in Fort Lauderdale

Miami gets the headlines, but Broward County is where much of South Florida's winter population settles, and a lot of it comes from New York and New Jersey: the condo towers on the Galt Ocean Mile and in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the canal homes off Las Olas, and the 55+ communities stretching west toward the Everglades. Add year-round relocations from the Northeast and the Midwest, and Broward keeps carriers busy well beyond the winter months.

Fort Lauderdale also sits where I-95 meets I-595, which connects west to I-75 and Alligator Alley. Carriers coming down either Florida corridor can reach it without a detour, which tends to make scheduling easier.

We cover the whole county, plus the southern end of Palm Beach County. Each area comes with its own truck-access quirks:

I-95 is Broward's main supply line. New York to Florida and New Jersey to Florida are busy almost year-round, with moves from Queens, Long Island, Bergen County and the Jersey Shore. Boston to Florida peaks in late fall. Many households here ship two cars, or one car each way at different times of year, and our snowbird car shipping service is built for that.

Broward also has a long-standing French-Canadian winter community, centered on Hollywood Beach and Hallandale. Those cars come down on Montreal to Florida under the nonresident rules on our Canada to US page.

Broward's delivery challenges are mostly about where a big rig can legally and safely stop. What works:

• Don't plan on unloading on A1A. The beach road is narrow in places and lined with bike lanes, so drivers won't block it. For Galt Ocean Mile and Hallandale towers, we pick a side street or a nearby lot, and you drive the car the last block. Ask your building whether guests can use its drive for a few minutes.
• The Las Olas Isles are dead ends. The finger streets between the canals have no room to turn a long trailer, so the meeting point is usually on Las Olas Boulevard or another through street nearby.
• Check the gate rules at large 55+ communities. Places like the Century Villages in Pembroke Pines and Deerfield Beach and Kings Point in Tamarac run their own gate procedures. Ask the office whether a car carrier can come in, or plan to meet just outside.
• Avoid Harbor Beach on busy cruise days. Port Everglades traffic can back up the 17th Street Causeway and the roads around the port.
• Our door-to-door service means the driver comes as close as the rig can get. In Broward that's usually within a block or two of your door.

Most snowbird cars reach Broward between early November and Christmas and leave again from late March through April, which is when trucks on the I-95 lanes out of New York and New Jersey are fullest. Book in September or early October for a November arrival. Relocations, by contrast, run all year and are easiest to schedule in late spring and summer.

Two local events are worth planning around. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, usually in late October or early November, brings heavy traffic near the beach and the marinas. Spring break in March crowds the beach roads again. Summer is quiet, apart from daily thunderstorms and the June 1 to November 30 hurricane season.

Broward is unusual in having three airline airports within reach. Pick the one closest to where you'll be staying, and line delivery up for the first or second morning after you land: