Car shipping in New York

New York sends more cars south each fall than almost anywhere else in the Northeast. Retirees and part-year residents head for Florida after the leaves turn, and the same cars come back up I-95 in spring. Year-round, people relocating to the Sun Belt or the West Coast keep the outbound lanes busy.

What makes New York different isn't the distance. It's the street. A full-size car carrier is a tractor-trailer, the city restricts big trucks to designated truck routes, and most blocks in Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn were never built for one. Door-to-door here means the driver gets as close to your address as city rules and the street allow, and we work out exactly where that is before pickup day.

We arrange pickup and delivery in all five boroughs and across Long Island and Westchester. Each area has its own habits, and the note next to each one is what usually decides where the car meets the truck:

The busiest lane by far runs south on I-95. New York to Florida peaks from October through December, with most cars going to Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade, the Gulf Coast around Naples and Sarasota, or the Orlando area. The mirror image, Florida to New York, fills up in April and May when snowbirds come home.

The other big outbound pattern is cross-country. New York to California is a classic relocation move, often booked around a new job or a school year. If your car is in North Jersey or just over the bridge, the New Jersey to Florida lane works the same way, and it can be simpler to meet a carrier on the Jersey side.

Most New York pickups end up at a meeting point rather than a front door, and that's normal. These are the situations that come up most:

• Attended garages. If your car lives in a Manhattan garage, tell the attendant the pickup time a day ahead and confirm they'll have the car out. Many garages stack cars and can't release one in five minutes. You (or someone you've named) drive it to the meeting spot and hand it over.
• Truck routes. The driver has to stay on the city's designated truck routes until the last stretch, so expect to meet on an avenue or a wide commercial street, not your side block.
• Parkways. Commercial vehicles are banned from New York's parkways: the Belt, the Henry Hudson, the Hutch, the Saw Mill, and Long Island's Northern and Southern State. On Long Island the truck comes out the LIE or the Cross Island's service roads, so a meeting point near an LIE exit is often fastest.
• Alternate-side parking. Don't count on the driver waiting while you circle for a spot. Have the car parked legally near the meeting point, or bring it straight from the garage.
• Smaller trucks. For tight Manhattan or Brooklyn pickups, some carriers send a smaller two- or three-car truck to collect the car and transfer it to the long-haul rig outside the core. Ask us if your street is especially tight.

Take your own photos before the car leaves the garage, in daylight if you can. Garage lighting hides a lot.

New York's calendar for car shipping is set by snowbirds. Southbound demand on I-95 climbs through October and peaks between early November and the week before Thanksgiving, then stays busy until the holidays. If you want the car in Florida before Thanksgiving, book four to six weeks ahead and give us a pickup window rather than a single morning.

The return trip clusters after Easter and through May, often around the Memorial Day weekend. Northbound space out of South Florida gets tight then, so book the spring pickup when you book the fall one. In winter, a nor'easter can slow pickups for a day or two. Our snowbird car shipping page covers the round trip in detail.

Most New Yorkers ship the car a few days before they fly, so it arrives around the same time they do. Schedule pickup first and book the flight around it: