Car shipping pricing, explained

There's no rate card for shipping a car, because the price is really the cost of a specific spot on a specific truck heading a specific direction on a specific week. Carriers price that spot by the mile, and the rate per mile falls as the trip gets longer: a 300-mile hop costs more per mile than a 2,500-mile crossing, even though the long trip costs more in total. Everything else adjusts that base.

We quote one all-in figure for your shipment rather than a base rate plus a list of surcharges. The sections below explain what pushes that figure up or down, so you can see where you have choices.

Most cars ship on open carriers, the two-level trailers that deliver new cars to dealerships. They're plentiful, so they're the baseline price. Enclosed carriers protect the car from weather and road debris, but they carry fewer vehicles and there are fewer of them on the road, so the same trip costs more and may take longer to schedule. The right question isn't "is enclosed worth it?" in general; it's whether this particular car, on this particular trip, needs it.

Car shipping follows the calendar. From October through December, trucks heading to Florida and Arizona fill with snowbird cars, and the same trucks head north nearly empty, which is why the return direction can be cheaper in the fall and dearer in April. Summer brings relocations and college moves. January and February are quieter nationally, except for the winter-visitor states. If your dates are flexible, moving a shipment a few weeks off a peak can change the price. If they aren't, booking early is how you keep options.

• Transport from the pickup address to the delivery address, or the nearest point a car carrier can safely reach.
• The carrier's cargo insurance while your vehicle is in its care, with the carrier's authority and insurance checked before dispatch.
• Standard loading and unloading, including winch loading when you've told us the car doesn't run.
• On trips between Canada and the US, the customs handling at the border.
• Support from quote to delivery, from people who can see your shipment.

What it doesn't include: anything you didn't tell us about. An undisclosed lift kit, a car that turns out not to start, or an address a truck can't reach can change the price on pickup day. The fix is simple: describe the car and the location accurately, and the quote holds.

You'll see quotes online that are far lower than everyone else's. Sometimes that's a real bargain on a lane with spare capacity. More often it's a price no carrier will accept, posted to win the booking. The shipment sits unassigned while the customer waits, and the price climbs to what the market actually was, or the pickup window quietly slips.

We don't position ourselves as the cheapest. We quote what it takes to get your car on a truck in your window, explain what moves the number, and let you decide what's worth paying for. If a lower price elsewhere comes with a written pickup window and a named carrier, take it seriously. If it doesn't, ask what happens when no truck accepts it. The cost guide goes deeper on all of this.