Ship a car from Florida to New York

This lane is mostly people going home. New Yorkers who wintered in Boca Raton, Palm Beach, Naples or Sarasota send the car back up to Manhattan, Queens, Long Island or Westchester and fly LaGuardia or JFK. The rest of the year it carries a steadier mix: Floridians relocating for work in the city, students heading to school in the Northeast, and cars bought from Florida dealers or private sellers.

Depending on where the car starts, it's roughly 950 to 1,300 miles. From Jacksonville it's the shortest run; from Miami-Dade or the southern Gulf Coast, the longest. That's three or four long days behind the wheel if you drive it yourself, and that's before you deal with the New Jersey Turnpike. If the car came down with us in the fall, the trip south is covered on New York to Florida.

From the Atlantic side, the route is I-95 almost the whole way: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm, the Space Coast, Jacksonville, then Savannah, the Carolinas, Richmond, the Washington and Baltimore beltways, Delaware and the New Jersey Turnpike into the city. Cars from Naples, Fort Myers, Sarasota or Tampa usually start on I-75 and join the I-95 corridor in north Florida or Georgia, which is why Gulf Coast pickups often sit at the front of a carrier's load.

The pinch points are at the northern end. Carriers plan around the Washington and Baltimore rush hours and the approaches to the George Washington Bridge and Verrazzano, so the final stretch into the city tends to be scheduled for early morning. Tolls on the turnpikes and bridges are part of the carrier's cost and are already in your all-in price.

Northbound demand starts building in mid-March and peaks through April, especially the weeks around Easter and Passover. A second wave comes in May, from owners who stay until Mother's Day or leave before Florida's heat and the start of hurricane season on June 1. In those weeks there are far more cars heading north than south, so northbound truck space is the scarce part.

• Book in February for an April pickup. If you shipped south with us, book the return when you book the fall trip.
• Give a pickup range of three or four days. One fixed date in Easter week costs more to secure.
• Outside spring, especially June through October, northbound space is easy to find and pickups tend to be quick.

An open carrier is the right call for most cars on this lane. The trip is three to five days of interstate, and by April there's no road salt on I-95. Expect a film of spring pollen and some rain; a wash at the other end takes care of it.

Enclosed is worth it if the car is a convertible or classic that lives in Florida for the winter, if it has fresh paint, or if it simply doesn't belong on an open deck. Enclosed trucks are fewer, and in April they book up as fast as everything else, so reserve enclosed transport early.

Spring pickups are often arranged so the car leaves after you do. That's fine, as long as someone you've authorized is on hand to release the keys and sign off on the inspection: a neighbor, a property manager, or a building's front desk if it will do it. Tell us who in advance and they'll get the driver's call.

• Gated golf and country club communities in Palm Beach County, Naples and Sarasota often require the carrier to be cleared at the gatehouse ahead of time, or a handoff outside. The Naples guide covers how that works.
• Oceanfront condos in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Miami Beach rarely have room for a car carrier at the entrance, so the car is loaded on a nearby wide street. See Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
• Single-family homes in places like Port St. Lucie, Jupiter or Palm Coast are usually the simplest pickups on the lane.

The New York end takes more planning than the Florida end. A loaded car hauler can't get into a building garage, can't stop for long on a Manhattan cross street, and isn't allowed on the city's parkways at all. Commercial vehicles are barred from roads like the Belt, Grand Central, Hutchinson River and the Long Island parkways. Where the driver can meet you depends on the borough:

• Manhattan: expect to meet on a wide avenue early in the morning, then drive the car into your garage yourself or hand the keys to the attendant.
• Brooklyn and Queens: brownstone and row-house blocks are usually too tight, so pick a spot near the BQE, the LIE or a commercial strip.
• The Bronx and Staten Island: generally easier, with more room on the streets off the expressways.
• Long Island and Westchester: the truck runs the LIE, the Northern State is off-limits, and I-87 and I-287 are the routes north of the city. Choose a meeting point reachable from them, like a shopping-center lot near an exit.

If alternate-side parking is in effect on your block, plan where the car goes right after delivery. Our New York page has more detail by borough.