Multi-car shipping

Most households own two or more cars, and most moves involve all of them. Maybe one of you is driving and the other car needs to ship, or maybe nobody wants to drive 1,200 miles twice. Snowbird couples often keep two cars in the south. A teenager's first car joins the family move. Collectors move a garage in stages. Each of these is a multi-car shipment, and each one plans a little differently.

You make one request, list every vehicle, and we build the plan: which ones can ride together, which ones should go separately, and what the timing looks like for each. You get one point of contact for the whole thing, not a separate conversation per car.

Putting every car on one carrier sounds simplest, and when it works, it is. But it needs two or more open slots on the same truck, going the same way, on the same days. That's easy to find on a busy lane in a quiet month, and harder in peak season. Here's how we weigh it:

• Same pickup and delivery address: the best case for one truck. One stop at each end, one inspection appointment, both cars arrive together.
• Different pickup addresses: if your cars are in two cities (say, one at home and one at a college or a second residence), separate carriers are often faster than routing one truck to both.
• Different transport types: a classic that should go enclosed and a daily driver that's fine open will usually travel on different trucks. Paying enclosed rates for both rarely makes sense.
• A firm date for one car only: if one vehicle has to be there by a specific day and the other can follow, splitting them keeps you from paying rush pricing on both.

1. 1

   List every vehicle

   Year, make and model for each, whether each one runs, and any you'd like kept together.

2. 2

   We propose a plan

   Together, split, or a mix, with the reasoning and the expected timing for each car.

3. 3

   Pickup and inspection per vehicle

   Every car gets its own condition report on the bill of lading, even when they share a truck. Check each one at delivery before signing.

Each vehicle is priced for its own size, condition and transport type. What changes with a multi-car booking is efficiency: two cars loaded at one stop and unloaded at another take less of the carrier's time than two separate pickups, and that's reflected in how the job is quoted. The things that move every quote still apply to each car.

For the general picture of what drives car shipping prices, see our guide to how much it costs to ship a car.

Cars sharing a truck arrive together, usually on the same day. Cars split across carriers can arrive days apart, sometimes in a different order than they left. That's fine for most families, as long as it's planned: decide which car you need first and we'll prioritize it.

Household moves have one more moving part, the moving company. A common pattern is to keep one car until the movers have loaded the house, ship it last, and have the first car delivered just after you arrive. Our transit-time guide has typical day ranges by distance to help you line it up.

• Label the keys. One set per car, tagged with the make and model, so the driver isn't guessing in the driveway.
• Photograph each car separately on pickup day, every panel plus the odometer.
• Empty every car. It's tempting to use the second car as a moving box, but personal items aren't covered by cargo insurance and add weight the carrier didn't plan for.
• Leave about a quarter tank in each and confirm each one starts, steers and brakes, or tell us which ones don't.
• Name one person per address to hand over and receive the cars. If the cars are registered to different people, that's fine; whoever is there signs each inspection.
• Remove toll transponders and parking tags from every vehicle.

• Snowbird couples with two cars. Lanes like New Jersey to Florida and New York to Florida see plenty of two-car households, with the trip home on Florida to New York in spring. Book early; two slots on the same truck in November go fast.
• Relocations paid for by an employer. If a company is covering the move, our corporate relocation service handles invoicing and coordination with HR.
• Small batches for businesses. Dealers and fleet managers moving a handful of units can use dealer and auction transport, which is built around release numbers and lot hours.
• A mix of running and non-running vehicles. The project car can come too. It just needs a winch, and that decides which truck it can ride on.