Any advice on shipping a truck?!

Need help!!!!

Just bought a tacoma in San Diego, CA and I'm in Chattanooga, TN. I called a shipping company and they quoted me at $890 to ship it, I said DEAL! Well if anyone is unaware of how the shipping works, they basically take a brokerage fee (in this case $140) and they offer the truck a certain amount of money to ship it (in this case $750).

Well I called another shipping company because United Auto Transport is a complete joke and doesn't answer the phone!!!! That company said they listed my truck to low and no one will ship it for that price.

I listed it with this new company (Cascade shipping) and their broker fee is $235 and they started out offering the truck $850, which puts me at $1,085. Well got no bites there so now I'm offering the truck $900, which puts me at $1,135...

And with all that said I think I'm gonna be sick. I know I know, I should have known all this info before purchasing. But It seems like I'm at the mercy of the truck drivers, yet I have no idea how much it's gonna cost me for someone to pick it up...

Any advice?

 

Put it up on that website they use on shipping wars. Let them bid it out.

 

get some plates and an airline ticket and go drive it home

 

X2 that's what I would do.

 

Website is uship.com i believe.

X3

 

X3

Road Trip!!!

 

uship.com

 

Yep - uShip. I've actually used them to ship a VW CC, 4runner, and 2 motorcycles. All arrived fine!

 

Just cost me 550 to have a vehicle shipped from Texas to Georgia your probably looking at $1000 easy from California to TN. I would look up plane tickets and add the cost of gas plus food if its cheaper to drive it back and thats what is most important to you is the money take a vacation and a road trip!

 

This.

 

Btw, the VW I bought was from Cali and shipped to Atlanta. $900. Open transport.

 

Yes, I'll send you a check for $1000 over the price + shipping, my associates will meet you... and so on. They do it all the time.

 

Is driving it back an option for you, if say you were to fly out there? What are the gas and airline fees? Do you have the time? Is it driveable? Last do you have transportation from airport to truck?

 

you can fly me out to cali and ill drive it back for you, then you can drive me back here to georgia.

priceline name your own price ftw

 

Vehicle is driveable, but I was told maintenance on a truck is about $.55/mile. at 2,200 miles that's $1,200 plus a plane ticket and 3 days of my time/food/etc... Doesn't seem like the cheap option...

 

I'll check into uship, but what i'm concerned about is if the vehicle gets posted on the same board that all the brokers post it on.

The brokers say if you start double booking things it makes it more difficult to get it picked up...

If I put it on uship, are there any fees? Or do I just start the auction at the price I want, and let them bid it down to whatever then just pay the driver that fee?

 

this.

I bought my truck out of state, got a one way ticket, flew there and drove it home.

 

it wouldnt be all that bad. eat cheap. when he gets there he could buy a $4 gas station cooler, ice, bread, ham, and a case of water. thats like 15 bucks total. he would be good. eat 3-4 sandwiches a day and your set. sleep at rest stops along the interstate.

 

uship does have fees.

 

I won't count the few times the military shipped my POV around, but since I retired I have used one company five times, Nationwide Auto Transport.

Shipping cars is almost like trading oil. They have brokers and bids. It's that simple.

Your price sounds right for that far on an open carrier.

I used Nationwide to ship:
- a stock Jeep on an open carrier from Chicago to DC
- that same jeep built, lifted, etc, from S. GA to N. AL, again open carrier
- a sports car (S2000) from S. GA to N. AL, closed
- an econobox from DC to S. GA (open)
- same econobox from N. AL to MD

In the last case, the Yaris rode in a luxury car carrier becuase the guy who bid it was heading back to PA from a SoCal Ferrari delivery with an empty trailer

I hear the east coast market is inflated a little right now due to the sell of of Superstorm Sandy cars. But, your price sounds reasonable.

I've never had a problem with any of the haulers. All of them did what they were paid to do and I never had a complaint. You get what you pay for, and some of that cost goes to subsidise the risk.