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Classic car transport
Two things separate a classic from an ordinary shipment: it often does not run, and its value is not what a standard cargo policy assumes.
A classic is priced by a collector market and an appraiser, not by a depreciation table, and that gap is the whole problem with shipping one. Condition here is not a question of scratches but of originality. A panel can always be made to look new again; the car is worth less once it has been.
Enclosed carriage is common here, and so is a car that will not drive onto the deck under its own power, often the same car, so the estimate beside this text carries each of them. The rest of the risk is settled on paper before the truck arrives: whose policy values the car at what it is worth, and whether the marks it already wears are written down as history rather than as damage.
| What it is | Who it protects | In our directory |
|---|---|---|
| Broker surety bond | The shipper, against the broker failing financially | 625 of 626 brokers |
| Carrier cargo policy | The vehicle, while the carrier has it | 2,401 of 3,009 companies |
| Your own auto policy | Usually nothing in transit — check before you assume | — |
| Bill of lading | Both, as the record a claim is decided on | signed at each end |
Counts from the FMCSA Licensing & Insurance register, covering 2,383 companies with carrier authority. A bond is not insurance on your car, and the two are routinely conflated in this industry.
Agreed value and actual cash value are not the same promise
A carrier's cargo policy is written for ordinary cars and settles at actual cash value, a depreciated figure that is the wrong measure for a car that has been appreciating since it left the factory. A collector policy with an agreed value settles instead at the figure you and your insurer put on the declarations page, the only valuation anywhere that reflects what the car is. Whether it follows the car onto someone else's truck is a question for your own insurer, answered in writing, before the pickup date: collector policies are written around a car that stays garaged. Our insurance page covers the carrier's certificate and how to read it.
What stops a stored car is almost never the engine
The classics that fail at the ramp have been standing, and the engine is seldom what fails. Brakes seize to the drums and the car will not roll. A clutch rusts to the flywheel and will not release. A fuel system left standing turns to varnish. A carburetor that catches in a warm garage is no promise it will restart on a cold ramp in another state. Declare it as non-running if there is doubt. A winch is priced on the estimate beside this text; a car manhandled onto a deck because nobody expected to need one is not, and what that leaves cannot be repaired back into originality.
An adjuster cannot tell patina from damage
Get the marks the car already carries written onto the bill of lading, in words, before it loads: the chips, the checked lacquer, the crazing, the edge where the finish has gone thin. Nobody reading a claim afterwards can tell an old chip from a new one, and what went unwritten at pickup is arguable, and arguable settles the carrier's way. The repair side of that same form is the part that stings. Original finish is not a body-shop line item. A blend and a respray put the panel right and remove the thing the car was valued for, and no damage estimate carries that loss.
Questions people ask
I bought it at auction and won't be there when it is collected. Who releases it?
Name the person who will release it at the time you book, whether that is the auction's shipping desk, a consignor or a storage yard, and give the driver a number that gets answered. Whoever hands the car over signs the bill of lading, and their signature is all the pickup condition report is worth, so send them in advance what you want written on it.
The original wheels and a box of correct trim came with the car. Can they ride in it?
Ask the company you book before you load anything, and expect a qualified yes for what fits in the trunk. The catch is that a carrier's cargo policy covers the vehicle and not the contents, so a set of date-coded wheels riding in the back travels uninsured while the car around them does not. Parts you could never find again are better sent separately and insured as what they are.
How much fuel should be in it, and what about the battery?
Low, enough to drive on and off and no more, since fuel is weight the carrier is not paid to haul and a fume risk inside a closed trailer. Disconnect the ground, or show the driver the cutoff switch and put it in writing. Leave written instructions for everything he cannot guess: a choke procedure, a hidden kill switch, a column shift, a door that opens only from the inside.
Can the driver chain it down by the frame?
Ask before it is on the ramp. Many classics have no factory tie-down points, and a hook on an old frame rail, a bumper bracket or a chrome overrider bends what it grabs. Straps over the tires hold the car down by its wheels, so nothing is pulled against the suspension and nothing is hooked to the chassis, which is what you want, but not every trailer is rigged for them, so say so when you book rather than arguing at the curb.
Where is the car going?
Two ZIP codes. No account, no obligation.
Other things people ask about
Enclosed car transport
A closed trailer costs more than an open one. How much more depends on distance, and it moves the opposite way to what most quotes imply.
Military car shipping
A PCS move lands in the same weeks as everyone else's summer move, which is the single biggest thing working against the price.
Door to door car shipping
Almost every quote you will get is door to door. Terminal service still exists, and it is worth knowing when it is actually cheaper.
Luxury car shipping
A modern high-value car is not priced as a luxury; it is priced as a large vehicle in a closed trailer. Those are two separate multipliers.
The cheapest way to ship a car
Four levers change a car shipping price by a meaningful amount. Everything else you will read about saves nothing.
Car shipping insurance
A broker's bond and a carrier's cargo policy are different things that protect different people. Conflating them is the most common error in this industry.