When we’re moving or travelling to a faraway place, figuring out how to get there is often one of the more difficult parts of the equation. When we also have to factor in the fact that we have to move our car, too, well…it can be a bit of a hassle, to put it lightly. There are plenty of options available to move them, but it isn’t always easy.
If you’re not sure what sort of thing you’d like to go for there, that’s understandable. While we can certainly go for a long road trip and drive the vehicle there ourselves, this tends not to be the best option in a lot of circumstances. To say that it can get expensive is probably an understatement, really – you can look at some cost estimates for road trips here: https://www.rd.com/article/road-trip-cost/.
What can we do if we don’t want to go that route, then? Well, one of the most popular options is car shipping. For anyone not familiar with it, that’s what we’ll be covering today.
How it Works
Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to get a car shipped once you make the decision to. The first thing that you’ll want to do is ensure that you’ve got your registry details and some personal ID to provide to the shipping company. From there, you can turn your attention to some of the other preparations.
One of the big ones is to clear out anything that you have in your car – mostly referring to personal belongings, of course, but if there’s any trash then it certainly doesn’t hurt to remove that as well. The goal here is to ensure that once you drop your vehicle off with your car shipping services, you won’t have to worry about any extra weight thanks to stuff being left inside.
It’s typically also recommended that you wash the outside of your car before you drop it off. Now, that might seem strange at first. Why waste time with that when there’s a chance it’ll get dirty while in transit?
Well, the main reason is to help with categorizing damages that already exist before you send it off. For example, if there’s a scratch in the paint or a dent on one of the doors, you can take pictures of that and take note of it for when you’re examining your car once you get it back. That way, if anything did happen during the journey, you’ll have proof of the difference between the before and after photos.
Once you’ve done all of that, you can also start to consider what sorts of shipping options you actually want to use! After all, you can go for an enclosed trailer or an open air one – both are viable choices. The difference will be in how much protection or coverage there is for your car during the shipping process. Enclosed trailers do tend to be a bit more expensive, so keep that in mind as you make your decision.
Is it Worth it?
Of course, the biggest question that people have when it comes to this is whether or not it’s worth it in the long term. Because of articles like this one, it’s fair to be concerned about this. After all, a lot of us are pinching the pennies to some extent right now, and adding on additional expenses during a big move is the last thing that we want to do.
The thing is, because of how expensive gas is and the fact that if you drive the car yourself, you’ll be taking on hotel or motel costs as well as meal expenses, often the shipping option will be less expensive overall. So, in a lot of cases, it’s hard to argue against the fact that it’s worth it. However, if you’re only going fifteen miles down the road, then obviously it’s not.
Really, everyone will have to decide for themselves whether or not it’s worth it for them to use car shipping services or not. Because of how different the cost can look based on weight of the vehicle, size, and even the shipping options that you pick , it’s hard to give a one-size fits all answer here.
That being said, it’s certainly a more accessible option these days than it has been in the past. So, if it was something that interested you before but you weren’t sure how to find a depot that offered these services, you’re in luck now! Thanks to the internet, we can find locations close to us pretty much any time that we want.
With some planning and a bit of foresight, you can make this process quite easy on yourself. It can definitely make moving less stressful too, or just save you the car rental fees on a vacation!
