Whether you’re moving, selling a vehicle, or taking a trip, there’s a lot of intricacies involved in shipping a car. You have to know where to find a shipping company, for one thing. From there, you’ve also got to figure out the logistics of where you need the car to end up as well as where it’ll be picked up from. Today, we’d like to explain how that process works.
Since there’s a lot to cover here, you may want to check out page like this one to get some background information first. Otherwise, let’s delve into how you can use car shipping services here in Phoenix, Arizona.
What is Car Shipping?
Naturally, the first question that we’ve got to tackle is this one. Simply put, it’s transporting an automobile for long distances using freight shipping services. Some common uses are when we decide to sell a car to a buyer who’s far away, or if we are moving and would rather fly to our destination than drive ourselves.
How Does it Work?
With the basics out of the way, the next question to think about is how the process actually works. Thankfully, it’s not too difficult to figure out. The first thing you’ll probably want to do is figure out which shipping company to work with.
As we hinted at above, though, there are plenty in the Phoenix area. Whether you’re shipping one to the city or out of it, you’ll be able to find one that suits your needs. Before committing anywhere, you may want to sort out the destination of the vehicle in question.
When you’re selling one, that shouldn’t be too difficult. Coordinate with your customer to see where the best drop-off location will be. Often with car transporters in Phoenix, they’ll offer something known as door-to-door shipping. All that means is that you don’t have to drive the vehicle to the depot, and it won’t need to be picked up either – the company will handle the transit both ways.
What other things are there to keep in mind, then? Well, preparing the car will be a bit of a project depending on how much you use it on a regular basis, so stay tuned to learn more about what you’ll want to do in that sense.
Preparing a Vehicle for Transit
As you make your plans to transport a car, the next step will be to prepare the vehicle itself. At first glance this will probably appear quite involved, but we’ll do our best to simplify it for you. The main idea is that you want to get the car as clean as possible, both inside and outside.
Why is that? There are a few reasons, and to some extent they vary depending on why you’re shipping it in the first place. However, the core reasoning does remain the same, and it’s that transit companies base the costs on how much the car weighs. The more stuff inside or outside, the more you’ll be paying.
Of course, if you’re selling it, you’ll want to clear anything and everything out of the interior. Your customer will expect that, for one thing, but you also don’t want to lose your valuables. When the driver comes to pick it up, just double check the interior for phone chargers and anything else. Some additional advice on cleaning a car can be found here: https://prettyprovidence.com/car-cleaning/.
If you’re moving and sending your vehicle there while you fly or travel by train instead, you’ll still want to empty it out. However, you’ll also want to remove anything like bicycle racks or other external storage options. These have a chance of getting lost or damaged during transit, even if it’s rare.
Is Car Shipping Worth it?
The last thing that most folks think about when they consider whether or not they want to ship a vehicle out of Phoenix is whether or not it’s worth the cost. Now, when selling, you can charge your customer for part of the transit costs, so it may not be as big of a concern in that sense. However, if you’re moving a few states away (or to Phoenix from far away), it might weigh heavily on your mind.
Realistically speaking, road trips get rather costly. From the cost of gas to having to make rest stops for food and drinks, it all adds up rather quickly. For that reason, it probably doesn’t hurt to at least compare what you’d be paying for gas and rest stops versus how much the shipping would be.
Most of the time, you’ll be able to find reasonable pricing. It’ll depend on how big the car is as well as the distance you plan to travel, of course, but that’s standard. Comparing can help you get a good gauge of costs either way!