Shippers make the word go, despite what everyone thinks. If you need something from other parts of the world you will need to get someone to ship it to you and those companies with their hard workers makes our world move forward.
If there weren’t any shipping companies what do you think our lives would look like? Everything would stop and none of your stuff ordered online from different parts of the world would ever arrive. It would be a sad sight and the world would stop.
The article today does address transporters and shippers but today we are focusing on just those that do heavy and valuable cargo like cars, as you can see from the title. Now, most of us have always been intrigued about forming prices for shipping and most of us, frankly, have been annoyed by the steep delivery costs. Today we will dive a bit deeper into that topic and see what exactly drives the price higher or lower for car transport, in particular.
Many transport businesses specialize in all sorts of vehicle transport and one of those is right here. Thanks to them and others like them we can get our car shipped from across the globe with ease, speed and security we want.
But let’s dive into shipping vehicles: open vs. enclosed a bit into pricing and what affects it, shall we?!
Distance
The number one factor that affects the price of car shipping is distance. As logic would impose, the greater the distance the bigger the fee. This is normal because carriers that do these jobs have workers and fuel to pay. Another thing that goes into price calculations is the vehicle used for shipping its amortization in the process and other stuff that seem unimportant to us, the customers, but
affect the overall price in a really big way. Most businesses, like this one here, operate based on a per-mile basis with a few other factors big and small that were already mentioned. Total distance and mileage are the biggest price factor and you have to have that in mind.
Type of transportation
When we say a type of transportation, we mean the trailer that your car will be driven on, to your destination. Car carriers offer two types of trailers for transport – open and closed trailers. Now open trailers are a lot cheaper and the reason for that is that open trailers can haul much more cars. Again, depending on the trailer of course, but they generally store more vehicles on open trailers than they can in closed. An average on the open trailer is anywhere from 7 to 10 cars. Closed trailers will guard your car a bit better but keep in mind that closed trailers can’t haul more than 7 cars at most so there is a difference that the carrier has to take into consideration since the haul is smaller. When it comes to pricing you can expect that closed trailers will be nearly double the price per mile vs the open trailers.
Remote locations
Now for some reason, haulers do not like remote locations or any other that are anywhere difficult to reach, turn around and navigate safely. When it comes to safety you have to understand that part because that business needs to take care of their workers’ safety, their equipment safety and everything else tied to that. If you are living somewhere remote like the middle of nowhere country you will pay a bit more than anyone else that is easier to get to. This also goes for hauls that are bound north, especially in the winter. The prices will vary when these factors are considered and being anywhere off the beaten path means you will have to pay a bit extra. One thing to consider here is that not all remote locations will have to pay extra for car deliveries as long as they are anywhere near a major freeway.
Brokers
Now when you buy your car and order it to be shipped to you, you have to expect some sort of brokerage on that delivery. According to some info, brokers add from 5 to 20% on the shipping price on almost any delivery so this is another factor to take into consideration. So if you get a $1 per mile bill on your shipment just know that that shipment cost around 90 cents per mile to the truck and that somewhere between 5 and 20%, or in this case 10%, went to the brokers.
State of the vehicle
This also plays the role of the price included in the car deliveries. If you order delivery for the car that doesn’t run and that needs help getting on the trailer you can be sure that it will be counted in the end price for the delivery. Cars that are running and driving will be much cheaper to deliver than those that have to be either towed up the trailer or placed on top of the trailer, or anything else in between. So, any work extra besides turning the key and driving it up the trailer ramp gets billed back.
Gas prices
Now, this is probably the most obvious factor besides the distance, but people tend to forget that haulers also pay gas at the same prices as we. So, if someone, a month ago, had a cheaper delivery of their car then you do know it has got to have something to do with the fuel price. Haulers have to watch these prices very carefully because maintaining the same pricing when fuel is cheap and when it raises in price means that they are going in a huge minus. With driver wages, truck and trailer maintenance, something like fuel prices have to be watched very carefully.
Insurance
Now car delivery companies have some sort of insurance at the moment of accepting your delivery. They have standard insurance for your cargo, for their drivers, trucks, trailers and everything in between. What you need to know is that there are also special insurances that you are offered that also impact the price of the delivery. These additional insurances are not something you need to buy and you can stick with their standard ones, but since it is a valuable and frangible cargo it would be a good idea to protect it as much as you can because you never know what can happen on a long open road.
