Have you just booked your first auto transport service and do not know where to start? If your service is not booked yet, are you planning on having your car shipped sometime soon? Regardless of where you are in your shipping timeline, it is never to late to make sure your car is transport ready. Shipping a car can be a hard to navigate, especially as a first timer. It may seem overwhelming to you, especially as it can be hard to know what your responsibility is compared to your shipping team’s responsibility. There is some good news here to know! Most of the hard work falls under your shipping team’s responsibility! Any of the work we ask you to do is broken down simply in this guide for you!

Wash Your Car

We know, we know, it sounds silly to have to wash your car before you ship it. However, we assure you there is a good reason! Washing your car prior to a shipment allows any signs of damage to clearly show. This allows for a more accurate Bill of Lading. This is a document that holds all the details of the shipment, including details about your car itself, the journey it will go on, and driver information. Here, a report will be made that details the condition of the car before and after shipping. This makes it easier to identify any damage that may have occurred while the car is in transport. Having an accurate representation of your car prior to shipping and having an accurate Bill of Lading makes the report after transport easy to do.

Remove Items

There are two categories of items to remove from your vehicle. The first is valuables. We highly recommend removing all valuables during shipment for the sake of those items and your vehicle. We provide insurance for your vehicle while we ship it, but that coverage does not include items held within the vehicle. If anything were to occur to a valuable kept in the vehicle while we ship it, we are not liable for it.

The second category of item is external add-ons. If you customized your vehicle in any way and added on pieces to the outside of the vehicle, we request that those be removed prior to shipping. This makes it easier for the driver to ship the vehicle safely. These items include, but are not limited to, ski rakes, bike racks, antennas, and more.

Perform Any Maintenance

This makes shipping a car much easier for the driver. While we can ship non-running cars, it is something we have to know prior to the actual shipment. If any part of the vehicle is malfunctioning, it should be repaired, or you should notify us immediately.

Have a Proper Gas Tank

A proper gas tank would be a gas tank that is about ¼ full. This avoids unnecessarily adding weight to the vehicle with a full tank, while also keeping enough gas in the tank for the driver to load and unload the vehicle as needed.

We look forward to shipping your car for you!