I often receive quote requests from customers who are 100 miles or more away from an interstate highway.
As I discussed in an earlier post about pricing https://shawautocarriers.com/why-is-it-so-expensive-to-ship-my-vehicle/ “Popularity of the route is one key factor. If you live somewhere that does not see a lot of transport traffic the price will be higher. If you live far off of an Interstate it’s going to be expensive, no way around it. Even if the interstate you live off of is a popular route it will be expensive. ”If you live far off the interstate, on an unpopular route it going to be very expensive.
I recently quote a customer where both the pickup and delivery locations were 200 miles off the nearest interstate. When I looked at Central Dispatch there were no transports scheduled within 100 miles of either pickup or delivery locations. The customer balked when I quote a price $400 higher than normal for the distance.
Why was the price so high? A transporter will have to run at least 100 miles to pick the vehicle up and then another 100 miles to get back to where they started from. That is 200 miles just to pick the car up. With a truck that costs $1 per mile to operate, the transporter is not making money pickup up the car; they are just paying the fuel bill to get the vehicle picked up.
An unpopular (not well travelled) route far off the interstate will need to be price accordingly/high in order to attract transport. The Auto transport industry is dominated by small independent trucking companies. Unlike bus, train or airplane travel there are no set schedules, routes or prices. Carriers select vehicles for transport based on shipping date, location, destination, vehicle size and price paid for transport.
