car shipping

[Mark Chang]

I have shipped two cars from Seattle to Boston. Here's my short tale.

Car #1 was shipped with my furniture on a professional moving van
(Allied?). For the big 3 moving companies, they subcontract all the
work out to the *truck driver*. He either owns of leases his truck,
and he calls all the shots. So, while he and his crew were loading my
10 tons of house crap, I casually asked if he had lots of other loads
between Seattle and Boston. He said he'd be pretty empty for a lot of
it. I asked if he could fit my car in with the stuff, and for how
much. The Allied shippers quoted me like $2000+ for the inside ride. I
offered him cash money right now. We did it for $800. Not shady,
because he's fully insured for all of it. He calls  the shots and my
$800 in cash paid for a lot of his fuel up front, which was a good
deal for him. Plus for me? My car arrived totally safe, with not one
finger on it between the time he drove it on the truck, and when I
drove it off. All in all, a fun a great deal.

Car #2 was shipped using Dependable Auto Shippers (DAS). Door to
terminal, outside on car carrier. $1,246 in June of 2005. They picked
up my car on a flatbed, took it to the local "terminal", loaded it
onto the carrier. They dropped it at my local terminal, which was 20mi
from my house. Car was just as I had left it. No problems. They even
hosed it down so it looked nice.

My extremely long two cents.

-- 
Mark L. Chang