1.) Are the prices I see online from various car transport broker sites legit ? Are these prices locked or guaranteed ? How and when do I know the actual price and avoid getting scammed into paying a higher rate then what was quoted to me online by a car transport broker ?
ANSWER: So when it comes to retail car shipping, the initial quotes you see online are 100% of the time going to be essentially "Close Approximations" - as Wes with airRyd.com puts it. The rates can only be estimated to a certain extent, usually to a number that should be withing $20-150 of accuracy. The way rates are estimated is by looking at the commercial load boards like " Central Dispatch "or the airRyd.com load board, and determining where the most recent loads have moved at or what kind of money has been paid at market ( Straight pay rate to the trucks / trucking companies actually moving the freight and or vehicles ) .
The final rate or cost that a shipment actually takes, will be determined later in the process when the brokerage, dealer, or whomever your working with locates a viable option and assigns or "dispatches" the load to a particular carrier (trucking company) at a specific rate of pay. Once this occurs, your rate will be finalized and locked in. At this point the broker may also inform you of the final cost, and usually that final cost will consist of two different fees that you as the consumer will pay. The Broker Fee + The Final Trucking Rate = Your Final Cost. And of course , every broker charges a different fee, or has a different type of payment structure depending on the load, or the request. Many brokers do not even disclose their fees or what they are charging, so it is not completely clear what you are paying the broker VS what you are paying the trucking company. Companies like our primary sponsor over at https://airRyd.com - have flat fees of $89 and $125 , that are exactly the same on every single shipment, so you don't have to sit there wondering how large of a cut the broker is trying to take out of your order.
One particular point of concern that seems to be happening at an alarming rate these days , is that a nefarious broker will quote a client say a price of "$1000" , but later in the process realizes that they cannot make money or worse yet even move the load at the rate they quoted the client. So rather than being honest with the client, what many shady outfits will do is simply dispatch the load out to an unknowing trucking company for a higher rate, of say $1200 - (direct pay to the trucking firm). Often, a broker will then go back to the customer, and inform them that they have located a truck for their vehicle shipment, and will then secure a deposit of say "$250. Of course the client at this point likely thinks they now only owe $750 to the trucking company on arrival of their vehicle, but in reality they now owe the trucking company whatever the broker dispatched the load out at, which in this example is $1200.
SOLUTION: The Solution to this issue is to first, be sure you do your homework, watch videos from "Auto Transport For Dummies" , read FAQ pages, read reviews, check a companies YELP page, ( often Yelp paints a wildly different picture in this industry then any other review site) Check to see how long the company has been around, read the reviews carefully, do they look fake ? Many transport companies pay for fake reviews. Of course , because this site is founded by the same people that built airRyd.com - we recommend airRyd as your best bet at least when it comes to getting some transparency within the car shipping process. But in any case, if a company is trying to hide the way they operate, or what they charge, or if they are guaranteeing your rates , just know they are already lying to you within the process. It may be tempting to believe, but as the saying goes " Cheap is expensive ".
VERIFY THE RATE IS WHAT THE BROKER IS TELLING YOU : Once your car shipment has been dispatched out and finalized with a carrier, and you have a ballpark ETA date for having it loaded, along with the trucking companies name , DOT, Insurance, and all info , along with that final exact rate , be sure to reach out to the trucking company PRIOR TO THE VEHICLE BEING LOADED, and VERIFY THAT THE RATE THE AUTO TRANSPORT BROKER GAVE YOU OR IS TELLING YOU THAT YOU WILL OWE ON DELIVERY - VERIFY THIS IS THE SAME RATE THE TRUCKING COMPANY IS ALSO STATING. IF THERE IS ANY DISCREPANCY BETWEEN THOSE TWO RATES, THAN MORE THEN LIKELY YOUR BROKER IS LYING TO YOU.
ANSWER: So when it comes to retail car shipping, the initial quotes you see online are 100% of the time going to be essentially "Close Approximations" - as Wes with airRyd.com puts it. The rates can only be estimated to a certain extent, usually to a number that should be withing $20-150 of accuracy. The way rates are estimated is by looking at the commercial load boards like " Central Dispatch "or the airRyd.com load board, and determining where the most recent loads have moved at or what kind of money has been paid at market ( Straight pay rate to the trucks / trucking companies actually moving the freight and or vehicles ) .
The final rate or cost that a shipment actually takes, will be determined later in the process when the brokerage, dealer, or whomever your working with locates a viable option and assigns or "dispatches" the load to a particular carrier (trucking company) at a specific rate of pay. Once this occurs, your rate will be finalized and locked in. At this point the broker may also inform you of the final cost, and usually that final cost will consist of two different fees that you as the consumer will pay. The Broker Fee + The Final Trucking Rate = Your Final Cost. And of course , every broker charges a different fee, or has a different type of payment structure depending on the load, or the request. Many brokers do not even disclose their fees or what they are charging, so it is not completely clear what you are paying the broker VS what you are paying the trucking company. Companies like our primary sponsor over at https://airRyd.com - have flat fees of $89 and $125 , that are exactly the same on every single shipment, so you don't have to sit there wondering how large of a cut the broker is trying to take out of your order.
One particular point of concern that seems to be happening at an alarming rate these days , is that a nefarious broker will quote a client say a price of "$1000" , but later in the process realizes that they cannot make money or worse yet even move the load at the rate they quoted the client. So rather than being honest with the client, what many shady outfits will do is simply dispatch the load out to an unknowing trucking company for a higher rate, of say $1200 - (direct pay to the trucking firm). Often, a broker will then go back to the customer, and inform them that they have located a truck for their vehicle shipment, and will then secure a deposit of say "$250. Of course the client at this point likely thinks they now only owe $750 to the trucking company on arrival of their vehicle, but in reality they now owe the trucking company whatever the broker dispatched the load out at, which in this example is $1200.
SOLUTION: The Solution to this issue is to first, be sure you do your homework, watch videos from "Auto Transport For Dummies" , read FAQ pages, read reviews, check a companies YELP page, ( often Yelp paints a wildly different picture in this industry then any other review site) Check to see how long the company has been around, read the reviews carefully, do they look fake ? Many transport companies pay for fake reviews. Of course , because this site is founded by the same people that built airRyd.com - we recommend airRyd as your best bet at least when it comes to getting some transparency within the car shipping process. But in any case, if a company is trying to hide the way they operate, or what they charge, or if they are guaranteeing your rates , just know they are already lying to you within the process. It may be tempting to believe, but as the saying goes " Cheap is expensive ".
VERIFY THE RATE IS WHAT THE BROKER IS TELLING YOU : Once your car shipment has been dispatched out and finalized with a carrier, and you have a ballpark ETA date for having it loaded, along with the trucking companies name , DOT, Insurance, and all info , along with that final exact rate , be sure to reach out to the trucking company PRIOR TO THE VEHICLE BEING LOADED, and VERIFY THAT THE RATE THE AUTO TRANSPORT BROKER GAVE YOU OR IS TELLING YOU THAT YOU WILL OWE ON DELIVERY - VERIFY THIS IS THE SAME RATE THE TRUCKING COMPANY IS ALSO STATING. IF THERE IS ANY DISCREPANCY BETWEEN THOSE TWO RATES, THAN MORE THEN LIKELY YOUR BROKER IS LYING TO YOU.
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