For A Reader -- Questions About Shipping A Privately Owned Vehicle -- February 1, 2021

From a reader who requested more information with regard to shipping our 2005 Chrysler minivan from south Los Angeles (San Pedro), CA, to Portland in mid-January, 2021.

I made the decision to do this just before Christmas, 2020.

I went on-line and made my request known. 

I was immediately (and I mean, "immediately") -- within seconds -- inundated with text messages with quotes from brokers and trucking companies. 

Interestingly enough, one broker e-mailed me directly. I knew nothing about him or his company. Absolutely completely random. It was a short ten-word e-mail with a quote.

His name was Dan and he worked for Coast to Coast Logistics, LLC, which he said was the #1 transporter in the US. That was it.

I had already looked at quotes for a POV shipment from Los Angeles to Portland. The quotes ranged from $600 to $1200.

Dan's quote was $950. Final price. No hidden fees, no additional taxes. It included insurance on my vehicle. So I called him instead of replying by e-mail.

He spoke very good English, but had a tinge of what sounded like Hispanic. My wife is Mexican-Japanese so I prefer going that route when possible. Yes, I know I shouldn't do that. 

We made the agreement over the phone and I completed the request on-line at the company's website. By the way, the website gave me a really, really warm fuzzy about Coast to Coast Logistics -- a really, really professional website. There was a glitch in the on-line form but Dan was able to fix it at his end.

When filling out the form on line: the most important information is two really, really good contact phone numbers you can give the company.  The second most important thing is to have the pick-up address and the delivery address exactly correct.

I never heard from Dan after that. 

Until four days before the scheduled pick up, January 18, 2021.

Dan told me that the truck to pick up our van would arrive on January 18, 2021, a holiday, despite the draconian lock down in California when the governor banned all travel more than 120 miles from home, beginning January18, 2021, coincidentally. LOL.

The broker, Dan, had contracted with a company called I-5 Transporter, LLC. Dan gave me the dispatcher's phone number for I-5 Transporter, LLC.

Three days before the scheduled pick up, the I-5 Transporter, LLC, dispatcher called to confirm the pickup time. The dispatcher, Tanya, sounded like a sixth-grade girl who had a lot of telephone calls to make. I barely understood her and when she called, I thought it was a "wrong number" call. I can't recall, but I think I hung up on her. Whatever. If I did, she called back immediately. The conversation lasted less than ten seconds.

I made no further phone calls. 

On the day of the scheduled pick up, after waiting from 7:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. local time, I called the dispatcher. The dispatcher gave me the cell phone number of the truck driver ... long story short -- he would pick up the minivan on Tuesday, the day after the original pick up date. The confusion rested somewhere between Dan, the broker; the dispatcher; and the truck driver. Didn't bother me a bit. Things happen. [My hunch: the confusion began with the dispatcher. See above.]

On the day of the pick up, the trucker arrived a few hours later than expected, but again, that was fine. He was friendly and knowledgeable. He got a very nice cash tip. Very nice. He said it was too much, but we insisted. He took it.

We didn't hear a thing for several days. Then, six days later, we got a phone call asking if we would be home (in Portland) to receive the van.

The van was delivered the next day. Seven full days between pick up and delivery, including two weekend days. What a great country.

That driver was also given a very nice tip.

We continued to receive text messages and an occasional e-mail from brokers/truckers for one week but then they quit. 

Cost and payment:

• the broker took his cut: $150 by credit card. I had to give him my credit card number and security code at the time of booking. Again, I had no previous relationship with Dan or this company;
• the $150 was not taken from the credit card until the day of pick up;
• no payment was due at the time of payment; none, nada, zip.
• at the other end, payment in full.

Dan did not know the form of payment that I-5 Transporter would take, but he said most truckers take cash, a certified bank check, or some kind of trucker's digital pay of which I was unfamiliar. 

We kept copies of the e-mail in case we had to "prove" the original agreement. We paid the full amount, $800 in twenty-dollar bills.

It's very possible one could arrange transportation directly with I-5 Transporter if shipping anywhere along the west coast from Seattle to San Diego. It appears they operate out of Salem, Oregon, based on a cursory internet search. 

I'm sure I could have gotten a much better deal had I shopped around, but I often live by the adage "you get what you pay for." The cost of me flying to Los Angeles, meeting up with my wife, two to three days on the road in an older minivan, would have approached a few hundred dollars, making the $950 we paid, reasonable. My hunch is that the $600 quote -- which I did not take -- did not include everything. 

Had the van broken down somewhere near "Hearst Castle" the towing cost and costs to repair the van would have been astronomical as well as the lodging costs waiting for the van to be repaired.

Comments: the whole experience was absolutely new to me but having moved twenty times or so with the USAF I had a pretty good feeling how these things worked. 

Most important, be flexible with pick up dates and delivery dates. Very flexible. Keep copies of all correspondence; it will generally be e-mail. Text messages work for a few updates, but e-mails are most important. Tip the truck drivers at both ends. I can almost guarantee a nice tip at pick up will be more than worth it nine times out of ten. Obviously no tip at the other end is required but I like to "pay it forward" for the next customer.

The broker, Dan, realizing I was new to all this, explained the general way brokers work on deals like this (after we had made the deal). 

He said that he, and a gazillion other brokers, read the request and then in a split second offer a quote. The quotes, as noted, in my case ranged from $600 to $1200. Dan said the quote is based on experience; and what they think they can get out of the owner of the car (me) and how much they can get the price down with the trucker. The latter is pretty much known by all brokers -- based on season, location, etc. 

What is most interesting is estimating what the owner of the vehicle is likely to pay. Someone shipping a Porsche would have likely been offered a range of quotes much higher than for shipping a old minivan. It appeared, I bet to Dan, that I was new at this and had no clue what to pay. He could have quoted $600 but thought I was naive enough to accept the $950 quote. He didn't say that outright but I understood. He rightly guessed I wasn't going to pay $1200. LOL.

Would I work with these guys again? I sure would but every shipment will be different for many reasons.