Car shipping brokers hold a very important place in the auto transport industry. They are your front line defense against getting swindled or ripped off by going direct to a transport truck. They can also save you money because they are a lifeline to the drivers that are hauling cars.The trick is to find a GOOD broker.There are plenty out there that will work hard to satisfy your car shipping needs.
You just need to find the good ones and know how to avoid the bad ones.
Car Shipping Brokers Fact #1: You Save Money Using A Broker
- This is absolute truth. We get customers calling with (often times) outrageously high car shipping quotes. Why are they getting these high priced quotes? It’s because they went direct to the truck and the truck knows the potential customer on the other end of the phone line doesn’t know the difference. Nowadays SOME people know to call the car shipping broker instead of going direct to the truck. They know because they have shipped before. The fact of the matter is that the broker is assigning loads to transports each and every day. So many people prefer to work with the car shipping brokers that the direct transports hardly advertise anymore. They now go to the brokers for their loads and that means the brokers won’t overpay the trucks unless it is absolutely warranted. In unusual cases of hard to reach cities or rural areas maybe, but for the most part the car shipping broker keeps the car transports in check, pricing-wise. That means big savings to you, the customer.
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Car Shipping Brokers Fact #2: The Safety Of Your Car and Your Legal Liability
- Also, and most importantly, a good broker will do his best to only use drivers with clean ratings and no accident history. This alone could potentially save you thousands of dollars. Many cars have been seriously damaged and even destroyed by brokers assigning loads to drivers with poor ratings just to make a sale and get your cash. Often times ultra low quotes equals poor ratings and (worse yet) no proper cargo insurance. One local company assigned a customer’s mint restored 1968 Mustang convertible to a bad driver who backed the car off the trailer without using the ramps! Both rear frame rails severely damaged as were both rocker panels. Who paid for the damage? The owner of the car. The truck did not have cargo insurance in place. The bad broker made some money and disappeared into the woodwork. The owner of the car was facing an $8,000 repair bill and was so disgusted he sold the car as-is and lost a bundle. That is a great example of what a bad broker can do with your auto transport.
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Car Shipping Brokers Fact #3: Good Car Shipping Brokers Protect Your Car
- This is a full-fledged truth as long as you are using good car shipping brokers to handle your auto move. Bad brokers can often be found handing out low ball dirt cheap quotes. THOSE are the brokers who will do ANYTHING for a buck even if it means giving your car to a poorly rated (and possibly unlicensed or insured) transport. Good car shipping brokers won’t take that risk with their customers’ cars because they know all too well their customers happiness is important. We don’t spin the roulette wheel to get a broker fee. A bad broker will play that game with your car and when it gets damaged (or worse) they disappear into the woodwork and don’t take your calls. Good car shipping brokers have a direct certificate of cargo insurance for every move they do.
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Good shipping brokers closely check driver credentials. Bad brokers will give your car to anybody that will take it.
- They also don’t have a history of being sued or involved in legal actions because of their business practices. In twelve years of shipping we haven’t ever been to court or named in an action due to negligence or vehicle damage. That’s the kind of history good car shipping brokers have. If you have a problem with a transport (that a good broker assigned) you can rest assured that broker will stand by your side. What makes the most sense? Going with the low ball ultra cheap quote or pay a bit more for a good car shipping broker who will locate a high quality transport to carry your car?
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Car Shipping Brokers Fact #4: Only car shipping brokers hold power over the transport. The consumer has no control without a broker riding shotgun.
- What does that mean, you ask? It means that the brokers are organized. They have a rating system in place for every single licensed transport truck. Those ratings are private and only shared between licensed brokers. Those ratings are NOT at all like what you read in the online auto transport reviews websites. These are the real thing, unbiased. They work because they are based on real loads assigned (and that’s every day) by thousands of brokers. Imagine the power the car shipping brokers possess over the transports. It’s huge. If a broker blacklists any truck in the ratings system that truck is CUT OFF from getting any loads except maybe those of the low ball cheap quote brokers. And they don’t pay anything. That means when a transport is late picking up or delivering they get a slap on the wrist and every broker knows about it and reads about it in that trucks’ ratings. If a transport damages a car or something like it they get a big black mark on their ratings and there isn’t a good company out there that will give them a customer’s car. THAT is how it really works.
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Car Shipping Brokers Fact #5: Just the facts, Ma’am…
Now to play devil’s advocate. Let’s say that you hired a transport direct to ship a car across country. Let’s say they are 2 full weeks late delivering your car and haven’t returned ANY of your urgent phone calls. What do you do? The answer? NOTHING. You are at their mercy. You can’t even report the car stolen because you gave them permission to load the car. The police will tell you that. What about calling your lawyer? Do the math. $175 an hour lawyer fee?It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to formulate the results. In either of the previous scenarios all GOOD car shipping brokers would be dealing with the headaches for you. They would have access to that transport and one single phone call to a bad transport can destroy their ratings and even force them out of business. Suddenly the transport IS returning calls. Make sense?
Car Shipping Brokers Fact #6: All car shipping brokers are NOT created equal.
Your auto shipping experience will be good with a broker who cares about service and bad with a broker who just wants to get their hands on your credit card. You will find the bad brokers easily by looking at the bottom dollar cheap auto transport quotes. THAT is where they thrive. Paying a little more is the best way to insure safe, secure, and smooth shipping. Normally we wouldn’t share such a negative article biased against brokers but the poor soul who authored this piece deserves to be heard in our opinion. Be forewarned, much of what you will read is the author’s opinion AFTER tangling with a scammer bad broker. It’s a fascinating read even if a bit over the top. The author does show some great examples of what bad car shipping brokers are capable of:
Edmunds Automotive also offers an article How To Ship A Car that offers some insights the reader may find useful.
Another article that offers good insights into the advantages of using car shipping brokers is Auto Transport Broker.
Here’s a link to the definition of an auto transport broker by WIKI in case you don’t know what they do.
Feel free to search our auto transport links page for more info.