You bought a car three states away. Now it has to get home, and the part of the transaction with the least written about it is the part where a stranger drives away with your car on a trailer. Most shipments go fine. The ones that do not go wrong at predictable points, and almost all of them are avoidable with an hour of preparation.
Open or enclosed
Open transport is the multi-car trailer you see on the interstate. It is cheaper, more available, and the car is exposed to weather, road debris and everything a truck kicks up over two thousand miles. For a driver-quality classic going a short distance in good weather, it is perfectly reasonable.
Enclosed transport costs meaningfully more and buys you a hard-sided trailer, usually fewer cars per load, usually a liftgate rather than steep ramps, and usually a driver who specializes in this work. For a freshly painted car, a low car, a valuable car, a non-running car, or any trip through winter, pay the difference. The gap in price is almost always smaller than one respray.
Ask specifically about the liftgate if the car is low, and about winch capability if it does not run. A low car loaded up steep ramps loses its front valance, and that conversation always happens after the fact.
Broker or carrier
Most of the companies you find online are brokers. They do not own trucks. They post your job to a load board and a carrier accepts it. That is not inherently bad, and good brokers are genuinely useful, but you should know which you are talking to and who will actually touch the car.
Ask the broker for the carrier's name, their USDOT or MC number, and their insurance certificate before the truck is dispatched. Then verify the numbers yourself through the federal carrier lookup rather than taking the certificate at face value. Check the carrier's insurance limit against the value of your car specifically, because a policy that covers a load of used sedans may not cover your car alone.
Be suspicious of a quote far below the others. The usual mechanism is a low bid to win your booking, followed by a job that no carrier will accept at that rate, followed by your car sitting for two weeks until you agree to pay more.
Insurance, honestly
The carrier's cargo insurance is the primary coverage, and it typically has a deductible and a per-vehicle limit. Your own classic policy may extend to transit, and it may not. Call your agent and ask directly, in those words, before the car moves. Get the answer in writing.
Agree on a declared value up front. If the car is worth more than the carrier's per-vehicle limit, you need either a different carrier or supplemental coverage, and finding that out on delivery day is too late.
Preparing the car
Wash the car before pickup. You cannot document damage on a dirty car, and photographs of a clean car are the entire basis of any later claim.
Leave about a quarter tank of fuel, no more, since fuel is weight and a full tank is a hazard. Remove everything loose from the interior and the trunk, because personal items are usually not covered and they become projectiles. Retract or remove an aerial, fold the mirrors, and disable any alarm that will drain the battery or scream for two days.
Note existing leaks and tell the driver, particularly on a multi-car open load where your car may be assigned an upper deck. Check tire pressures and the battery, since the car has to be driven or winched on and off. Have the keys, and give the driver only the ignition key if the car has separate ones.
Then photograph everything. All four corners, both sides straight on, the roof, the wheels, the underside of the front valance, the interior, and the odometer. Timestamped, in daylight, on a clean car.
Pickup and delivery
The driver completes a bill of lading that doubles as a condition report. Read it, walk the car with the driver, and make sure every existing scratch and chip is noted before you sign. Keep your copy, because that document is the baseline for any claim.
At delivery, do not sign the clean copy until you have inspected the car yourself. Take your time. If it arrives at night, use a flashlight, and if the light is genuinely too poor to inspect, write that on the paperwork before signing. Note any new damage on the bill of lading at delivery, with photographs, before the truck leaves. Damage discovered after the driver has gone and the clean copy is signed is a much harder claim.
Check the mileage against pickup, look underneath for fresh fluid, and confirm nothing was removed from the interior.
Then treat it as a car that has been sitting
Whatever condition it left in, it has been on a trailer for days. Before you drive it any distance, work through the first hundred miles checklist.
Garage, Galley & Hangar writes a model-specific owner's reference manual for every car in the catalog, covering the loading quirks, ground clearance and known issues that matter when a car this age moves on a truck. Browse the cars catalog.
