Table of Content Car Transport to and from Florida:
- Sunshine State Car Transport Mania
- How much does it pay per mile?
- Take a bite off “The Big Apple”
- “La-la Land” Dilemma
- Gambling prices at “Sin City”
- Blown away from “The Windy City”
- The Lone Star State Five Star Shipping Rates
- Moving in to “Space City” and “The Big D”
- Transportation Extras
Florida is one of the most common shipping locations in the business, due to this fact many customers would believe transporting to and from Florida would have set prices; however, price tags are mainly set depending on the location, distance and season. Read along this article as we analyze how these price estimates vary depending on the location you are shipping a car from or to Florida.
Transporting a car is one of the most common services nowadays used by many people. However, it can easily be misunderstood by how tedious and detailed it is. The idea of shipping a vehicle seems very easy, you would call in, give pick up and drop off locations, make and model of your car, a date, make a deposit, and then wait until your car is picked up, mounted on a carrier and after 4 to 7 days have it delivered, and submit final payment; pretty easy right? Well, don’t be fooled, although it may seem as simple and hassle free as that, transporting a car can become a very unpleasant experience.
Car Transport to and from Florida
Sunshine State Car Transport Mania
Believe it or not shipping a car to or from Florida is one of the most common routes due to many factors, amongst them the great vacation mecca Florida is. Many car owners will find themselves shipping their cars down to the sunshine state for a long vacation and then transporting it back. Aside from vacation scenarios, Florida is also one of the highest car selling states weather it’s from a dealer, an auction or even private owners. Also being that Florida has 3 main ports, many vehicles are shipped worldwide into the shores of this fast growing car transport hot spot. Although it is one of the most common shipping locations, customers, tend to believe prices are set. Sadly this is not the case.
Auto shipping is affected by many factors in order to determine prices and delivery time. The most important of these factors is the locations where the car is at and where it is going to. As mentioned before Florida is a hot spot for car transportation, however, prices almost never stay the same no matter how many times you ship your vehicle. There are many factors that affect this starting with how accessible to and from locations are, distance, miles, gas prices, make and model of car, and time flexibility.
“How much does it pay per mile?”
Prices are set as price per mile and one of the most common phrases you might here when speaking with drivers, is the question of “how many cents per mile does it pay?” Based on this calculation, drivers as well as brokers determine whether prices are set correctly or if an adjustment is needed. The amount of cents per mile a quote pays must cover gas prices, lodging, tolls, driver’s fee, and other small fees. With that said, let’s go over some of the most common routes from and to the sunshine state.
Take a bite off “The Big Apple”
Let’s start with one of the most common, shipping a car from “The Big Apple” down to Florida and vice versa. One of the trickiest factors in this route is the presence of tolls and weather conditions. For example if pickup locations are in Long Island, drivers must cross bridges and pay tolls. For a regular car, toll prices will not be a major event, however for big carriers, paying tolls can be a big transaction. Tolls charge according to weight, axles, height and generally how big a carrier is, sometimes it may also base its price on the amount of cars loaded on the hauler. According to that prices can range from $25 to $100 for an 18 wheeler.
Another big factor once again is weather conditions and the season. As you may know, car transport also has its high peaks and low peaks. Harsh weather conditions affect greatly on the availability of drivers and routes. Usually during winter seasons most drivers are looking to move away from snow and icy roads to avoid mechanical problems and accidents. Finding a driver to transport your car from The Big Apple down to Florida will be easier than finding one that will move it up north. This season is considered to be snowbird season as most people are looking to migrate down south due to the harsh winter in northern states. Prices can get considerably high as drivers risk too much on the roads. What usually can cost between $0.40 per mile can go up to anywhere between $0.70 to $0.80 per mile. Once the season is over, prices will go down for a short period of time, therefore, once summer kicks in and road and weather conditions improve, high prices turn around for all snowbirds to go back up to New York.
Car Transport to and from Florida
“La-la Land” Dilemma
Another common scenario is auto shipping cross country to Florida from Los Angeles, CA. Cross country trips will be expensive trips regardless of what time of year it is and what weather conditions are presented; although, during high peaks and bad weather, higher fees will apply. However this is a common route as well and driver’s availability is open most of the time. To have a better understanding of how prices work, here is a breakdown of how season and weather affect the quotes you will receive.
First let’s take in account the weather; during winter most of the northern states are completely covered in snow and road conditions are very dangerous. Therefore in order to ship cross country through northern states you will pay very high prices, as well as having to be very flexible as there are fewer drivers to do the route. Now if the trip is through southern states such as Fl to Los Angeles, you would be able to hit a reasonable price and availability with drivers. This is for snowbird season and harsh winter conditions, but the case is completely different once the snow starts to melt and snowbirds start to migrate up north again. During spring, drivers start to return to their usual routes and driver availability start to open up; drivers who got stuck in lower or upper states are looking to get out and be able to return to their usual routes. This allows the prices to go down and be very reasonable. A trip that would cost you around $0.48 to $0.50 a mile from La-la Land to Florida in winter can go down to even $0.40 mile. You would look at the same scenario for fall season until winter starts. Unfortunately once summer kicks in, prices jump rapidly from $0.50 to $0.55 per mile. This is due to the fact that during summer, most people look to relocate and transport cars, because of this high demand, there are more drivers on the road; however, price demands go higher as well.
Gambling prices at “Sin City”
Las Vegas has always been a hot spot for almost anything but peace and tranquility for years. Car transport is also very common here due to the great attractions you can find; people decide to take extended vacations or even move here. Las Vegas is an easier route as there are almost all year long permanent drivers that handle this rout. Whether they are stationed in Florida in Las Vegas, this route is always busy. For car transport this shipping scenario is one of the easiest as cross country trips to Los Angeles can also serve this spot.
Price ranges here are easier to determine, therefore, as we mentioned before, Las Vegas – Florida or Florida – Las Vegas is a permanent route for some drivers. Now it all depends on what season is and the type of weather. Unfortunately when its high season, price demands go up and even though driver availability is almost all the time open, market prices will push for an increase on the rates. To all this you must add also the extra fees depending on what type of car it is. You will not receive the same rate to ship a mid size sedan compared to shipping an SUV or even a pickup truck, not even during low season.
Now that we have an idea of how prices function on this route let’s talk some numbers. Starting off with low season, which as we mentioned before is anywhere between March – April to August-November (these are just approximations); you can get rates from $0.30 to $0.37 per mile. The last digit would be going on a high end as during this time prices keep very reasonable. Now, the perk of this route is that in order to transport a car in between these two points, drivers keep themselves in the lower states such as route I-10, I-20, and I-40, and during winter season when roads are obstructed with snow, driver’s can still make it through as these states do not get as much snow fall. This allows prices to stay at a reasonable price during winter times as well, although this is not rule, it is very possible. However, once summer kicks in and market prices rise, shipping a car from Florida to Sin City or vice versa can start at $0.45 per mile.
Blown away from “The Windy City”
Chicago is one of the trickiest locations to ship to, although the windy city is center point for mid-north states, Illinois is not the most driver friendly state. Chicago is basically the point to ship to; any other location will either imply a higher fee or simply take a while to get a driver to go the extra miles.
First off let’s start with weather conditions, harsh winters make it impossible for drivers to move to any point outside of Chicago unless it’s nearby a main route. And even like that, most locations are unreachable due to the heavy snow fall. This is a huge factor that affects on prices to ship from Chicago during winter season, therefore in order to make it appealing for drivers to take the risk; quotes must be higher than usual. Now keep in mind that this is also snowbird season, therefore most people are looking to move south, this also affects the price as the demand is higher. As we have mentioned before, car transport does not have set prices, therefore, shipping north from FL to Chicago during snowbird season will give you more reasonable prices, although if winter kicks in badly, extra fees to take the risk of driving in snow will also kick in. Once snowbird season is over, prices will start to lower as demand is lower, however like in all routes, the highest peaks start in summer.
Moving into numbers, Chicago to FL during snowbird season can very well give you $0.47 per mile average. Although you have to keep in mind this price depends on the type of car and how bad weather conditions are. Given the case there is heavy snow fall, prices can escalate up to $0.55 per mile, and still this does not guarantee that the car will move. At this point it has nothing to do with prices, but with road conditions. Sometimes some routes are overpriced to try to move things out of a certain place and still have no response, this is due to the fact that road conditions are so bad that it doesn’t matter how high the market price goes, it simply is impossible to get into or get out that certain location.
Now if we have a better scenario, reasonable prices will give you approximately $0.37 per mile. Although it is very busy from Chicago to Fl and back, there is a little more traffic going up north than going down south, as snowbirds are returning to catch a breeze in the windy city. However, once summer high peaks kick in, prices can rise anywhere between $.50 and $0.55 per mile.
Car Transport to and from Florida
The Lone Star State Five Star Shipping Rates
As the Lone Star State’s national anthem states: “Texas, O Texas! Your freeborn single star,
Sends out its radiance to nations near and far”, Texas does offer one of the best car transport rates in the business apart from local and same state transportation. Two of the main points in Texas are Houston and Dallas.
Moving in to “Space City” and “The Big D”
Shipping prices to these routes are a little bit tricky, although shipping services pretty much maintain at reasonable prices throughout the whole year, there is a big variation depending on the departing and arrival point. Leaving aside the season and winter factors, the FL-TX route most of the time has more outgoing cars than incoming, opposed to the TX-FL route which doesn’t have as much movement. This happens because many dealers, private owners and auctions are located in the Florida area. Prices to buy a car are sometimes better at the sunshine state and therefore more accessible for car seekers. This causes car transport demand to be higher coming out of Florida than in. Many drivers get stuck in Houston and Dallas after they complete their routes, and they seek to get back to Florida and be able to book better paying routes. This may seem as a disadvantage to them, but it’s a great advantage for the customer, as this allows prices to go down.
Now once again, let’s go through the numbers. Shipping a car from Florida to Space City or The Big D will range from $0.47 to $0.55 per mile, being that the highest point is during high peaks and high demand. Now, when wanting to ship from Houston or Dallas into the vacation mecca, quotes con go down as low as $0.30 per mile.
Transportation Extras
We have gone over some of the main routes shipping in to and out of Florida and we have analyzed how weather and season affect prices and availability. Although you can now estimate what the cost will be for your transportation keep in mind that the type of car, type of carrier, exact delivery and pickup locations and any type of other accommodations you request will increase your price quote. With all said, whether you ship into Sin City, out of La-la Land or spend your vacation up in the Windy City, now you can have a better idea of how market prices work according to the season’s high and low peaks.
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Car Transport to and from Florida
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