vettebuyer6369

Recently I made a thread about looking for a quick auto transport quote to help me determine the possibility of a deal.

I got one immediate one from a company I was interested in after a forum member helped me ID their new name. I also had requested 2 other quotes from 2 major transporters that everyone has heard of, and they provided quotes by the next day.

In less than 24 hours, I have received 11 unsolicited email "quotes" from different transport services, using the exact name/ZIP of the city I was buying to my home. The only thing off was the year of the Corvette (they are all wrong, but all the same year). I also had 3 messages on my cell for the same thing this AM.

I understand that the Internet sharks set ciookies and track your preferences, but Im a little surprised they were able to pull all this specific info out of the sky from the quotes I made to private companies... they were not brokers.

Beware out there.

gungatim

I had my corvette shipped from AZ to MI 14 months ago and still get unsolicited quotes in my email....not sure it will ever end.

vettebuyer6369

I have been getting emails and phone calls all day since I started this thread. Wow. How many transport places are there? And they are ALL offering open carriers, something I specifically said I would not accept.

aggps

Be careful on a shipper. I used a well known commercial vehicle shipper to ship a cts v. New car. Hood was scratched from something blowing in the wind against it along with front airdam buggered up from tie downs. Internet tracking worked from ID to LA then quit tracking within 250 miles of delivery point. Next thing I know car had been delivered. Had to pay shippers deductible to get insurance to fix.

gungatim

most of the quotes you get are from a broker, not the actual driver. The broker quotes then lets drivers bid online for the job.

if you want enclosed, it will take longer and more $ to find the right guy with the right setup who has a backhaul. So if you want another option, do what I did. I used a regular car transporter, like what goes to the dealerships from the factory. I had 5 cars to ship, but the vette was clearly the most valuable. Have them load the vet in the "belly". this is the lower location directly behind the cab. It will be covered by the cab and the vehidle above and is the best position to not receive any damage. They loaded mine by putting on a flat bed and sliding it up and in, then had another flat bed to unload it. cost a little extra for a tow truck at each location but was alot faster than waiting for just the right trucker as transporters are much more common than a small enclosed trailer. I will post a pic.

you can see my vette tucked right in the belly. the other cars were mine except the jeep and suburban so the driver made more $ and I got a better deal.

Highflier

Yes, as stated above, your info got onto broker boards.
Regardless of who you talk to (except very high end) everyone will shop the job via broker boards to get the lowest price.
Depending on the board, all your information is posted in the original bid posting.

After that, it's like a bunch of vultures.
They will just shoot in the dark forever hoping to get a hit and some work....crazy.

I own a freight company and am not a fan of those tactics

pauldana

A lot of these "major" transport companies bid there work out... that is most likly why you are getting this now.... I did the same thing with my Cannondale Motorcycle/Dirt-bike several years ago... called 2-3 of thoes "major" companies.... and ended up with a dozen quotes..

I'm gone

I own an enclosed auto transport company and those big companies your talking about send me packages I can buy, package one might be that I'll be one of only 50 others biding on 100 leads for $ xxx, package #2 I'm one of 250 leads, next might be one of 1000 leads, all for different dollar amounts. Never done anything like this because I'm so busy I have a hard time keeping up with my regular customer's and shows, auctions, our snowbird group and I'm on a NASCAR team. We have 8 guys we work with all the time and everyone has their own area they run and everyone's busy all the time. Gotta tell ya, I really think if the company is any good, they will be busy and won't do it for free, and definitely won't need to bid on leads!

vettebuyer6369

Interesting... thanks for the input. We will see who gets the $1200 if I buy this car.

Bagpype

I did the same thing with getting a transport quote online. The barrage of calls, emails, and yes, text messages happened almost immediately. They kept on with it for months until I finally started calling them back telling them to stop calling, texting, and emailing me. Due to my experience with that I will never ever ever ever get a transport quote from a broker, or online. Ever. It was a miserable experience and I know exactly what you're going through right now. Terrible.

vettebuyer6369

The odd thing is, Ive requested several online quotes in the past. This has never happened to me before- I've never received a single unsolicited contact! If Im looking at traveling to get a car, I need to know what that part of the overall expense is when considering an offer. I suppose a guess of $1000-$1500 for enclosed transport for about 1000 miles is a reasonable guesstimate, so no need to do that anymore.

Still callls and texts and emails today. Yow.

What's cracking me up is that the quote I asked for was for moving a midyear, and they keep asking about "my 1980 Corvette." Huh?

SuperBuickGuy

Probably tracked off Corvette Forum... it's kind of amazing what the AI searches can dig up (really frightening, too).

@gungatim - I was told the top, behind the first car was the safest spot because there is no car above to drop oil or fluids on your car and and rocks just don't get that high - whereas on the bottom row, anything that can happen, will happen there.... however, I'm not a pro - I've shipped one car cross country; and sold a car that was shipped across country as well (Don't use AIA to ship a non-running car, they'll forklift it onto the trailer and use a forklift to pull the car around the yard) ... so I really don't know much about this.


And I thought this was about the tracking that some carriers provide - it didn't work when I did it - however, I'm very happy with the service they provided (I got the car clean, despite it coming across the entire US on an open trailer, in winter).