When transporting your vehicle across country, you should be thinking how much time is needed to get it picked up, transported, and then to deliver. Generally speaking you need a three day window during the days of pickup and three day window during the days of delivery or drop off. That means during pickup and delivery you should give yourself three days of free time to meet and greet the driver. That way you can get a better idea of what kind of person this driver is. What if you meet this driver and he/she seems very flakey. At this way you can cancel the order at the last minute and quickly find some other driver to transport your vehicle. Now it is not highly recommended to cancel at the last minute, but at least you know your car won’t be in the hands of a bad auto transporter.

As for the three day window for the time of delivery. Well, many factors can lead to a later delivery of your vehicle.

1. Auto transporters don’t have all the cars they need lined up for pickup right away. It may take an extra day or two to find enough vehicles to fill up their trailer. If the trailers are now filled up with enough cars then the auto transporters won’t be making enough money and thus would not make the auto transport business viable.

2. These auto transporters are using semi-trucks and trailers that are at least 5 years old. To the average person that may not be too old. But think of it this way. An average mileage for an average passenger car gets 15,000 to 20,000 thousand miles a year. Depending on their route, semi-trucks gets an average of 50,000 to 60,000 thousand miles a year. And add 2 tons per car passenger car with a 5 to 10 car trailer. Well with a little math that is an extra 10 to 20 tons of extra weight a semi-truck has to lug around. And with all that extra weight and miles, these semi-trucks and trailers have to go though a lot of stress, thus breaking down after 1 year of use. And with each break down it takes from 1 hour to a whole week to repair. So next time a car carrier breaks down and your car ends up getting delivered late, don’t say its not your problem, because it is, since your car is on that trailer, and it costs a lot of money and it takes time to repair.

3. Another unexpected reason to delay and auto transport is bad weather. Extreme rain, snow and icy roads will slow down the semi-trucks if not stop them completely. So if a car gets delivered a day or two later than expected do not get angry at the drivers. They put their very lives on the line so that you don’t have to drive across country.