With the cold winter months approaching quickly so many people, especially senior citizens, are preparing to relocate to a location with warm weather to avoid the harsh winter mothers back at home. If you are a senior that does not want to just stay put the entire time that you are away than you should considering taking your car along with you. A great method of relocating your car to your winter location is by means of an car shipping company. An auto transport is a service that ships you car door to door. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when using this method.
- 1. Advance Booking
As soon as you know when you will be traveling, arrange with the auto transport company the dates for pickup and drop off of your cars. More advance notice you give them, the more choice dates will be available. During the heavy traveling seasons, car shipping companies will be increasingly busy as well. Therefore, you will want to book in advance to ensure that convenient dates are available for you.
- 2. Open vs. Enclosed Auto Transport Carriers
Many companies offer two methods of car shipping. The choices are either with an open auto transport carrier or an enclosed auto transport carrier. An open transport carrier is the most popular method of transport. An open carrier is the trucks that you see transporting new vehicles to their dealerships. These trucks can carry eight to ten vehicles at once opposed to closed vehicle transported which can carry much fewer cars at once. Therefore using an open transport carrier will be more economical. This method is safe and efficient making it the option of choice for most. An enclosed auto transport carrier is mainly used when the car that is being transported is an oversized vehicle or a very high end car or a classic model car.
- 3. Pickup and Drop off Locations
Another option that will be presented to you will be whether you would like door to door pickup and deliver or delivery at a more central location. Most often door to door pickup and delivery will be included in the package. However if you leave in a very rural area, that is hard to get to, you may be best off finding a more suitable and convenient location instead of incurring additional charges. Also, if you live in a private community or on a block that does not allow for commercial vehicles to pass through, you will want to arrange for the driver to meet you at central location such as a large parking lot close to you.
- 4. Preparing your Car
Before sending off your car you should take measures to prepare your car for the transport. Fill your cars gas tank until it is a quarter of the way full. This will leave you with enough gas to load the car on and off the truck. You don’t want to car filled with gas all the way as if your car weighs to much you will incur extra charges. Also, make sure to inspect your care and take picture prior to sending your car off. This way you will be able to ensure that the car was handed back to you exactly the way you left it. Take out of your car any valuable items. Your car is insured by the transport company but not the items that are in it.
With all of these suggestion listed taken into consideration, you will be able to make using an auto transport easy. More importantly, having your car with you for the length of your stay, will give you peace of mind and make you trip even more enjoyable than ever before