As if finding a mover wasn’t hard enough, looking for a car shipping company is even more difficult in many ways. Some car shipping companies employ dubious business practices and it can be daunting to figure out which ones are trustworthy, especially since the industry operates in a very unique way.
Before we go over a few prevalent methods unseemly car shipping companies use to scam you, it’s important to understand the system.
Here’s a breakdown of how car shipping works in the United States:
The majority of car shipping companies are actually just brokers. They don’t employ any drivers themselves or handle any of the transportation themselves. The only thing they do is set up the contract with the truck driver and process the payment. They have access to databases of truck drivers and the routes they are traveling (provided by organizations such as Central Dispatch) and they arrange a deal with drivers that are available to ship along the route you desire and during the general dates and times you need.
Occasionally, they have never worked with the driver before and have no relationship with the driver. This is problematic, because it’s exceedingly difficult to verify the truck driver’s reputation yourself since you are going through a middle man and even the broker doesn’t always have a good sense about the driver’s reputation beyond the very basic information available in the database.
There are a few “Direct Carrier” car shipping companies that own their own trucks and employ their own truck drivers and they are typically more reliable. That reliability and trustworthiness comes at a cost, however. They are generally more expensive.
Some large moving companies also handle auto transport. This is perhaps the simplest and most convenient way for the consumer to get their car shipped if they are doing a major move, but again, it is usually a pricier option than going through a broker.
Now that you have a better understanding of how the car shipping business works, you can see how easy it is to get scammed. There are a few ways to limit your risk, however.
By watching out for the following techniques that shady car shipping companies commonly use, you can drastically reduce the chances of being duped.
At first glance it might seem like a great idea to sign up for instant quotes from car shipping companies around the country. It works great for car insurance, after all. Trust us, though, it doesn’t work nearly as well for car shipping. You’ll certainly get tons of immediate emails and phone calls from brokers nationwide wanting your business, but once you start doing some research, you find out many of them have complaints against them. Should you make the mistake of indulging them, you’ll likely end up having to deal with sleazy or unprofessional salesmen that will say anything to convince you to give them your billing information.
You’ll also find that by signing up for these instant quotes, your data is sold to all sorts of telemarketers and email marketers that can now spam you like crazy. Some may try and put you in touch with a broker and take a cut (add up their slice and the broker’s slice and you can see how the price you are quoted gets high real fast), and others won’t even have anything to do with car shipping.
Long story short: Just don’t sign up for instant car shipping quotes.
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. You talk with a broker about having your car shipped, but decide to shop around some more before committing to their offer. This is a standard consumer practice for almost any product or service. Unfortunately, in the car shipping realm this can lead to grave consequences if you aren’t careful.
Unscrupulous brokers are notorious for scheduling shipments in the database, without consent from the buyer. This is against the rules, but is done all the time. The reason it’s so damaging is that once a shipment is scheduled in the database, no other brokers are allowed to schedule a shipment for the same car. In effect, this prevents you from being able to talk with any other brokers, until after your scheduled shipment is taken off the board.
Especially scandalous brokers may try and claim they had an agreement with you and refuse to remove your scheduled shipment from the database, thereby trapping you into using them. The only recourse at that point is to threaten them with legal action and then take legal action, if they still won’t relent.
One of the best ways you can tell whether a broker is on the up-and-up is by the amount of a deposit they demand. Reputable brokers don’t usually ask for any deposit until a driver has been secured, and even then don’t ask for much more than 25-50% of the total amount due.
Never agree to a deposit before you have a contract in place with a set date and time for pick up and delivery with a confirmed driver. Also make sure to confirm a deposit amount you are comfortable with before agreeing to a contract. If the deposit required creeps past 50% then you should do some serious research on the broker before moving forward.
Any broker that operates across state lines is subject to federal regulations. Key among those is that they must obtain a license from the U.S. Department of Transportation that comes with a 7-digit license number. Before moving forward with any broker, request their USDOT number and verify it on the USDOT government web site. If they refuse to give it to you, then it likely means they are frauds with bad intentions.
The other main standard that legitimate brokers must meet is that they have to possess at least a $75,000 surety bond that covers the carrier (truck driver). Always ask to see in writing their surety bond. Again, if they refuse to give it to you, then that’s a serious red flag and you should not do business with them.
In addition to those two important broker requirements, the carrier also has a pivotal standard to meet. In order to legally operate in the United States and ship freight across state lines, a carrier must have at least a $300,000 liability insurance policy for vehicles 10,000 pounds or less and a $750,000 liability insurance policy for vehicles above that weight. You should ask the broker to provide you the carrier’s insurance certificate.
Unfortunately, car shipping lends itself to thieves. All it takes is a classifieds ad or decent looking web site to persuade potential victims that a broker is legitimate. In this case, the crook posts a ridiculously low price, but declines to provide any paperwork or a contract and instead asks for a verbal or hand-shake agreement. When the carrier arrives they simply steal the car instead of shipping it and there is no proof to track down the burglar.
Once a carrier has your car then you are pretty much at their mercy that they will do their job honestly and professionally. This leveraging power the broker and carrier have can easily lead to issues if you are dealing with shady operators. It’s quite common that a broker will call you up while the vehicle is in transit and say that the carrier is requiring an extra payment (could be anywhere from $50 to hundreds of dollars).
Sometimes it may be worth the hassle to agree to the extra money, even though it’s a really poor business practice by the broker/carrier, as long as you don’t pay it until the car has been delivered, but never pay the extra cash before getting the car back.
Just about any legitimate broker will tell you that you should clear out your car prior to pick-up. While some items such as a car seat or blankets are acceptable, reputable brokers and carriers won’t want to be responsible for anything else, because it adds to their liability in the case something were to happen. There’s a strong chance that if a broker and/or carrier tells you to load up the car with valuables as a means of saving on other moving expenses, it’s because they plan to look through and possibly steal the stuff.
A broker’s base price might sound fantastic, but if you start getting up-sold on a bunch of different things like really expensive additional insurance plans or bonus pick-up and delivery fees expected to be paid to the driver or loading fees for getting the car on the truck, then run the other way as fast as you can. You are better off getting one agreed-upon price in writing and avoiding any miscellaneous itemized fees.
It is crucial that you get a pre-possession inspection. This is a thorough inspection of your vehicle performed by the truck driver before he loads your vehicle. The driver should provide you a copy of his inspection. As Moving.com points out, you should also take photographs of your car before it gets loaded to verify its condition.
Upon receipt of the vehicle, you are required to fill out a “Bill of Landing” confirming that the vehicle’s condition is the same as when you left it to be delivered. Make sure to do a very thorough inspection yourself before filling out the Bill of Landing, including taking a look at the undercarriage and under the hood. If you find any issues then you must include it on the Bill of Landing or otherwise you release the driver of liability.
Keeping an eye out for all of these car shipping scam techniques will help you avoid a bad experience, but there is one last check you should do every time before signing on with a broker or carrier. Always go to the Better Business Bureau web site, RipoffReport.com and even Yelp to see what kind of reviews the company has gotten. Don’t go with one that has poor reviews or allegations of fraud.
Also, be wary of trusting reviews from any sites whose business model is connected with the industry as they are known for being infiltrated by the brokers themselves and aren’t as trustworthy.
