Vehicle Shipping
The first thing to understand about these two different vehicle shipping companies is exactly how they are different. A vehicle shipping carrier is the actual company that will be moving the vehicle – they are hired by vehicle shipping brokerages, which are companies that handle the customer service aspect of the vehicle shipping. Vehicle shipping brokerages work with the customer to arrange transport with a vehicle shipping carrier, and there are several things that you should know about before booking with a vehicle shipping brokerage (you should never book directly with a vehicle shipping carrier).
Vehicle shipping brokerages and carriers utilize a website called Central Dispatch to communicate to each other the loads that are available to be picked up. Vehicle shipping brokerages will post a customer’s vehicle shipping information (where the vehicle is coming from and going to, the type of vehicle, any special alterations such as lift kits or larger tires, etc) onto Central Dispatch, where vehicle shipping carriers can look at them and decide which vehicles they would like to pickup. This depends mainly on where the vehicle shipping carrier is currently located – since they travel across the country, their schedules are usually booked a week or two in advance so they can quickly go from one pickup or delivery to the next, without having to waste a lot of time.
Vehicle shipping brokerages will usually call different vehicle shipping carriers that have hauled on certain routes for them before – for instance, if a vehicle shipping carrier has taken several cars for the vehicle shipping brokerage from New York to Los Angeles, that vehicle shipping carrier might be high on the list of preferred companies for that vehicle shipping brokerage. Likewise, vehicle shipping carriers will often have preferred vehicle shipping brokerages that they take freight from, for various reasons.
There are typically two types of payment options available to vehicle shipping carriers: billings, and cash on delivery (also known as COD). Vehicle shipping brokerages have their fee, but the vehicle shipping carrier makes the vast majority of money. If a certain shipment costs $800 total to the customer, and $200 of that goes to the vehicle shipping brokerage, that’s still $600 to the carrier, and now we’re talking about how they collect that. A billing is when the vehicle shipping brokerage takes the entire balance – both their cut and the vehicle shipping carrier’s – up front, then sends the carrier’s money to them after being invoiced for it.
The most common form, however, is when the customer pays the vehicle shipping brokerage’s deposit up front, and then gives the remaining portion to the vehicle shipping carrier as cash on delivery. This is preferred by vehicle shipping carriers, as mostly they live on the money in their pocket, and the more money they have, the better off they are.
