Hey Guys,
A little off topic but I know someone out there has used truck movers &
my poor sister needs one. My nephew lives out in San Francisco & decided he didn't need his little Prius any longer so my sister looked around & signed up a company to haul the car back here to Austin.
(I'm sure she picked the cheapest outfit she could find).

They ended up shipping the car to upstate New York (near Albany) mistakenly picking up the phone # as the zip code for where it should go.
She's gone round & round with these guys... Now the little Prius is finally ready to make it back to Austin.

Does anyone have a car mover they could recommend for my poor sister?

Ben in Austin

 

DAS has done well for my son, used them twice. They are eBay's preferred shipper. Plenty of horror stories for all shippers, but your sister's sounds bogus to me... how could they mistake an Area Code for a ZIP? Hitting the bong, or they just flat found it in their interests to go directly to Albany.

 

Hey Ross,
It's a strange deal - not sure how this all happened as I just got involved at the tail end. The Prius ended up in Upstate New York - My sister paid some freight company up front but they didn't pay the trucker because he delivered it to the wrong place. The trucker wouldn't let go of the car because he hadn't been paid - kind of a cluster.

I preface all this by saying my sister though sweet, is possibly the cheapest human on earth. I'm sure she went with the lowest cost place she could find & now she's living it.

If I were to look for this Ebay shipper (?) do you happen to have a
link to them? Thanks for the help.

Ben in Austin

 

My son is moving from Florida to Ohio next month (that's Eglin to Wright-Pat for you guys who have spent any time in the Air Force). He has a project VW that he's having shipped. I searched around and ended up finding a guy on the HAMB that everybody says is good and honest. He has a smaller rig that hauls 3 cars. As it turns out the cost of the haul is around $800 but that's because his will be the only car on the tow rig. The hauler says that if he finds other cars to haul it'll reduce the cost...not by half, but it will knock it down a little. I'll get the name for you...& in about 3 weeks we'll know if the job went well.

Dan

 

I would suggest you use the search engine on the forum and see what you turn up. Seems like there have been a couple in recent years that are patently dishonest and might make the first cluster pale in comparison to the next adventure.

I think I have heard of the guy that Dan mentioned. Instead of the HAMB, I think I ran across him on the AACA forums. Might be a reputable guy that would be worth looking into.

 

Sorry to hear that your sister had problems with a shipper. I don't know whether the shipper was legal or not but I wanted to point something out that I feel needs repeating. MAKE SURE THE SHIPPER YOU USE IS LEGAL. What do I mean? Well here in the US a transport company is legal ONLY if they are registered with the US DOT, have MOTOR CARRIER AUTHORITY and have proper insurances. I was a LEGAL transporter for years and worked very hard for my customers, that included keeping myself legal. That doesn't come cheap. There are too many outfits running illegally out there. Sure, they can save you money, but there is a LOT of risk if you use an illegal shipper. Your precious car/truck can be seized, disappear, or damaged with no reimbursement to you. If someone carries your vehicle for hire (payment) they are required to be legal. If they are transporting across state lines (interstate) then they are regulated by the USDOT. If they damage your vehicle, their normal truck insurance won't pay you anything. If they are caught transporting by law enforcement, your vehicle can be seized, causing you headaches and money. ALWAYS check that a transporter has a DOT number AND Motor Carrier Authority (MC NUMBER). If they don't have both, move on. You can do a search on dot.gov and find out a companies status.

I hear stories every month about boats, cars, etc. that never make it to their final destination because their transporter was illegal. "That guy" that has an enclosed trailer and could "put the truck in there so no one can see it" but that won't help when the trailer gets rear-ended and damaged. His insurance won't be happy about paying for your precious stuff. Use a legal transporter or rent a uhaul/trailer and do it yourself. Also, personally, I have a thing against UShip.com. They are a "matching" company that matches shippers and transporters. UShip.com repeatedly allows illegal transporters to list on their site as it thumbs its nose at US law. UShip.com is breaking the law and doesn't care. I am all for saving a few bucks but when you break the law (no matter if the laws are stupid), you are a lawbreaker. Be safe, check things out.

 

I have used Exotic Transport a number of times and they have worked out well...

 

If US Trucking or US Trucking and Lumber shows up run like hell. He lives near me and is a POS. Today he dropped by his house and woke me up running someones corvette up and down the road, burning up the tires and doing donuts with it. Last year he had a Lamborghini and drove it around for about a week after off loading it from his hauler. I have no idea who he hauls for but wouldn't let him haul a little red wagon.
Larry

 

I'll second Ross' comment on DAS...I have used them 3 times for cross-country ships without a problem.

 

Ben, there's a lot of smoke in the story, but they must be coming from left handed cigarettes. There is NO WAY that a phone number and a NYS zip code can be mixed up. All NYS zips codes begin with 0 or 1, none of the texas area codes start with 0 or 1 and no phone exchanges begin with 0 or 1.

Your sister needs to contact a LAWYER instead of a transport company. First, she has already paid to have the vehicle transported to the proper location. Second, if there is any truth to the story ..."The trucker wouldn't let go of the car because he hadn't been paid" how does she know that the car will now be released, and that the driver didn't do some damage to the car during the battle. Third, if she now makes arrangements and pays another company to haul the car to the proper location... as soon as the new shipper picks up the car, the other company is released from damage claims.

Like I said, contact a lawyer!!

 

Hey Joe,
My poor sister... She was over yesterday - The shipping company mistakenly typed her address # in the Zip code box on the form. Something like 11107 - that's her street number & off it went to Astoria NY. It's one of the strangest deals - How could that happen? But it did..

The current offer on the table is she pays $750 to the trucker for shipping the car from San Francisco to upstate New York & then another $750 to get it back down to Austin. Not what I'd do but that's where it stands.
It's hard to lawyer up over $750 but it's tempting. (The car is only worth $4k - personally I'd donate it to a charity up there & buy something nicer in Texas & save the stress & hassles).

Ben in Austin

 

Has she paid out any money to anybody yet? My guess is that the driver contracts out to the transport company but is not an employee. If so, it's not his error that the car was hauled to New York and I can't blame him for wanting his money. Sounds like your issue is with the transport company - ESPECIALLY IF SHE PAID IN ADVANCE. If no money has changed hands yet, then dealing directly with the driver might be the best solution. He may not be such a bad guy but you don't know until you dig a little deeper. It's doubtful an attorney could unwind this for less than $750 if everything is contested. On the other hand if the car hasn't been damaged and the driver winds up being agreeable then you might can resolve for $750. Or you could donate to charity and start over. Good luck.

 

Just the threat of legal action, like a call from a lawyer or being served with a letter from a lawyer, should prompt the original shipping company to make this right, at no additional cost. Most lawyers will do that for a hundred bucks or so. The only blame your sister shares is not checking the shipping papers and catching their error, and the error may have been on paperwork she never saw anyway.

 

Back to the original question: There is a member on here named Dave Boley (user name dave boley) that does vehicle hauling. He's based out of the NE as well. Dave is a good guy.

 

Ben,
I have used Precious Metals in NJ. They did a great job. My friend who has high-end antique cars has used them for years and has nothing but praise for them. They may be a bit high since they use enclosed trailers.

Steve