Porsche shipping progress

We purchased this car from someone near Miami, Florida and thus have to have the car shipped.  I have never shipped a car myself previous to this and it's been a learning experience.

Originally we'd hired a company called Stateway Auto Shipping.  I read reviews about them on transporationreviews.com. Overall they have great reviews.  I called and spoke to them and was happy about what I heard.  I booked it online and they said they would pick up the car and probably have it here in 4-8 days.  They didn't pick up on the promised date and when I called them they said that they were sorry but it's 'snowbird' season.  This is apparently from March-June and is a problem with getting cars out of Florida during this time.  This is due to the huge influx of seasonal residents who move back to their summer homes and have their cars shipped home as well as a large amount of buyers who simply want Florida cars.  I did some research and found they were telling the truth.  The problem was most other companies planned for this by raising the rates a little so that they can offer more to the drivers. 

I'll explain how it seems like it works to me for those of you that have no idea how auto shipping works.  I had no idea until I started this journey and so I figured I'll blog about it.

When you hire an auto shipper you're likely hiring a broker.  Stateway is 100% a broker shipping company.  This is common but you also need to be wary.  This means if they quote you $1000 to ship and they take a $150 deposit upon the order being placed they are saving back $850 of it for the driver.  They then put out what seems to be a 'contract' in a shipping system that drivers use to find jobs or shipments.  They list the price of the shipping to be $850.  If there are 2000 cars in Florida waiting to be shipped and you're shipping a small car for $850 and someone else is shipping a small car for $1000 which contract do you think will be chosen first?  It's very unlikely it's being shipped in a truck owned by the company you hired but it can happen.  You may be able to request it but I would assume it may cost more and would likely take longer.

So once I figured this out and got quotes from other shippers I called back Stateway and asked that they increase my quote by $200 to make it more attractive.  They do this and said they would call me in the morning with an update and that it should get picked up fast at that price. 

I don't hear from them the next day.  I called them and they don't answer the phones but they return my call two days later and leave a message on my phone. I call them immediately back and they don't answer it again.

I started looking on the review site again and realize that there are SEVERAL reviews from people that are negative that point out that this company asks that users remove the negative reviews in exchange for the deposit back and thus they are skewing their reviews.  I read through all the negatives and there are some real horror stories and I start to see my beautiful new Porsche flash before my eyes.  One story actually involved a driver showing up high on meth and then dropping the persons car on it's side and of course the guy didn't pay his insurance premium.  The owner of the car was stuck with a large repair bill and Stateway apparently didn't do anything to fix the issue.  I know this is an extreme example but wow what happened to vetting your drivers?

Well I admit to a sort of panic when I read so many bad stories and I couldn't reach them and we were one week past the original promised pickup date.  BTW I should mention I scheduled this pickup two weeks prior to the actual date because we had a bodyshop do some work on the car while in FL due to the lower hourly rates there.

So I started looking for another company. I used Uship.com to create a shipping contract for companies to bid on and then I can just choose one.  I received several bids and read all the reviews for each company.  I rejected any shipper without 50 positive feedsbacks.  I finally settled on Montway Auto Shipping.  This was due to their 100% positive ratings online and a good standing with the Better Business Bureau.  They had three complaints and resolved all to the satisfaction of the complainant. 

The shipping quote ended up being about $250 more because I had them upgrade the contract to urgent.  They took the order on Friday and my car was on a truck on Monday, April 11.  Nice! 

Just a tip:  I created a used car agreement from a document I found online. I actually added a clause for the seller to photograph the car and take a video of it before being loaded on the truck and while being loaded.  I did this after some research and a recommendation of a shipper.  The car stays with the same driver from pickup to dropoff.  The photographing and video taking of the loading serves two purposes.  1. It documents the before condition of your car in case they do damage to it while loading/unloading/shipping.  2. The driver is aware of the documentation with photographs and therefore knows if s/he damages it that there is proof that it wasn't like that original and therefore hopefully will be more careful.

I called Montway yesterday and they called the driver.  The estimated delivery date is Wed, April 20.  They provided us with the drivers phone number so we can call for updates if needed.

I will of course update as I have more information or as we receive the car!