Car Shipping: Better for the environment and your wallet

Image by altheengineer

When you move across country, whether it’s moving to a new home or sending your kid off to college, one cost you can’t forget to factor in is the cost of getting your car across country.  Packing and moving your furniture is relatively simple – call a good moving company and you’re set.  They come, load up your stuff, drive it across country and unload it at your new house.  But what about your car?  Do you really want to drive it all that way?  Do you have the TIME to do that?  What will it cost in gas, food, hotel bills, etc?  And which is better for the environment…driving it yourself or getting it shipped?

Well to me, those are all good questions.  I know that while I would love to take a nice long trip across country, I just couldn’t afford to do it.  Especially if let’s say I was having to pay moving costs or send a kid off to college…those two things are expensive enough.

Let’s just take a look here.  Even if you drive 12 hours a day, you’re still talking a few days to get across country.  That’s two to three meals a day, hotel costs, gasoline for the hundreds/thousands of miles you need to travel (and even if you use a fuel additive to help lower emissions and improve your fuel economy)…you’re talking between a few hundred and a thousand dollars.  If you drive your whole family it’s even more.  Then factor in how many miles it would put on your car to drive it all that way and what you’d need to spend on repairs and/or upkeep to ensure it could make the trip.  None of that includes the emissions from your car and effect on the environment of driving across country.

So, instead of spending your valuable time and money to get your car ready to drive across country, I say ship it.  Whether or not you realize it, there are companies that “ship” or transport cars across country all the time and many offer door-to-door service.  This type of service also helps the environment by taking those 6-8 cars off the road and using one truck (who would probably be making the trip anyway) to transport them instead.

Now I wouldn’t recommend trying to find a car carrier on your own.  I would go through a broker who is going to work FOR you to find the best price and get you the best service.  Read this blog I read the other day and you’ll see what I mean.  I know with all the money I would have to spend to move, I’d want to be sure I was getting the best deal all around.

All of this is just a tip or maybe even call it a personal preference, but when you factor in all the costs to your wallet and the costs to the environment, I’d go with shipping my car across country rather than driving.  What about you?