Tag Archive for: New Hampshire

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Transportreviews.com

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Alot of people use this website to checkout auto transport companies. I just want to explain how the website works and to use it as one of your tools to find a company. First customer can post reviews good or bad about a company on their experience using them. Companies that advertise or pay to be on the site get special treatment. I saw it happen first hand last fall. A customer called me looking to move their car from Las Vegas, NV to Boston, Mass as their son was returning home. They listed with a company and that company told them they are hundreds of trucks. First of all any company with hundreds of trucks is not going to be on transportreviews.com as they have national acct. Anyways, the vehicle was listed for 900 which was way too low I told him 1200 was probably going to move it. I told him to cancel the order and list it with me and write up a review on transportreviews about the company liaring to them saying they already had a truck assign to get it. The company was only a broker so had NO TRUCKS WAS LIARNG TO THE CUSTOMER.

The customer wrote a review about the company which I saw posted withn 3 hours the post was removed. The company was paying to advertise on the website I say about 200-250 dollars a month was going to the company they handles the reviews. How do you think the website makes money on advertising, so they want to keep this company so they removed the bad review. If you think about it that makes sense as they keep the company and they had good feedback so it is a win/win for both. I then went to look them up on the BBB (Better Business Bureau) they had over 100 complaints on them. How can they both be off by so much. I just explained it above.  In addition, you can see it they are a carrier or broker see below my company American Transport. I tried to cut and paste it but didn’t work

here is a link to my page.

http://transportreviews.com/company/american-transport-(massachussets).asp

If you look at the FMCSA info a broker will only be active if they are a carrier the common and contract with also so active. If they are both all of them will be active.

How long they have been in business is another great tool. A lot of these broker are gone in a year or so. It is always best to use someone local if you can find someone.

THE BOTTEM LINE JUST DON’T GO WITH THE LOWEST QUOTE DO SOME RESEARCH AND WILL SAVE YOU ALOT OF TIME AND HEADACHES.

GREAT ADVICE ON MULTIPLE CAR SHIPPING QUOTES WEBSITES (MUST READ)

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How Do Auto Transport Lead Providers Work?

When a customer searches on the Internet for an auto transport company, it is sometimes hard to tell which sites are in that business from the pretenders who are merely lead generation sites. The multiple auto shipping quotes web sites disguise themselves as real companies, capturing personal information and the particulars of an auto transport shipment, and then turn around and sell that information to nearly 10 brokers. What happens next is often chaos and confusion for the customer. Multiple QuotesThere are probably about ten former auto transport brokers who for whatever reason decided to give up shipping vehicles and now dominate the multiple quote lead business. The broker business is hyper competitive and takes a toll on most owners, so off they go. The lead providers usually own several sites that they optimize for certain major keywords. Many lead generation sites employ people whose only job is to find ways to push their auto transport web sites higher on Google, Bing and Yahoo. The customer has a hard time discerning the real from the sudo-real companies, and may unwittingly submit his or her personal information that is within seconds sold for $1.00 to $2.00 per lead to several actual brokers. The average total value of a typical multiple quote lead is therefore roughly $10 to the web site owner. If the auto shipping lead generation site has natural or organic web position, then the $10 collected per lead is pure profit. However, if the site used advertising companies such as Google Adwords to generate the multiple quote lead, then usually that advertising service will get the lion’s share of the $10. Ouch. So most lead providers use a mixture of both methods. It’s all numbers, and some lead providers are simply sharper than some of their lead providing competitors.

Who Buys The Multiple Quote Car Shipping Leads?

Usually, but not always, very aggressive auto transport brokers buy the leads. They have to be aggressive or somebody else will eat their lunch. Think about it. That broker knows that the lead they just received was also sent to as many as 9 other companies at precisely the same time. On average it cost each broker $1.00 to get that lead. Let’s say he buys 100 leads every day, so that’s $100 regardless of whether he books an order. The auto transport broker sends an email to the prospective customer just as soon as he can figure out the quote. But by the time he does that, the customer may have already received 9 other emailed quotes. If that broker’s quote is too high, he is likely to be eliminated from consideration, even though he knows that the order is unlikely to ship anytime soon for less than his quote. For our part, we are oblivious to competitor quotes. We know what it will take to actually ship an order within one week and will not deviate our approach. For that reason, we only occasionally participate in the lead buying business. ALSO CHECKOUT THE COMPANY YOU ARE GETTING A QUOTE FROM MOST OF THESE ARE FLY BY NIGHT COMPANIES AND WILL ONLY BE AROUND IN A YEAR OR 2. AMERICAN TRANSPORT HAS BEEN IN BUSINESS  FOR NEARLY 10 YEARS.

 

 

What kind of insurance do the carriers use?

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Most carriers hold750,000 to one million dollars combined single limit and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per incident.

This insurance covers damage done to your vehicle in transit. The auto transport carrier is the main and only coverage. Personal contents of the automobile are not covered by the carrier’s insurance, and the vehicle will not be covered if it is lost, damaged, or stolen

Can I Put Items In My Vehicle

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Auto shipping companies are not insured for household goods. The law specifically forbids automobile movers from transporting anything except your vehicle. The vehicle shipping transport truck is inspected by the Department of Transportation agents and police at every state line and can be fined up to $10,000, if found to be carrying household items. Under no circumstances may a vehicle carry firearms, illegal substances, contraband, or hazardous materials. The vehicle may be subject to impoundment, and in such an event, all fines and expenses will be passed on the owner of the vehicle. Newenglandtoflorida/American Transport lets you put less then 100 pound sin the trunk. Remember transport companies are not moving companies. In addition, please do not have anything in the front/back seat over the windows.

No MiddleMan

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If you book your car with a broker(middleman) they will usually post it on a Transport load board as cheap as possible and the first real trucking company that comes along gets it. This is bad for you and the trucking company. It’s bad for you, the customer, because you are over paying the broker to Carriers your car, so that he can pay himself and the Transport company. Its also bad when you call the broker to find out where your car is and he can’t give you an answer. He has to call the Transport to find out anything about your car, this makes it more frustrating for everyone. It’s bad for the Transport because he is being under paid for the work he is doing. What happens when a Transport is underpaid? First thing is the quality of service goes down. Second, is the Transport has to get cheaper insurance to be able to afford to keep his business afloat. This effects you because the insurance coverage of your vehicle is not as good.

The way we solve this problem is putting you in direct contact with the Transport company. By going direct, you are paying the Transport more than if you go through a broker and you, the customer, are paying less because there is no middle man. There are some good brokers in the industry, but this industry has had so many fly by night brokerages go in and out of this industry, that its given the brokers a really bad name. Several of the large brokers charge the customer and never pay the trucking company. Then the trucking company holds the customers car until they get paid. In so many cases the customer ends up paying twice. AMERICAN TRANSPORT IS BOTH A BROKER/CARRIER WHICH MEANS WE DO BOTH. SORRY I DO NOT LOW BALL AS I KNOW HOW MUCH IT COST TO BE A CARRIER.

Pros and Cons of Auto Transport Carriers and Auto Transport Brokers

The benefit of using a broker for Auto Transport is selection. A broker has ties with individual pre-approved Auto Transport or know where to post the vehicle online for any Transport to select. When using a carrier instead of a broker, you would be responsible for contacting the Auto Transport individually for Car Shipping.

Why Does a truck or SUV cost more that a regular vehicle ?

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NewenglandtoFlorida shipments are based on weight and size that a truck can legally carry. This is why there is a price difference with a car. Some times trucks take two spots on a carrier, so the company is short one car.

Will my vehicle be moved from one truck to another?

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No and Yes. Once your vehicle is on the auto truck, it stays on that truck during the entire process. There are rare circumstances when your vehicle will have to be moved to a different car transport truck, but that usually is only when the truck breaks down. Your car shipping company will always inform you of any changes during your vehicle transport, and you can call your driver any time to find out the status of your transport. Also, it may switch from one carrier to other do to a long haul and one carrier doesn’t go that far and will switch to a carrier that does. The customer would be advised of switching vehicle also. This happens a lot with the long hauls these big trucks get about 5 miles to the gallon.

 

 

Does it make a difference how much gas I leave in my vehicle?

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The suggested amount of gasoline  in a car upon pick-up is a ¼ tank. The reason why we ask our costumers to make sure of this is because any extra weight, multiplied by several vehicles per transporter, might cause the carrier to be deemed “overweight” at a weigh station.

Does it make a difference how much gas I leave in my vehicle?

Higher Barriers to Entry for Auto Transport Brokers

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freight If you’ve ever tried getting your car shipped, then you know that the competition is fierce. And while competition isn’t a bad thing per se, it certainly can be in some contexts. Case in point is the auto transport industry. There are over 1,000 active auto transport brokers in the US, and the vast majority of them are less than a year old. The reason why there are so many brokers is because the barriers to entry in this field (namely a $10,00 surety bond) are relatively low. But changes in the regulation of freight brokeraging now require brokers to hold  a substantially higher bond, which should have the effect of pushing out some of the smaller, less experienced, and, dare I say, less professional brokers. Other costs of operation will increase as well, putting the squeeze on the smaller guys. So as a customer, you can expect a more friendly and professional sales experience, which is certainly a welcome change. The change was made Oct 1, 2013. However, FMCSA gave a 2 month grace period so as of Dec 1, 2013 everyone had to have the 75K bond in place. This was do to the massive fraud that was happening in the industry to customers and also carriers. American Transport is both a carrier and broker.

 

Higher Barriers to Entry for Auto Transport Brokers

Basic Auto Transport Industry Rules

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1. NEVER choose a company based only on having the lowest quote (a quote is not always the price)

2. IGNORE companies who tell you that they “Have a driver or truck in your area” or “One spot left on the truck due to a last-minute cancellation” when you have no official order with them (these are just gimmicks to get you to call them and it is not an honest statement. Does it make sense that a broker really looked for a driver for your car already, before ever talking to you or getting your information? or that truck drivers are just standing by waiting around the corner?)

3. AVOID companies that claim to have their own trucks or say that they are “Family Owned and Operated” (Those are just ploys and if they offer “Nationwide” shipping they are ALWAYS a Broker and contracting carriers for you exactly like the next company, the key is to hire an honest one who protects your interests!)

4. AVOID companies that have “NO UPFRONT DEPOSIT REQUIRED” (NO DEPOSIT = NO CONTRACT)

5. DO YOUR RESEARCH by checking www.BBB.org and CAREFULLY.

 

These are Basic Auto Transport Industry Rules