How to Buy a Car Out of State and Have It Shipped (Podcast)

Jeremy Louisos from Preowned Auto Logistics sits down with John Maher to talk about shipping vehicles to other states. They look at the reasons shoppers buy vehicles from other states, explain the shipping process, and tell listeners how to get a free quote on out-of-state car shipping. 

John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher, and I’m here today with Jeremy Louisos, Senior Vice President at Preowned Auto Logistics, a car shipping and auto transport and logistics company in Massachusetts. And today our topic is how to buy a car out of state and have it shipped. Welcome, Jeremy.

Jeremy Louisos: Hi, John. Thanks for having me.

Why People Buy Cars Out of State

John: Sure. So Jeremy, why would someone buy a car from out of state?

Jeremy: Yeah. So if we’re thinking about online purchases where we’re buying a lot of stuff that might not be in our backyard, so to speak. With the option to get out there and look a bit further than we might normally for purchasing items, we might find that there are deals to be had when we expand our search a bit. Also the variety of vehicles that purchasers now have access to has really increased because of the things like that. You’re shopping online. All the information you would need to make that purchasing decision is available to you. You can compare different dealerships. And rather than just really being constrained to your own locality, you can shop the whole country. And let’s say you’re not finding a particular make or model that you’re looking for or there just is a better deal out there in a different part of the country. Buyers are really starting to take advantage of that, both on the dealership side of things, where folks are sourcing inventory, as well the consumer side.

This past year has really pushed that up, where a lot of folks are getting online and purchasing their vehicles. And fortunately for us, this is something we’ve been doing for 20 years. We know how to get the vehicle there quickly, safely, bring it through the whole process. So we’re big fans of purchasing online and excited to help folks as they navigate those waters. It’s a great way of getting out there and finding exactly what you want.

Benefits of Buying Vehicles From Other Areas

John: Right. I know that my brother did this some years ago and everybody in the family hadn’t even considered buying a car from another state or online like that. But he was looking for a specific, I think it was a BMW and it was maybe even a certain model year or something like that. And he found one down in Florida. It was in great shape because down in Florida, you don’t have the salt on the roads that we have up in New England. So it was in really fantastic shape, had low mileage because it was I think somebody who was a seasonal resident who only drove it in the winters when they were down south. So kind of a perfect car that he was looking for, had really low mileage, but he was in Massachusetts or New Hampshire and the car was in Florida. So he purchased it from there.

Do you see that kind of thing happening a lot, where people are buying cars maybe from the South because they’re in such great condition or just because they’re searching for a certain year, make and model of a certain car and they’re not able to find it wherever they’re located?

Jeremy: Yeah, we sure do. There are folks both, again, on the dealership and the individual side. They’re traditionally, if you’re in a place without the more extreme weather conditions of the North, that vehicle might be in better condition there. Similar, we’ll see that in trends when folks are looking for all wheel drive or four by four. Those are maybe less available in some areas or more desirable in others, and folks will jump out of their region to get the vehicle that makes more sense for their place, or sourcing it from somewhere where those conditions might be more desirable for the condition of the vehicle they’re looking for.

How to Find Vehicles for Sale in Other Areas

John: Right. What are some of the ways or places where people can find and buy cars out of state? You mentioned online as one of them.

Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s really what we see a whole ton of now. Folks are getting online. Sometimes they’re dealing directly with the dealership, so all the dealerships all over the country have their own websites. There are online auctions. In a previous bit, we discussed different auction houses and auctions being online now. That can be a big source. Those exist all over the country. And then there are sites and services people use, aggregate sites that look at all that stuff and give the user, the online purchaser, that car buying experience, where they’re getting information from a ton of different locations online and getting all the data they need to figure out what the best fit is. So really online is the primary way that we see this stuff come in through those various sources.

I suppose you could, in theory, be somewhere, maybe you’re on vacation, maybe you’re visiting relatives, maybe you have a contact in a different part of the country that could be your eyes on the ground, help make that purchase and ship it back for you. I think we see some of that. And then, I suppose you could make a phone call, but yeah, really a lot of this is online.

Are There Risks of Buying Vehicles From Out of State?

John: Are there any risks or concerns or things that I should be worried about in terms of buying a car from out of state?

Jeremy: Yeah. So, the great news there is not really, or not at all. So the way that the taxes all work, in most states, it just runs that you will pay everything the same as if you had purchased it in-state. You’ll pay those same in-state taxes. There’s no special permitting required. Really just using a service like ours, let us know where the vehicle is. We’ll make sure it’s ready for release and we’ll get it to you. But that’s really the advantage here, is that it’s not difficult to purchase. And if you think about it, if you were buying online down the street versus buying across the country, those two user experiences are about the same and there’s no other barrier there. It makes buying anywhere in the country that much more accessible. So, it’s an option that we’re excited about extending to a lot of our customers, at least help them after they’ve made that decision get the vehicle back to their house.

Also we’ve jumped in. We’ve had folks that are maybe shopping or thinking about that, that they’re looking at purchasing a vehicle in a part of the country. And before they make the purchase, they might want some information on what possible shipping costs might look like. We’re glad to help out there as well. So it’s more possible than ever, and we’re excited to help.

How to You Ship Cars From Other States?

John: What’s involved in arranging car shipping for an out-of-state car that I’ve bought?

Jeremy: Yeah. So, it ends up being really similar to any other shipment that you might purchase. So we would need the basic info, origin, destination, contact. And you’d just reach out to us phone, email or through our website, and just let us know where you’re purchasing. We’ll have one of our agents reach out to you, guide you through the whole process and make sure your questions are answered, but we try to be as accessible as possible and really bring you through that process and educate our customers in anything needed. But it’s very simple.

The Cost of Shipping Cars From State to State

John: Can I get a quote on my car shipping before I make a purchase so that I know how much that shipping is going to cost and how it fits into my budget as I’m shopping? Because obviously if I buy a car from a dealership down the street, it’s not really going to cost me anything to go pick it up, but if I’m buying a car across the country, I’m going to have to add that cost of shipping onto the purchase price of the car, the vehicle. So knowing ahead of time what that’s going to cost, I’ll know whether or not I can afford that car. Is that something that I can arrange?

Jeremy: Absolutely. Yeah. So we do that all the time. Free quote is something that we’re excited to extend any interested party. So you just reach out to us via any of those, email, the website’s a great experience. We’ll get you that free quote quickly. You’ll have all the information that you need to make that decision, but yeah, common practice for us and we’re glad to do it.

Get a Free Quote on Shipping Your Car Today

John:     All right. Well, that’s really great information, Jeremy. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Jeremy: My pleasure, John. Thanks so much.

John: And for more information or to request a quote for your auto shipping needs, visit the website at PreownedAutoLogistics.com or call (877) 542-1955.

Car Shipping Damage Claims (Podcast)

Mike Scenna from Preowned Auto Logistics talks with John Maher about damage claims from vehicles damaged during shipping. Although fewer than 1% of vehicles are damaged during the shipping process, they look at how damage claims are handled. They talk about how Preowned Auto Logistics minimizes the risk of damage and explain how the carrier’s insurance covers all damage costs. 

John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher. I’m here today with Mike Scenna, sales manager at Preowned Auto Logistics, a car shipping and auto transport and logistics company in Massachusetts. Today our topic is car shipping damage claims. Welcome Mike.

Mike Scenna: Hey John, thanks for having me.

How Auto Shippers Keep Vehicles Safe

John: Sure. So Mike do most cars that are shipped, make it to their destination without being damaged?

Mike: Yeah, so of course, for the most part, the goal is to get these cars shipped without damage and we do a really good job of that. Our claims are very low considering the amount of cars we ship and that’s just from taking the right safety measures on the front end. We have kind of a really in-depth training process for our drivers and also a really in-depth vetting process for the networked carriers that we use, so we’ve found that taking the extra time on the front end and just being as safe as we can and going through training a little bit longer, maybe the most companies do, just helps in the long run to prevent damages. If you just take your time and make sure you’re doing things right, it saves a lot of headache than rushing through and ending up with more damages than we’d like to see.

Fewer Than 1% of Vehicles Are Damaged in Shipping

John: Right. So how often does damage occur and what types of accidents or damage might be most common? Is it damage while the cars are being driven on an open carrier or is it while they’re loading and unloading or that kind of thing?

Mike: Yeah. So if I had to throw a number on it, last time I checked, it’s really low. I’d say we’re looking at damages less than 1% of the time, so it’s not often. Of course it seems more because when those damages do occur, it kind of takes up a lot of everyone’s time and it’s a big process that people don’t want to go through. So yeah, it might seem like it happens a little often, but we do a lot to keep that low.

And as far as what happens and how it happens, I would say most of it is from loading and unloading. If you’ve seen how these trucks work, it’s a lot of different decks and different angles that the car is going up and over and you really got to take your time to make sure those decks are adjusted the proper way, especially a lot of these newer cars are on the lower side so you want to make sure you have all the right clearances and really take your time to prevent those things from happening.

I know you had said what types of trailers, of course the enclosed trailers, it’s a lot lower. Those trailers have, they’re designed for really easy loading and unloading. They have these really cool lift gates that keep the loading process very smooth and low so it’s a lot easier to do on those, but even on the open carries, again, it’s just as long as you’re taking your time and doing it right, you should be able to prevent that stuff from happening.

Filing Damage Claims Related to Vehicle Shipping

John: Right. So you do a lot of shipping, not just for individual people that are moving their cars, but also for dealerships, if you’re shipping a car for a dealership, what’s their process for filing a damage claim?

Mike: Yeah. So we do a ton of shipping for dealerships, as you said, and we actually, we have a very uniform process here. So our claims process for dealers and as well as for a private individuals is the same. And it starts with immediately, we provide the customer with a damage claim form, and that form is for them to fill out and just take a chance to describing exactly what happened to the vehicle and just get everything rolling on paper so we’re doing this the right way. And we spend a lot of time coaching, both of our dealerships and our private parties on doing this, how to do the condition report when you’re checking in the car, what to look for, where to look.

And so when we do get to this point that we like to prevent, of filing a damage claim, they understand how it works, and we’re able to execute it in a way that’s going to help get the car fixed, get it covered if the carrier is at fault and get it repaired as quickly as possible. These dealers, they’re getting these cars in to sell or getting it ready to get out on the lot to show to people, so a damage can really slow things down. So we want to keep this moving as quickly as possible and really not waste anyone’s time.

Benefits of Shipping Vehicles With Preowned Auto Logistics

John: Right. And what do you feel like sets PAL apart from other car shipping companies in terms of how you handle damage claims?

Mike: It’s absolutely our due diligence. We really take the time, again to educate the consumer what to do in order to prevent these. So what to do at pickup, taking as many pictures as possible, taking the time to go over the car with the carrier. I mean, we found a lot of damage claims are really false damage claims. People think that something happened during transport that you may have discovered on the inspection process. Tons of things happen to your car when it’s in parking lots, when it’s out on the sales lot, other car doors hitting it, weather, I mean anything could cause, there are tons of things that can cause little scratches and things and dents, so it’s important to really do a thorough inspection on the front end to make sure you’re aware of all of these little damages on the car prior to shipping it.

And same on the delivery end. Again, take your time, really go through the car, look at the pictures from pickup, work with the driver on inspecting it. And if you find anything you want to address it right then and there. And that’s the biggest thing with damage claims, you don’t want to notice it a week later and make a call, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to get something covered. And work with the carrier, then if you notice the damage right there on the front end.

Assessing Existing Damage Before Shipping Vehicles

John: Right. And does the truck driver when they come to pick up my car, do they kind of help me walk through the car and walk around it and point out things that might come up later? Like, hey, I noticed there’s this little dent on the front door. We want to make sure that we note that down so that you don’t think that that’s damaged on the other end, that kind of thing.

Mike: Yeah. These drivers are great at that kind of stuff. So most of them are going to take their time to really go through that process with you, make sure everyone’s on the same page, because that’s ultimately what we want is everyone to be on the same page. However, I still always instruct people, take your time to take your own pictures. If you see the driver taking pictures, that’s great, but it doesn’t hurt to take your own pictures. Make sure you get a copy of the bill of lading, the condition report that they’re doing at pickup. And just do as much of the prep work as you can on your own. The drivers are great, like you just said they’re going to help you, but still it’s important to do that stuff, your own due diligence with that stuff too.

Repairs After Filing Damage Claims

John: Right. So then what happens after the damage claim is filed and how does my car get repaired if it does require it?

Mike: Sure. So once a claim is filed, we go through our own internal investigation process. So we look at pictures at pickup, any condition reports, any notes that anyone’s taken, look at the same stuff at delivery and really just go through the whole process to figure out, okay, where does it look like this damage occurred? At what point does something not line up with the inspections here and try to figure out exactly what happened. If we found that the damage existed prior to shipping the car, the claim pretty much ends there. And you might go back to where you got the car from and see what happened with the place that it started.

If we notice that there is someone at fault, if the carrier is at fault for the damage, then we work to get that repair approved as quickly as possible. So as we’re working on that, we’ll get the customer to bring the car to a body shop, start gathering estimates, and basically approve it as quickly as we can so we can get the vehicle in the shop, fixed and back to the customer on the lot as quickly as possible.

Vehicle Shipping and Car Insurance

John: And do I have to get my own car insurance involved at all? Or is it really just if there is damage that happened during the move, during the transportation, then it’s all handled by you guys?

Mike: Yep. All handled by us, so we’re fully licensed, bonded, and insured ourselves and we only work with carriers that are also fully licensed, bonded, and insured. So there’s no reason for you to have to get your own insurance company involved.

Contact Us to Schedule Vehicle Transport Today

John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Mike. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Mike: Yeah, of course. Thanks, John.

John: And for more information or to request a quote for your auto shipping needs, visit the website at preownedautologistics.com or call (877) 542-1955.

Luxury Car Transport (Video)

Jeremy Louisos talks about transporting luxury cars, the different types of carrier trucks, and the differences when shipping your luxury car with PAL.

I’m Jeremy Louisos, SVP at Preowned Auto Logistics , here to talk about transporting luxury vehicles. So at Preowned, we’ve transported a lot of different types of luxury vehicles over the years, whether they be classic cars, collector cars, a lot of exotic high-line cars, race cars, cars for movie sets. We’ve really done everything in that space.

One of the things that we talk to folks about all the time, on any shipment that you’re shipping, enclosed transportation might be a good option when you’re looking to elevate a little bit. Regular open carriers work really well, your vehicle is encaged up off the road, but it is going to be exposed to weather conditions and other road conditions like debris that could be moving around. There are a number of times where if you’re shipping a luxury vehicle, that is not an option for you. You need this thing to get there perfectly.

So enclosed, a lot of these carriers have an actual lift gate on the back of the carrier. The vehicle can be driven on, clears that low clearance that a lot of these luxury vehicles have, lifts it up on an elevator, you drive it right in and it’s going to be sealed in there.

The straps that they use are special kinds of straps that don’t touch the wheels. There’s no chains in the frame. It’s all done really clean and really safely as well, which is an important consideration for anyone shipping a high value vehicle.

And lastly, when it comes to shipping, especially new luxury vehicles, we make sure it has both sets of keys, the books are in the vehicle, it’s got low miles, or we know the miles on it. And we do a thorough condition report of the vehicle, as we do with all the vehicles that we ship at Preowned Auto Logistics.

Types of Dealership Moves (Video)

Jeremy Louisos talks about car shipping and the different types of dealership moves that PAL handles every day.

I’m Jeremy Louisos, SVP at Preowned Auto Logistics, talking about different types of dealer moves. So our dealership clients are really bustling places. You go to these lots and you see a ton of different vehicles on their lots. Well, all those vehicles had to get there somehow. So a lot of original equipment manufacturers coming right from the factory, but also there’s a lot of used inventory these days that might be sourced at online auctions or brick and mortar auctions, and then even a dealer trade.

So one of the things dealers do quite often is a customer comes in, they say, “Hey, I see you have a red one. I want a blue one.” A dealership a few hundred miles down the road has the one they’re looking for and those dealerships will actually trade those cars.

On the other side of it, every time a vehicle is purchased, sometimes they’re driving them off the lot. But quite often those vehicles need to be delivered. Especially now with online purchases. We see a lot more distance, people that might not even be in-state are purchasing from these dealerships and need that distance move and that’s really a place that we specialize in, in those types of final mile deliveries.

Then after a trade-in comes into the dealerships, they usually will bring those to auction and the cycle starts over again. So really anything you need from sourcing your inventory to dealer trades to any of those auction moves, Preowned’s here and ready to help.

The Difference Between Auto Shipping Brokers and Carriers (Video)

Mike Scenna talks about the difference between auto shipping brokers and carriers, why strictly using carriers is not always the best choice, and why choosing the right broker makes all the difference.

Hi, I’m Mike Scenna, Sales Manager at PreOwned Auto Logistics. A question I get asked all the time is, “what’s the difference between auto shipping carriers and auto shipping brokers?”. Auto shipping carriers are companies that own their own vehicles. They employ their own drivers. Whereas brokers are companies that use relationships with vendors in order to move your vehicle.

It’s a common belief that in our industry that it’s much better to work with a carrier. People want to work with companies that own their own trucks. They feel as though these companies know their drivers and they know where your vehicle is at all times. We’ve been operating as both a broker and a carrier for almost 20 years now, and we’ve found that couldn’t be any further from the truth.

By operating as a broker, we have access to a vast network of carriers — hundreds, even thousands of trucks moving around the country. This allows us to offer you not only a great rate at any given time, but to move your vehicle in a very reasonable amount of time.

When it comes to safety, we have a very, very strict vetting process. We wouldn’t work with any carriers unless they meet or exceed our safety guidelines. So when it comes to choosing between a carrier or a broker, as long as you choose the right broker, you can’t go wrong.

Dealership Car Shipping – The PAL Customer Portal

Jeremy Louisos talks about the PAL Customer Portal, and how it allows dealerships to instantly see where their vehicles are.

Transcript:

I’m Jeremy Louisos, SVP at Preowned Auto Logistics, and I’m here to discuss the PAL Customer Portal.

So for us, what started out as a way of trying to reduce some of our communications — we were getting a lot of inquiries from folks like sales managers, general managers, regional managers, on “Hey, where the heck is this car? I have keys, I don’t see the vehicle here,” or, “I have something in my inventory management system, but I don’t know where the car is” — we were getting a lot of calls and emails. They were doing a lot of communication with their team, trying to locate these cars. We realized, hey, we actually have probably the best dataset to locate all of our client’s vehicles. So we extended the PAL Customer Portal.

So the PAL Customer Portal allows dealerships to log into our system and do things like use a VIN lookup and instantly see exactly where their vehicles are. They can view customer history and see every vehicle they may have scheduled for pickup or recently delivered. They can print pre-invoices and even request orders in the future, and get quotes for orders they might be doing.

The next level of that is really an integration where we start building out notifications, customized reporting for specific scenarios like, “hey, every time a vehicle is dropped off at this location, we want a custom notification to go out to these email addresses.”

The final iteration of this, and where we’re really seeing the most power for the PAL Portal is integrating our transportation management system with the dealership’s inventory management system, which allows updates to transmit from our system to theirs and requests that they might be generating from their system to go instantly into our system, creating the order and allowing us to deliver really quick service without a ton of typing, calling or emailing. So we’re really excited about this. Please check out the PAL Portal today.

The Cost of Car Shipping (Video)

Mike Scenna of PAL talks about the cost of car shipping, including the many factors that go into quoting a price for your auto transport.

Hi, I’m Mike Scenna, sales manager at Preowned Auto Logistics. A question I get asked all the time is, “How much does it cost to ship a car?” There’s really no straightforward answer to this question. There are tons of factors that go into determining a true cost. A lot of people think it’s just about the mileage, but that couldn’t be any further from the truth.

Think of shipping a car like renting a spot on a truck. There’s only so many spaces and there’s a weight limit that the truck needs to meet. So the bigger and heavier the car, the more money it’s going to be. So it’s less about mileage and a little bit more about size of the vehicle.

Another big factor that goes into this is the seasonality or commonality of the lane. Again, you’re renting out that spot on a truck, so a lane that’s traveled more frequently is going to have more spaces traveling back and forth, to and from that destination, making spots more available and resulting in a better price. Whereas a lane that’s not traveled as often has less spots and it is going to result in more money to find one of those spots.

When it comes to getting an accurate quote, the best thing to do is speak to someone who is experienced and professional, someone who can give you an accurate quote that knows the lanes and knows what factors truly go into shipping a car.

Oversized Vehicle Shipping (Video)

Mike Marshall of PAL talks about oversized vehicle shipping, including trucks, boats, and other vehicles.

Hi, I’m Mike Marshall with Preowned Auto Logistics. I’m the Dispatch Manager. I’d like to talk to you about shipping oversized vehicles. Not all vehicles will fit on conventional equipment, all the different trailers that are available. If your vehicle is lifted, has any kind of a roof or ladder rack, is extra heavy, or has anything that’s beyond the normal stock vehicle, there are other options.

We can move just about anything on any kind of trailer. There are options like flat beds. There are low trailers. There are all kinds of different ways that we can move it. It’s important upfront when calling for any of those kind of quotes that we have a VIN number or the dimensions, weight, or any accessories that are on your vehicle. Again, we can move anything, so please call for a quote.

PAL’s Dedicated Account Reps (Video)

Colby Harlow of PAL talks about dealership car shipping, and why having a dedicated account rep makes such a big difference for dealerships transporting vehicles.

Hi, my name’s Colby Harlow and I work at Preowned Auto Logistics. Very often, I’m confronted with the question, “why should I choose you over another brokerage option?”

I think there are many, many reasons, but my most common answer tends to be, simply put, “me”. You’re going to have a single point of contact over here. I’m going to walk you through the process from pickup to delivery and everything in between. And also, I view it as being a consultant for your dealership as well.

I’ve worked nationwide with dealerships all the way from California to North Carolina and in New England. I get to see the whole marketplace, so what I’m going to do is consult you on where cars are moving the fastest, where they’re moving the cheapest, so you can make the best decisions based off your needs, and just try to be beneficial for everyone.

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