Car Shipping Companies

There are thousands of car shipping companies in the United States and they are not remotely equal. Some own trucks. Some, like us, are brokers who arrange transport with carriers. Some are neither, and exist only to sell your phone number to whoever bids most for it.

You can tell them apart in about a minute, for free, and we would rather teach you that than tell you we are the best. Below is how to check any transport company in the country — including this one.

How to check a car shipping company yourself

Ask for the USDOT and MC numbers, then look them up in the FMCSA SAFER system. It is free, public, run by the federal government, and takes a minute.

Ours are USDOT 3674601 and MC 1274912. Go and check them.

What the record tells you:

• Whether the authority is ACTIVE. Not applied for, not revoked, not lapsed.
• Whether it is broker or carrier authority. A broker arranges transport; a carrier owns trucks. Both are legitimate. A company being vague about which it is, is not.
• The safety record, including reported crashes.
• How long the registration has existed. Ours dates from July 2021.

Then apply three more tests:

• Will they give you the numbers at all? Reluctance is the whole answer.
• Is the quote dramatically below everyone else's? That is usually a bid to win your booking, after which no carrier accepts the load at that price and the number moves.
• Do they guarantee things the road cannot deliver? Editorial reviewers have documented transport companies quietly withdrawing damage guarantees and tracking features they had previously advertised. A promise that cannot survive weather, traffic and regulated driver hours is a sales device.

What we are

Genius Auto Trans LLC is a licensed and bonded property broker. We do not own trucks. We arrange your shipment with a licensed motor carrier drawn from a vetted network of more than 10,000, and we verify that carrier's active operating authority and cargo cover before your vehicle is assigned to it — not afterwards.

Being a broker is the advantage on a market this fragmented. A carrier can offer you its own trucks on its own routes; when your lane does not fit, you wait. We are sourcing against the whole market for your specific corridor.

More: About Us · How It Works · Reviews

Alaska and Hawaii

We arrange transport within the 48 contiguous states and Washington, DC. Alaska and Hawaii are not served, and we do not arrange international or overseas shipping.

Stated this early because a good share of the people who reach this page are looking for exactly that. Shipping to either state requires ocean freight — a container or roll-on service — which is a different industry with different operators. We would rather tell you now than after a quote request.

What we arrange

How the vehicle travels: Open Auto Transport · Enclosed Auto Transport · Door-to-Door Auto Transport · Expedited Car Shipping

By distance: State-to-State Car Shipping · Seasonal / Snowbird Relocation

By vehicle: Motorcycle Transport · Exotic & Luxury Car Transport · Boat Transport · RV Transport · Heavy Equipment Transport · ATV & UTV Shipping · Golf Cart Shipping · Jet Ski Shipping

Everything: Services Hub

What it costs

We do not publish a rate card or a per-mile figure. You will find both on this search, and you will notice the per-mile numbers vary by a factor of three depending on distance — which is the clearest possible demonstration that a single published rate cannot describe your shipment.

What actually moves your quote: distance and lane density together, vehicle size, weight and running condition, open or enclosed, timing flexibility, season, and access at both ends.

Detail: FAQ — Cost & Pricing. Payment terms and when a fee applies: How to Pay.

Discounts: Military & Veteran · Senior Citizen · Student · Car Dealer · Referral · Government Agents · Discounts Hub

The cheapest way to ship a car

Four decisions do almost all the work, and none of them involves hunting for a discount code.

Choose open transport. Open carrier car shipping shares the deck across eight to ten vehicles, so the cost of running the truck is split. It is how manufacturers move new stock. Enclosed costs more for good reason, but most cars do not need it.

Give a wide pickup window. This is the single biggest lever you control. A range of days lets us source from every carrier running your corridor that week instead of the few free on one date. Fixed dates are what fast car shipping is priced for, and priority pricing costs more by design.

Ship outside the peaks. Summer relocation, late-summer campus moves and the autumn and spring snowbird migrations all tighten capacity on predictable corridors at predictable times. Moving a fortnight either side of a wave often saves more than any discount.

Use dense corridors, and be flexible at the ends. Metro-to-metro runs price better than routes into thin rural areas. If your address is genuinely hard for a full-size hauler to reach, agreeing an accessible meeting point a few minutes away can widen the carrier pool considerably.

Two things that do not make it cheaper: taking the lowest quote on the board, which is frequently a bid that gets revised when no carrier accepts the load; and putting belongings in the car, which federal regulation prohibits and cargo insurance does not cover.

If a discount applies to you, mention it at quote stage — military and veteran, senior, student and dealer are each 10%.

How a shipment runs

Quote, booking, carrier vetting and assignment, collection with a documented condition inspection, transit with a contact point, delivery with a second inspection before you sign. The bill of lading is the condition record and the document that decides whether a claim is possible — inspect properly in good light, and never sign clean if there is new damage.

Full sequence: How It Works · Get a Quote

On cover: we are a licensed and bonded broker, not the carrier. Every carrier we assign is required to hold active cargo insurance, and we will provide that carrier's certificate on request. The detail sits on FAQ — Carriers, Insurance & Safety.

Where we ship

Coverage across the 48 contiguous states and DC. Locations Hub · Routes Hub

California · Texas · Florida · New York · North Carolina · Georgia · Virginia · Washington · Colorado · Arizona · Illinois · Michigan · Pennsylvania · Ohio · New Jersey · Massachusetts · Tennessee · South Carolina · Maryland · Nevada · Minnesota · Missouri · Oregon · Indiana · Alabama · Wisconsin · Kentucky · Louisiana · Utah · Connecticut · District of Columbia · New Mexico · Kansas · Oklahoma · Maine · Mississippi · Nebraska · Delaware · Arkansas · Iowa · Idaho · Rhode Island · New Hampshire · Montana · West Virginia · South Dakota · North Dakota · Wyoming · Vermont

Frequently asked questions

How can I ship a car? Request a quote with the vehicle details and both locations, book, and we assign a vetted carrier running your corridor. The carrier collects from your address, documents the vehicle's condition, transports it, and delivers to the destination address where condition is checked again before you sign.

How are cars shipped? On multi-vehicle trailers. Open trailers are uncovered and carry the most vehicles, which makes them the economical standard. Enclosed trailers have walls and a roof and are used for high-value, classic and low-clearance vehicles.

What is auto transport? The business of moving vehicles by truck rather than driving them. It is carried out by motor carriers and arranged either directly or, more commonly, through licensed brokers.

What is the difference between a broker and a carrier? A carrier owns trucks and moves your vehicle itself. A broker does not own trucks and arranges the shipment with a licensed carrier. Both are legitimate and federally regulated. What matters is that whoever you deal with holds active authority you can verify.

Can moving companies transport cars? Some arrange it, usually by handing the shipment to a transport company. You are generally better dealing with a transport specialist directly, if only because it removes a layer between you and the carrier.

How does shipping compare with driving the car myself? Compare it against fuel, nights on the road, your own time, the mileage added and the wear. On a long move shipping frequently wins on cost alone, before convenience is counted.

Can you arrange transport for a non-running car? Yes, with a winch-equipped carrier. It is a narrower pool and a different price, so tell us at quote stage whether it rolls, steers and brakes.

Do you ship to Alaska or Hawaii? No. We arrange transport within the 48 contiguous states and Washington, DC only. Both those states require ocean freight, which is a different industry.

How do I know a car shipping company is legitimate? Ask for the USDOT and MC numbers and look them up in FMCSA SAFER. Check the authority is active and correctly classified. Be sceptical of quotes far below the field and of guarantees the road cannot support.

Which choices actually lower the price of shipping a car? Open transport, a flexible pickup window, booked outside the seasonal peaks, on a dense corridor. Those four together do far more for your price than any discount, and none of them costs you anything to choose.

What is the cheapest way to ship a car cross country? The same four, with timing mattering most. On a long lane a carrier is committing several days to your load, so a wide window and an off-peak week move the number more than they would on a short move.

How long does car shipping take? It depends on distance and how many carriers run your corridor. Dates are estimates, not guarantees — driver hours, weather and road conditions all move them. See FAQ — Timing & Transit.

More: FAQ — Booking & Process · FAQ — Vehicle Types & Conditions · FAQ — Routes & Locations · FAQ — Specialty Transport · FAQ — Vehicle Preparation · Car Shipping FAQs

Longer reads: Blog Hub · Legal: Terms & Conditions · Privacy Policy · Questions: Contact

Or call (800) 780-1113 — answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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