How to Ship a Car During Peak Season
Peak season is not one thing, and knowing which peak you are in changes what you should do about it. The summer moving crush, the autumn snowbird run south, the spring return north and the university calendar are four separate pressures, and they hit different lanes at different times. Identify yours and the plan follows.
The Four Peaks
Summer, roughly May through August. The largest and the broadest. The household moving season and the school calendar collide, so it affects every lane in the country rather than a particular corridor. This is the peak that raises prices generally.
Autumn southbound, October and November. The snowbird migration toward Florida, Arizona and Texas. It is lane-specific and directional, and it is severe on those routes while the rest of the country is quiet.
Spring northbound, March and April. The same population returning. Same lanes, opposite direction.
University move-in and move-out, late August and early May. Concentrated into a few days and simultaneous at every campus in a region, which pulls capacity out of the general market as well as the campus lanes.
A move can sit in more than one at once. Shipping a student car to Florida in late August is three of the four.
What Actually Changes in a Peak
Three things, and only one is the price.
Rates firm up. More load than truck means carriers can be selective, and the marginal load pays more.
Flexibility disappears. The pickup windows that normally save money are not on offer, because dispatchers have their choice of freight.
Delivery estimates widen. Trailers run full, drivers run their full legal hours, and the slack that absorbs a delay is gone. A delay early in a route propagates all the way down it.
What does not change is the loading and handover process, which is worth remembering because peak season is exactly when people rush it.
The Six Things That Work
Book earlier. Three to four weeks rather than one to two. This is the single largest lever and it costs nothing.
Give a wide window. A four or five day range rather than a date. In a peak this matters more than at any other time, because a dispatcher with abundant freight will take the load that fits the truck already forming.
Shift by a week if you can. The peaks have edges. Moving a pickup to the week before or after a crush is frequently worth more than any negotiation, and the last week of any month is busier than the first.
Offer a meeting point. Removing a difficult address from the carrier’s job is a real concession and it is worth more when they have alternatives.
Consider the reverse direction. On a snowbird lane, moving against the flow means you are the return-leg load a carrier wants, and the price frequently reflects that.
Be honest about the vehicle. A peak is the worst time for a driver to arrive and find something they cannot load, because there is no slack to reschedule.
Set the Expectation on Delivery
Worth doing deliberately, because most peak-season complaints are about expectation rather than performance.
Treat the delivery date as a range and plan so that arriving two days late is an inconvenience rather than a problem. Do not schedule anything that depends on the exact day.
Arrange for the car to arrive after you do rather than before, because a vehicle delivered where nobody is waiting becomes a storage cost, and storage is also in demand during a peak.
And judge the carrier on communication rather than on whether a date moved. Being told promptly where the load is and why it is late is the service.
Do Not Let the Rush Change the Fundamentals
Peak season is when the low quote does most of its damage.
A price well below the others is a listing price rather than a carrier price at any time of year. In a peak, when carriers have their pick of freight, a below-market load is the one that sits longest, and your dates are the ones that pass.
Ask the same question you would in February: is this what a carrier has accepted, or what you hope one will accept? Then ask what happens if it is not assigned, and whether a deposit is refundable at that point.
Verify authority and safety record in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s public system. It takes five minutes and matters more when everybody is busy. Our explanation of how the freight market sets what you pay covers why the number moves.
Preparing the Car
Unchanged by the season and worth twenty minutes.
Wash it so existing marks are visible, then photograph every panel in daylight including the wheels, the lower bumpers and the rocker panels. Photograph the odometer.
Leave about a quarter tank of fuel and empty the cabin and trunk completely, since personal items are not covered by cargo insurance. On a summer peak that matters twice over, because interior temperatures on an open deck become extreme and anything that can melt or burst will.
Walk around the car with the driver at pickup, and at delivery inspect before signing and note anything unexpected on the bill of lading while they are still present.
Common Questions
When is peak season? Four of them: summer generally, autumn southbound, spring northbound, and the university calendar in late August and early May.
How far ahead should I book? Three to four weeks in a peak, with a four or five day pickup window rather than a fixed date.
Is moving the date really worth it? Frequently more than negotiating. The peaks have edges, and the first ten days of a month are quieter than the last.
Why do deliveries slip more in a peak? Trailers run full and drivers run their full legal hours, so there is no slack to absorb a delay.
Should I take the cheapest quote in a peak? Least of all then. A below-market load sits longest exactly when carriers have their pick of freight.
Get a Quote
Call Ship A Car, Inc. at (866) 821-4555 with both zip codes and the widest date range you can offer, or price the move with the instant calculator.
