Should you ship a car or drive it? On cash alone, driving is cheaper for most moves under about 2,000 miles and shipping wins the cross-country ones; if the days behind the wheel cost you work, shipping wins from about 550 miles. Take a 1,500 mile move as the test case. Driving it is three days behind the wheel: about $590 for the car’s gas, wear and the depreciation the miles add, two hotel nights near $345 and about $205 in road meals, roughly $1,140 in all, plus the working days you give up. Shipping it: an ordinary car on an open carrier typically ran about $1,250 in our bookings over the last twelve months, about $1,550 with a one-way flight, and it arrives without the miles. Our 2026 ship-or-drive break-even report runs the same comparison at every distance. Here is the honest comparison for a family weighing both.
You’re picking up stakes and moving. Far away, as in across the country or from one region to another. You’re packing up the house and hiring a moving company for the household goods, and as for the car? “This would be a great time to see the country,” you think. “The family could pile into the ol’ SUV and make some memories.”
Ship or Drive: The Short Answer by Distance
Two distances settle most moves. Past about 2,000 miles the truck wins on cash alone; past about 550 it wins as soon as each day behind the wheel is priced at a day’s pay, which we set at eight hours of the average American wage, roughly $302.
If your days off cost you nothing, the cash column is your answer. If the drive eats paid leave or pushes back a start date, the second column is.
What Driving It Yourself Involves
- The family spends days squeezed into one car (or two, caravanning both vehicles), sleeping in hotels, eating on the road, with all the explosive family exchanges that come from that much proximity and no escape hatch until the next motel.
- If you’re driving by yourself, you’ll have no one to take over the wheel when you’re tired. Eight-plus hours behind a wheel can take a toll.
- You definitely will see parts of the country you’ve never seen, especially on the side roads, which add time to the trip.
- You incur the cost of food on the road and hotel rooms. Friends and family along the route can save money, if your route happens to have them.
- Do you have enough time? Most moves happen on a job or school clock. Will you arrive in time, or spend the trip rushing past the sights you drove to see?
- You will incur extra wear and tear on your car, hundreds or thousands of miles of it.
- One real advantage: precious keepsakes (photo albums, sensitive papers) can travel with you in the car, under your own eye the whole way.
What Shipping the Car Involves
- The transport company picks the car up at your address and delivers it to your new home door to door; where a big rig genuinely cannot reach, you meet the driver at a wide spot nearby.
- You can’t pack household goods in the car; carriers are not licensed or insured for them.
- Depending on budget, the car rides an “open carrier” (exposed to the elements, the value standard) or an “enclosed carrier” for full protection at roughly a third more.
- Transport companies work around your schedule, with pickup windows planned so the car lands at the new home in a time frame that works.
- Shipping lets the family fly to the new home and arrive rested, in plenty of time for work and school deadlines.
- Mileage and wear on your car is essentially zero.
- You may need a rental car for a few days at the new home before your vehicle arrives, which belongs in the comparison honestly.
What It Costs to Ship or Drive a Car Coast to Coast
Distance decides most cases: a few hundred miles, drive it; cross-country, the math flips. Run the numbers for a coast-to-coast move at today’s prices:
In our bookings over the last twelve months, shipping an ordinary car coast to coast by open carrier typically cost about $1,650, or about $1,950 with a one-way flight. Driving the same 2,750 miles costs one driver about $2,350: about $1,080 for gas, tires and maintenance and the depreciation the miles add (AAA’s per-mile figures, repriced to $4.48 gas), five hotel nights near $860, and six days of meals near $410, before a single vacation day is counted.
So on a cross-country move, shipping saves roughly $400 in cash and six days on the road, and the car arrives without 2,750 new miles.
Shipping’s honest extra beyond the plane ticket is a few days of rental car while yours is on the truck, and on shorter moves driving is usually the cheaper choice in cash.
Common Questions
Should I ship my car or drive it when I move for a new job? Ship it once the move runs past about 550 miles. A start date puts a price on every day the drive takes, and once those days are counted at a day’s pay, the drive costs more than the truck and a plane ticket from roughly that distance on, so you arrive on time without the miles.
Is shipping a car worth it on a short move? Seldom under about 550 miles. Most runs that short are a day’s drive with no hotel night, while a carrier’s fixed work at each end, the loading, the inspections and the slow miles through town, costs about the same on a short hop as on a long haul. Drive it unless the car is too valuable to put the miles on, or does not run.
How much does it cost to have a car shipped instead? In our bookings between September 2025 and August 2026, the middle half of open-carrier moves for an ordinary car ran $350 to $550 under 300 miles, $900 to $1,250 around 1,000 miles and $1,450 to $1,800 coast to coast. Add a one-way plane ticket, about $305 at the national average fare, and set that total beside your own driving math.
Should snowbirds ship the car to Florida or drive it? From the Northeast, a retired couple usually keeps money by driving, because Florida sits well inside the 2,000 mile line. A couple still working is the exception: price the days on the road at a day’s pay and shipping comes out ahead. Our snowbird ship-or-drive math also prices the two-car household and the trip home in spring.
Get a Quote
For a long move, our answer is to ship the car: once it leaves the old driveway, it is one less thing to manage in a week full of things to manage. We’ve provided door-to-door transport for more than 50,000 vehicles nationwide, with an A+ rating from the BBB and consistent 5-star customer reviews.
Call us at 866-821-4555 now to speak with one of our expert shipping agents, or have the quote calculator email you an estimate for shipping the car.
