Shipping Your Car for a Temporary Work Assignment
For a temporary assignment the real question is not how to ship the car, it is whether to bring it at all. A travel nurse on a thirteen week contract, a consultant on a six month engagement and an engineer on a two year rotation are three genuinely different decisions, and the answer turns on how long you will be there and what the place is like to live in without a car. Work that out first. Everything after it is straightforward.
Ship, Drive, Rent or Leave It
Four options, and each one is right in different circumstances.
The comparison people get wrong is driving. It looks free because the car is already yours, and then the trip costs several nights of hotels, fuel, two or three days you could have worked, and a thousand miles of wear on a vehicle you will eventually sell. Price that honestly before deciding.
The other one worth naming: leaving a car parked for six months is not free either. It needs somewhere secure, and a battery left sitting that long is usually flat when you return.
The Return Leg Is Where People Slip Up
This is the difference between a temporary assignment and a permanent move, and it deserves a decision rather than an assumption.
Book the outbound trip on its own. Do not prepay a round trip, because assignments get extended, cut short and occasionally converted to permanent, and thirteen week contracts in particular are extended often enough that a fixed return date is a poor bet. Arrange the return when the end date is actually firm, usually three to four weeks out.
The rate you paid going out is not a quote for coming back either. Transport pricing follows lane demand, and a route that is cheap in one direction in spring can be expensive in the other in fall. Ask for a fresh number.
Tell Your Insurer Where the Car Will Live
This one is easy to miss and genuinely matters. Auto insurance is rated on the garaging address, meaning where the car normally sits overnight, not where your mail goes. Move the car to another state for six months without telling your insurer and you have a policy rated on the wrong information.
Call them before you ship. It is a short conversation, the premium may go up or down, and it removes any argument at claim time about where the vehicle actually was. Ask specifically whether coverage continues unchanged during transport, since the carrier’s cargo policy and your own policy handle that differently.
Registration Usually Stays Put
A temporary work assignment generally does not make you a resident of the destination state, so your existing registration and plates usually remain correct. Usually, not always. States set their own residency triggers, and some key on employment or on a number of days present rather than on intent.
Check the destination state’s DMV rules for the length of your assignment before you go. It takes a few minutes and it is much easier than sorting out a registration problem from out of state.
Timing and Getting It Delivered
Transport is not a scheduled service. A carrier collects when a truck is routed through your area, so you get a pickup window rather than an appointment, and transit counts from collection rather than from booking. One to two weeks of lead time is comfortable on most lanes, three to four in summer.
Because most people on assignment fly ahead of the vehicle, decide early who receives it. Someone has to walk the car with the driver and sign the condition report, and it can be a colleague, a landlord or a building manager as long as the carrier knows in advance who it will be. Send them your pickup photographs so they have something to compare against.
Preparing the Vehicle
Standard preparation applies and the pre-pickup checklist covers it. Wash it so existing marks are visible, photograph every panel in daylight, empty it out and leave about a quarter tank of fuel.
One addition specific to assignments: get any due maintenance done before you go, not after you arrive. Finding a mechanic you trust in a city you have lived in for two weeks is harder than it sounds, and an oil change or a set of tires is cheaper at home than under pressure somewhere new.
Common Questions
Is shipping worth it for a three month assignment? Usually yes if the destination needs a car, once you count both trips against renting for three months. Under six weeks, renting generally wins.
Should I book the round trip up front? No. Assignments change. Book one way and arrange the return when your end date is firm.
Do I need to register in the new state? Usually not for a temporary assignment, but residency rules vary by state. Check the destination DMV.
Will my employer pay for it? Many do as part of an assignment package. Ask before you book, because reimbursement usually needs an itemized invoice.
Can someone else receive the car? Yes, with advance notice of who it will be. They sign the condition report on your behalf.
Get a Quote
Call Ship A Car, Inc. at (866) 821-4555 with your dates and assignment length, or price the move with the instant calculator.
