Shipping a Car from Cape Cod to Florida
Everything that leaves Cape Cod by road crosses one of two bridges, and the Cape’s calendar is the exact reverse of Florida’s. The Sagamore and the Bourne are the only road links over the Cape Cod Canal, so every carrier collecting your car funnels through one of them. Meanwhile the Cape empties out just as Florida fills up, which means the southbound rush lands in a narrow window each fall. Plan around the bridges and the calendar and this is an easy lane.
The Two Bridges Shape Your Pickup
The canal cuts the Cape off from the mainland, and the Sagamore and Bourne bridges carry all of the road traffic across it. There is no third option.
This is not a clearance problem. Car carriers cross both routinely. It is a congestion problem, and a single one at that: when one bridge backs up or closes for an incident, everything diverts to the other, and a driver can lose hours in a queue with nowhere to go.
Two practical consequences. Avoid a Friday afternoon or Sunday pickup in the warmer months, when weekend traffic is heaviest. And if you are anywhere on the upper Cape, offering to meet a driver on the mainland side of the canal genuinely helps, because it takes the crossing out of their schedule entirely.
The Calendar Runs Backwards Here
Cape Cod’s population swells in summer and thins out sharply after Columbus Day. Florida does the opposite. Seasonal residents moving between them create two concentrated rushes rather than steady demand.
October and November are the heavy southbound months, and April and May are heavy northbound. Inside those windows, book three to four weeks ahead. Outside them, one to two weeks is comfortable and prices are noticeably softer.
If your dates have any give at all, going early in the season rather than at its peak is the cheapest change you can make. A car leaving the Cape in late September rather than the first week of November is competing with far fewer bookings for the same trucks.
What It Costs
Our own book since 2023 puts the middle half at $1,100 to $1,600 across 50 orders between Florida and Massachusetts. The figures below are planning estimates.
Open transport ranges for a standard sedan, outside the seasonal rushes.
Peak season sits at the top of those ranges or above. A full size truck or SUV adds meaningfully, a vehicle that will not start or roll adds roughly $100 to $250 for winching, and enclosed transport adds 20 to 30 percent.
Cape Roads and Where to Meet
Much of the Cape is exactly the sort of place a 75 foot carrier struggles with. Sandy lanes, low tree cover, tight corners in the older village centers, and seasonal roads that are not maintained for heavy vehicles.
Route 6 and Route 28 are fine, and anywhere close to them is straightforward. Off them, expect the driver to propose a meeting point, and take it. A supermarket lot on Route 6 is a far better handover than a driveway a truck has to reverse out of.
Say which town you are in and roughly how the approach looks when you book. Drivers who run the Cape know the difference between Hyannis and a dirt road in Wellfleet, and would much rather hear about it in advance.
Nobody Has to Be There, but Somebody Does
Most people shipping a car south are also closing up a house, and the two rarely finish on the same day.
Someone has to walk the vehicle with the driver and sign the condition report at both ends. A neighbor, a caretaker or a property manager can do it, which on the Cape is common, but the carrier needs to know in advance who it will be. Send them your photographs so they have something to compare against, and make sure they understand that signing a clean report is a formal statement that the car arrived undamaged.
Preparing a Car That Has Wintered in New England
Standard preparation applies and the pre-pickup checklist covers it. There are two additions worth making here.
Wash the underbody, not just the paint. Road salt and coastal air are hard on a car, and a wash including the undercarriage before it sits in Florida humidity for six months is worth the twenty dollars. It also means existing corrosion is documented rather than discovered later.
And photograph the car in daylight before the driver arrives. Cape weather in late fall is not reliable, and photographs taken in rain at dusk prove very little.
Common Questions
When should I book? Three to four weeks ahead for an October or November departure. One to two weeks outside the seasonal rush.
Can a truck reach my house? On or near Route 6 and Route 28, usually. On narrow or seasonal roads, expect a meeting point nearby.
Do the bridges cause delays? They can, mainly through summer weekend traffic. Avoid Friday and Sunday pickups in season.
Can someone else hand the car over? Yes, with advance notice of who it will be. A caretaker or neighbor is common here.
What about the trip back north? April and May are the busy months. Our northbound guide covers the return.
Get a Quote
Call Ship A Car, Inc. at (866) 821-4555 with your town and dates, or price the move with the instant calculator.
