Door-to-door Ames car shipping on the Iowa State calendar, with Duff Avenue hand-offs near campus, I-35 pickups, football Saturday rule, and real Iowa-region bands.
Ship A Car, Inc. arranges door-to-door vehicle transport for Ames, the Story County city where I-35 runs the east side, US-30 crosses the south, Iowa State fills the west half of town, Campustown keeps the bars and bookstores at the campus edge, Jack Trice Stadium fills seven Saturdays a fall, and Des Moines is thirty-five minutes down the interstate. Whoever hauls your car is a licensed, insured carrier that we vetted before giving it the job.
In Ames the Iowa State calendar sets the timing. Students arrive in late August and leave in mid-May, faculty and research staff relocate on summer contracts, and those weeks call for about three weeks of notice instead of the usual one. For the carrier the town is simple: the 13th Street and US-30 exits lead off I-35, and the Duff Avenue and South Duff lots hold a 75-foot rig a minute from the ramp. A hauler cannot use the campus roads or the Campustown blocks, and the older downtown grid is tight, so those pickups happen at a Duff Avenue lot chosen when you book, while the subdivisions on the north and west sides get the truck at the door. We move student cars in both directions along with faculty and research-staff relocations, and we keep home-football Saturdays off the schedule.
Speak with a coordinator now at (866) 821-4555 for pickup at any address in Ames, Nevada, Boone, or Story County, or request an estimate by email through the quote calculator.
Routes, seasons and price notes for the rest of the state, beyond Story County, are in our Iowa car shipping guide.
August and May pickups are booked about three weeks ahead so the car has a spot on a truck when the semester turns over, with a Duff Avenue hand-off minutes from campus.
Ames sits on I-35 between Minneapolis and Kansas City, so a car here joins a run that is already passing through and gets a metro pickup window.
Enter the pickup near campus, the car and your dates in the quote calculator, and an estimate for the Ames move arrives by email before a specialist calls to confirm the price. A single coordinator follows the order from that quote to the delivery inspection, so a parent booking from home always knows whom to call.
Ames has I-35 along its east side and US-30 across the south, with Iowa State filling the west half of town and Des Moines thirty-five minutes down the interstate. Five things move your number:
Ames cars load in a north-side or west-side driveway or at a Duff Avenue lot, and the table below prices the trip from there. All five rows (Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Orlando and Phoenix) are set by distance: each band is the middle half of what customers paid for open-carrier moves of similar length in our bookings between September 2025 and August 2026.
Each band assumes a sedan riding an open trailer out of Story County. A pickup, a three-row SUV or a car that has sat dead in a campus lot costs more, and enclosed transport adds about a third. For your own Ames price, use the quote calculator or call (866) 821-4555. No deposit is taken until a carrier is assigned to your move.
The campus and its central lawn fill the west half of town.
The blocks at the campus gate hold the student bars and bookstores.
The city bus system carries more riders per capita than almost any in the country.
The gardens and butterfly wing sit beside the stadium.
Please note: For Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Orlando and Phoenix, the Ames bands reflect open-carrier trips of comparable mileage that customers booked with us from September 2025 to August 2026. A semester deadline, fuel and the car itself can move the final price, which a specialist confirms by phone once your Ames estimate arrives by email.
