Florida to New York Car Shipping

For a standard car on an open carrier, the middle half of the Florida to New York open-carrier car orders on our own book since 2023 ran $1,050 to $1,450. For a trailer, the middle half of our Florida to New York enclosed car orders ran $1,500 to $1,800. A three-row SUV or a full-size pickup sits at the upper edge of the open band or beyond it. The northbound rate runs a little above the southbound one, because in spring everyone wants the same trucks at once, and an April quote will sit higher in the band than a late-May one for the same car.

The wait depends almost entirely on the month. Across the moves we have dispatched since 2023 the median was 4 days from booking to an assigned carrier, and a quarter waited 12 days or more, which is to say the April pickups on fixed dates. The drive itself, 1,250 to 1,300 miles up Interstate 95 with other cars loading and unloading on the way, is usually three to five days from Boca Raton to Long Island. That transit figure is a general one for the distance; our records track when a carrier is assigned, not how long it drives.

Interstate 95 from South Florida to the New Jersey Turnpike, through Jacksonville, Savannah, Florence, Richmond and the Washington and Baltimore beltways. Long Island deliveries cross on the Verrazzano or the George Washington Bridge and the Cross Bronx; Westchester and the Hudson Valley leave the Turnpike for the Tappan Zee crossing and the Thruway; the Capital Region and the Finger Lakes continue up the Thruway, which is where a day gets added.

More than a third of the Florida to New York moves we have dispatched since 2023 went enclosed, which is unusual. The cars heading north in spring are often the good ones, the Porsche or the Range Rover that wintered in a Boca garage, and their owners would rather not see them after three days of Interstate 95 weather. The enclosed band above tells you what that has actually cost. A daily driver does not need it, and we will say so rather than steer you toward the dearer trailer.

Boca Raton and Miami Beach lead our Florida pickups on this lane, with Palm Beach, North Palm Beach, Coral Springs and Cape Coral behind them. In New York the deliveries are spread rather than clustered: Long Island from Mineola to Southampton, Westchester around Scarsdale, and upstate to the Finger Lakes and Saratoga. Where a full-size hauler cannot work a Manhattan block or a narrow Long Island lane, the driver names a lot nearby and confirms it with you the evening before; everywhere else the truck comes to the house.

April, by a wide margin: nearly half of our dispatched moves on this lane since 2023 were booked in April, with March and May next. That is the winter residents going home. If your dates fall between mid-March and mid-May, book two to three weeks ahead and give the driver a three to five day window; a fixed single-day pickup in April is the most expensive way to ship this lane. From June to February the trucks run north with space to spare and the same request is easy.

It depends on where you are going, and on this lane the answer is usually no. Amtrak’s Auto Train runs between Sanford, north of Orlando, and Lorton, Virginia, and you ride with the car. It does not reach New York: you drive from Lorton, about 250 miles, and you must deliver the car to Sanford yourself. For a South Florida to Long Island move with a car you would rather not put miles on, door to door transport is usually the simpler answer; our guide to shipping a car by train walks through when each one wins.