Illinois to Florida Car Shipping

On our own book since 2023, the middle half of Illinois to Florida open-carrier car orders ran $950 to $1,100, a range of only a hundred and fifty dollars that a Focus, a Soul, an Accord, a Bronco and a BMW 430i all landed inside. Over 1,200 to 1,400 road miles that is about 75 cents a mile, cheaper per mile than the East Coast lanes because the Interstate 75 trucks fill in the Chicago suburbs and unload in two or three Florida towns. Enclosed transport is quoted at about a third more than the open figure; our enclosed orders on this lane are too few to band on their own.

Under a week to find the truck, then three to five days on the road. Measured on our dispatched car moves since 2023, the median wait from booking to a named carrier on this lane was 5 days, and a quarter of the orders waited 9 days or more. After loading, the 1,350 miles from the Chicago suburbs to Naples or Miami, with other cars coming off in Nashville, Atlanta or Ocala on the way, usually take three to five days. That road figure is an estimate for the distance; our file records the day the carrier was assigned, not the day it arrived.

Interstate 65 is the spine. From the Tri-State or Interstate 80 the truck runs Interstate 65 through Indianapolis, Louisville and Nashville, takes Interstate 24 over Monteagle Mountain to Chattanooga, and follows Interstate 75 through Atlanta, Macon and Valdosta to the Florida line. At Ocala the loads divide: Interstate 75 goes on to Sarasota, Cape Coral and Naples, and the Florida Turnpike carries the Orlando, Stuart, Miami and Aventura cars down the east side. A Rockford or Woodstock pickup starts on Interstate 90 or Interstate 39 and joins the same road at Chicago or Bloomington. There are no mountain passes to close in winter; Monteagle is the only real grade, and it is cleared within hours of a storm.

Rarely: fewer than one in ten of the car moves we have dispatched from Illinois to Florida since 2023 went enclosed, such as a Camaro ZL1 from Park Ridge to Stuart that sat too low for open-carrier ramps and needed a liftgate. Our booked enclosed orders on the lane are a Boxster, a Corvette, a 1968 Camaro and that ZL1, which is the pattern: the trailer is for a car that is low, old or valuable, and it costs about a third more. A Highlander or a Tahoe goes on the open deck and arrives with a layer of Georgia dust that a wash removes.

Highland Park is our most frequent pickup, then Deerfield, with Park Ridge, Chicago, La Grange, Lisle and Winfield behind them and Woodstock, Spring Grove and Rockford covering the north and west of the state. In Florida, Naples is the most common delivery, then Miami, with Aventura, Coral Gables, Stuart, Orlando, Sarasota, Cape Coral, Ocala and Palm Coast each appearing once. A North Shore driveway takes the truck; a Naples or Aventura gate usually means meeting the driver at the plaza outside it, agreed by phone the evening before.

It is not. Since 2023 our Illinois to Florida bookings have been spread across January, July, August, October and December in equal measure, with March, May and November close behind, and no month stands out the way October does from New Jersey or September from Pennsylvania. Part of that is the round-trip households, who send the car in December or January rather than in the fall rush; part is a steady flow of relocations and student cars through the summer. For you it means the wait is a few days in any month, and the only reason to book early is a fixed date.

Yes, and one did, from St. Charles to St. Petersburg in an enclosed trailer, which is why this page counts it separately from the cars. A cart traveling with a car shares the trailer and the dispatch and pays an incremental rate; a cart on its own is quoted by its dimensions and often goes on a smaller truck. Give the make, the number of seats, the length and width, whether it is lifted, and whether it runs, and the coordinator quotes the pair as one order. The detail is on our golf cart shipping page.