Shipping a car to Tampa Bay in the winter season is extremely difficult. Specifically, over the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. 

When we talk about seasonality in the vehicle transport industry, late December and early January are the big reasons. No other time is as hectic and stressful as that period. 

Here is what typically happens to the sheer number of vehicles shipping to Florida on any given day in the Winter Season from December to February. It is often called Snowbird season as well.

The auto shipping industry is not first come, first served. Once Christmas arrives, the vehicle shipping cost rises incrementally almost daily for four weeks. If a customer booked too early, he will likely have too low a price when the time comes to ship his car. He will have to wait.

The carriers are not concerned with when any particular order was booked. They are only concerned with maximizing their profit, as anyone would be. The carriers quite naturally choose to haul the highest-paying vehicles available. For them, it is a feeding frenzy.

The car shipping carriers have a dilemma to contend with once in Tampa Bay. There is very little freight leaving Tampa Bay. Because there are so many competing car transport carriers swarming to Tampa Bay, and elsewhere in Florida, in late December and all of January, chances are high that a carrier returns home with a half-empty trailer. That means he must make money on the trip to Tampa Bay. He doesn’t have the luxury of transporting cheap orders. 

A good rule of thumb is to book your vehicle shipment to Tampa Bay about 7 days before availability. The overwhelming majority of auto transport carriers will not commit to picking up a car shipment more than three days in advance of the vehicle availability. 

So why book much earlier than that? It is almost always best to have current vehicle transport market pricing. If it’s high, then there’s no way around it, you will likely pay more. Because otherwise your car won’t ship and others will.

If at all possible, you should avoid the last two weeks of December and the first two weeks of January. It is hectic for everybody. Just look at the chart and see how the number of vehicles available to ship skyrockets fourfold around the holidays. It is more than the car transportation system can handle. 

During the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays, the vehicle transport carriers and brokers, and most of all – the customers, are stressed.

When the Tampa Bay snowbirds return home in the Spring season, starting in late April, throughout all of May, and into early June, the above scenario works in reverse. 

The Spring Season is a fantastic time to ship a car to Tampa Bay, Florida. There are far more vehicles leaving Tampa Bay than are arriving. The tilted ratio effect of that pushes car shipping quotes down, while at the same time speeding up the timeframes for delivery. It is the best possible scenario imaginable if you are shipping a car to Tampa Bay, FL.

And then there is May, which is ridiculously advantageous for shipping a vehicle to Florida. The cheapest Vehicle Transport pricing of the year to Tampa Bay occurs in May. Why is that, you ask? In May, there are tens of thousands of snowbirds (retirees, college students, and many others) who hibernated in Tampa Bay for the winter and are returning home to the north. With so many leaving Tampa Bay, and so few coming, the reverse route to Tampa Bay becomes incredibly cheap. Enjoy it while you can. 

In May, auto shipping quotes from Tampa Bay usually skyrocket as demand for car transport carrier space is very high. Available carrier space is in short supply. The inverse is true. There is an overabundance of auto transport carrier space available to Tampa Bay, which drives down the price. Therefore, May is the cheapest time of year to ship a car to Tampa Bay.

Auto transport to Tampa Bay in the Summer Season is busier than the Spring or Autumn seasons, but not nearly as hectic as the Winter season. Vehicle Transport quotes are fairly stable throughout the summer but rise significantly in August. 

The snowbirds have finally returned home by the end of May, with a few stragglers in early June. 

Like the rest of the country in the Summer Season, auto shipping traffic tends to be families and individuals relocating from and to other states. There are more vehicle shipments than in the slower months of February, March, and April. And considerably more than September, October, and November. 

Car transport carrier drivers enjoy being home as much as you do for the 4th of July festivities. The hometown parade. The barbecue with family and friends. A mid-summer rest with the people you love. 

That means fewer vehicles are getting shipped right in the middle of the busy Summer Season. Orders get backlogged. When the carriers get back to work in early July, they transport to Tampa Bay the highest-paying freight first with no regard to how long a customer has been waiting. For about two weeks thereafter, many customers find it both more expensive and frustrating.

The thing to do, and here is your tip, is to avoid vehicle shipping to Tampa Bay the last week of June and the first two weeks of July. That is not a good time to ship a car.

There is a very discernible automobile shipping spike every year in the late Summer Season. Florida has many popular universities and colleges that attract students from all over America. For many, it is an ideal place to go to college. 

Those Florida colleges on the semester system create a mid-August boost in auto transport to Tampa Bay that lasts until the end of the month. Of the nearly 800,000 Florida college students, roughly 17% are from out-of-state, which means tens of thousands suddenly require vehicle shipping services. 

Vehicle shipping to Tampa Bay in the Autumn Season is easy. It is considered a slow time of year in the car shipping industry. Automobile shipping costs remain stable and affordable throughout most of the Fall or Autumn Season. 

The only blips on the screen when it comes to vehicle shipping to Tampa Bay in the Autumn Season are hurricanes and Thanksgiving. And both are momentary. 

National weather forecasters can see hurricanes forming in the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico days in advance. Car transport carriers know how long they have to get out of Florida, and they avoid entirely any route there. They wait it out, which usually takes but a few days, a week at most. 

September and October are the two most susceptible months for hurricanes, but of course, there are exceptions. Hurricanes create a backlog of vehicle shipments to Tampa Bay that are usually overcome within a week after the event. 

At the end of November comes Thanksgiving. Like everybody else, Vehicle Transport carriers like to be home for Turkey Day too. Because Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday in November, drivers are usually home by the Wednesday before and don’t return to the road until the Monday after Thanksgiving. Essentially a five-day break for many. It takes about a week for the vehicle shipping freight system to recover and return to stable. 

When is the best time to ship a car to Tampa Bay? Probably the Spring, Summer, and Autumn Seasons. Car shipping quotes tend to be lower and service faster. The Winter Season is far more costly.

As far as car shipping to Tampa Bay goes, some seasons are much easier than others. The Winter season is by far the toughest, especially around the auto transport snowbird migration to Tampa Bay in late December and January, as shipping costs soar. 

The Spring season is a good time to ship a car to Tampa Bay, especially in May when snowbird backhaul prices plummet to Tampa Bay. The Summer season is relatively fine. The Autumn season is ideal weather, and car transport quotes tend to be lower than average. 

Direct Express Auto Transport originated the instant car shipping quote calculator in 2004. It is still the best, most sophisticated, reliable tool available online. We offer three options that we call tiers of car shipping quote estimates to Tampa Bay, FL.

The Standard rate is the cheapest car shipping quote. Use the Standard rate if you can be patient. 

The Expedited rate, or tier as we call them, is the most recommended and best auto transport quote. We have countless satisfied Expedited rate customers because the vehicle shipping process tends to go quicker. 

The Rush rate is our highest level of car transport quotes and service, and many customers are glad they went with that method too. If in a hurry, go Rush rate.

Direct Express Auto Transport uniquely has three levels of service on every route, including shipping a car to Tampa Bay. The customers who choose the highest Rush rate are typically happiest with the service. 

The customers who choose the Expedited rate are often satisfied with the results. 

Those who book the Standard rate to Tampa Bay during the busy snowbird season are frustrated while waiting their turn. 

We are writing this blog to give good advice to unaware customers. The smartest thing to do if you are in a hurry to ship a car is to go with the higher Rush or Expedited rates.