We start with the hard part first, shipping a car to Dallas in the winter season. 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, expensive, and stressful as that period shipping a car to Dallas. 

Direct Express Auto Transport has over twenty years of experience shipping cars to Dallas, Texas. We track daily the number of single-vehicle Sedans, SUVs, Pickup Trucks, and Vans system-wide that are available to ship on the auto transport load board. 

We omit here in our study multiple vehicle orders, those that are anywhere from 2 to 10 vehicles on the car transport trailer because we are better able to assess market volume changes. The numbers tell the story of shipping to Dallas, and we share the past year’s results in this blog. 

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

If at all possible, you should avoid the last two weeks of December and the first three 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 auto transport carriers and brokers, and most of all the customers, are stressed. The carriers and brokers understand what is happening … why some orders ship and others that are priced too cheap – don’t. 

But not all customers understand the auto transport industry, and why the order they placed weeks ago is still languishing in their cold driveway.

The car 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. Or add money to rectify the dilemma. 

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. Kind of like Piranha. 

The car shipping carriers have a dilemma to contend with once in Dallas. There is very little freight leaving Dallas. Because there are so many competing car transport carriers swarming to Dallas, and elsewhere in Texas, 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 Dallas. He doesn’t have the luxury of transporting cheap orders. 

A good rule of thumb is to book your vehicle shipment to Dallas 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 auto transport market pricing. If it’s high, then there’s no way around it, you gotta pay. Because other cars will ship and yours won’t.

Direct Express Auto Transport uniquely has three levels of service on every route, including shipping a car to Dallas. 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 Dallas 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. 

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

This blog, however, is about shipping a vehicle to Dallas during the four seasons. We are advising you on the best strategy during each season. 

In the Spring Season, the volume of orders to Dallas is higher than normal. The Spring Season in Texas is nothing like the Spring Season in Florida. The ratios stay elevated car shipping to Dallas in the Spring. It is close to two to one the entire season.

Other than the New Year’s holiday, the most prolonged and toughest time of year for auto transport pricing to Dallas, Texas occurs in in the Spring Season. 

With so many vehicles shipping to Dallas, and so few leaving, the reverse route from Dallas becomes incredibly cheap. Enjoy it while you can. 

However, car shipping quotes to Dallas skyrocket as demand for car transport carrier space is very high. Available carrier space is in short supply.

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

Texas colleges on the semester system create a mid-August boost in auto transport to Dallas that lasts until the end of the month.

Auto transport to Dallas in the Summer Season is fairly steady and predictably higher than normal. Auto transport costs remain elevated throughout most of the Summer.

National weather forecasters can see hurricanes forming in the Gulf of Mexico days in advance. Car transport carriers know how long they have to get out of Texas, 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 Dallas that are usually overcome within a week after the event. 

At the end of November comes Thanksgiving. Like everybody else, auto 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 equilibrium. 

The Autumn Season is perhaps the best time of year to ship a car to Dallas, or anywhere else for that matter. 

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

The Autumn season is a good time to ship a car to Dallas. 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 Dallas, Texas.

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

The Expedited rate is the most recommended and best auto transport quote. We have many very satisfied Expedited rate customers because the vehicle shipping process tends to go quicker. 

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