At Direct Express Auto Transport, we keep a running history on every carrier and their performance. We assign a score to every carrier. The more loads they do without any problems, the higher their score. Conversely, too many problems, especially on too few orders, is a red flag that that carrier is not well run.

It goes without saying, but will say it anyway, we favor the better carriers with the higher scores. We don’t rely as much on other websites or opinions, we evaluate every carrier ourselves.

• Better Business Bureau (BBB)       The Internet is a handy tool to check on your car transport carrier. You can look up how they stack up, with the Better Business Bureau. But that only works for the larger companies. And so many in the car transport industry are mom and pop, or small operations and they don’t have a BBB profile.
• Check Official Government Records: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration – FMCSA    Every car transport carrier has a record with the federal motor carrier, safety administration (FMCSA). But even that sometimes can be a bit of a mess, as most everybody has notices in there of canceled cargo insurance or bonds or whatever. Those things are usually quickly rectified and don’t mean what you think. You really want to see that they currently licensed bonded and insured.
• Google Reviews, and TransportReviews.com      There are some popular review boards that might be helpful as well. Google reviews is an excellent review board. So is transportreviews.com.

• Multiple complaints about delays or damaged cars
• Too many complaints or bad reviews about delays or damaged cars
• A pattern of canceling orders without giving refunds
• A disturbing pattern of canceling orders, not refunding customers deposits
• Missing licenses or dodging documentation requests
• Poor communication with both the customer and the auto transport broker leaving everyone hanging on what’s going on?

None of that is good and are red flags that should give you caution. But most likely the car shipping broker if they are good, will already have a sense for that.

Here’s a golden rule: never ship your car without checking the cargo insurance coverage first. Even the best transport companies can run into bad weather or accidents, so you need to know you’re protected.

• Cargo Insurance: This covers your car during the journey, from pickup to drop-off
• Liability Insurance: An extra layer of protection that covers damage to other vehicles or property

• Get their cargo insurance certificate and verify it’s current. Every auto transport broker worth his salt, should already have a copy on file of the carriers cargo insurance. If they don’t, they’re not doing their job.
• Make sure they have damage protection for your type of vehicle. If you have a $200,000 Lamborghini, and the carrier shipping your luxury car only has $100,000 cargo insurance, that’s trouble.
• Some carriers only carry $50,000 in cargo insurance, and that’s not enough. Most have at least $100,000 in cargo insurance, and that covers probably 90% of cars, maybe more.
• Quite a few carriers have $250,000 cargo insurance. We’ve even seen $500,000 and $1 million. But for most people, $100,000 is sufficient.
• Find out about deductibles – the amount the carrier must pay personally before cargo insurance kicks in. A low figure like $1000 deductible strikes confidence in both the broker and the customer. But most have $2500 deductibles and that is usually just fine.
• We are seeing more and more carriers with $5000 deductibles, which is concerning. It is not entirely disqualifying, but it’s knocking on the door.

Any auto transport broker that’s any good at all should have already done most of the homework discussed here. Because all car shipping brokers, like their customers, don’t want any complaints or problems. They already know who is good, who communicates well, who gets the job on time, who they can trust? So at the end of the day, if you pick a good broker, you are likely to get a good carrier.