This was my first time shipping an automobile cross-country. It can be a bewildering process. If you request an estimate online, you're bombarded by a slew of e-mails and phone messages. Half say "We can do it guaranteed for $xxx, we have a fleet of trucks waiting, all we need is a small deposit, etc." The other half say, "Don't believe it when they give you a guaranteed price, or say that they have a fleet of trucks, and especially don't pay a deposit to hold your space on a truck!"
The truth is that all of these companies are just brokers, and they put your car out for bid to trucking companies. If the broker's quoted price is too low, their bid price to the truckers will also be low, and your car will end up sitting because truckers can find better deals elsewhere. If you complain (and you've locked yourself into a company by putting down a deposit), your broker will simply ask you to add more money (thereby upping their bid price on your car) to attract more trucker attention. This seems to be the major source of people's complaints about brokers--their car sits, and then they end up having to pay hundreds more than they were originally told.
That being the case, it's difficult to know how to judge the reliability of these brokers. This is where I turned to fellow Yelp reviewers, who have given Numis a solid five-star rating, albeit from a limited number of reviewers. However, I am here to add my own five-star review.
Numis gave me a price, which was substantially higher than what others were offering. However, they required an initial payment only once the car was actually picked up (the balance to be paid when the car is delivered), and they were forthright in saying that the trucking company would contact me directly, probably within the next three days. The actual time was three hours. The trucking company called me (Mario Express, out of Arizona), arranged to pick up my car the next day, and had it on the opposite coast within four days.
I can't say everything will work this smoothly for everyone else. I'm sure it all depends on how busy the trucking companies are, in addition to the price at which your car goes out for bid. You might be able to find cheaper deals, but again, you take the risk that your car won't attract the attention of the trucking companies. If you're not pressed for time, perhaps you can go with a lower bid, but if you want a relatively predictable window of when your vehicle will be picked up and dropped off at its destination, you should probably resign yourself to a higher price. read more