Review Report Review
car delivery

John Hall Submitted this review about Passport Transport
Review made Live: 3/29/2012 9:49:00 PM
I bought a 2005 thunderbird in Las Vegas and planned on having it shipped to my home in San Francisco. It took me over a day of research to realize Passport Transport was the company to hire. The two reasons why are 1-they own their own trucks. 2-they employ their own drivers. When you read below after ////////////////////, you may see why this is so important. I called Passport Transport on a Thursday morning and they picked up my car that day. They delivered my car the following Wednesday morning. The whole process went real good. Contacting the people at Passport Transport was never a problem, even after hours (maybe I got lucky someone was there on a Friday night, I'm not sure-but they answered the phone and answered my question.) Being able to track the trucks location is very cool- but be careful-it's addictive!! By the time I decided Passport Transport was the company I was going to hire I realized the extra cost I had to pay was very worth it. It was a small amount of money when I compared it to what I spent on the car, and I could sleep at night while waiting for my car to show up. (Please read the following paragraph to learn what I think I learned about this industry.) So a big thanks to Passport Transport and Bill at the home office and Mario the driver- John Hall. (FYI- I found out about this company through Hagerty Insurance, my classic car insurance company.)/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I started the research on this after getting back home the day after I bought the car. I went on line and filled out a form that got me about 70 responses from different carriers the same day. Quotes were as low as $125 and as high as $600. I spent a lot of time researching a number of these companies at this website. Many had 4-5 stars but would also, in my opinion, have one or maybe two reviews that were really horrible. I thought I don't want to take a chance like that with my car. This same thing happened on every one I researched. I can't imagine how these companies could have so many great reviews and then have one or two so bad. I checked probably 20 of them and narrowed it down to about 5. I then called these (if they hadn't called me yet.) What I learned is most if not all of these companies are actually brokers that will post your request for transportation service at some national posting, probably on the internet that will show truckers a fee to be paid for them to pick up your car and deliver it to you. The broker gets a finders fee and the trucker collects the remainder of the charge to you when they deliver the car to you. Because of the nature of this relationship, the broker really has no control over who takes the job. Because of this, time lines for delivery, etc. are not enforceable by the broker. I think this is where a lot of the bad reviews come into play. The broker tries to do a good job, and I think most of the truckers do a good job because if they didn't, this industry would not survive. But it takes just a few bad things to happen and I, believe, you the consumer is left holding the bag. I actually called back the four finalist that did not get the job and explained that this is how I interpreted the process to work. All of them agreed I basically had it right. I also learned that the Department of Transportation has very strict rules on how many hours a day and week a trucker can drive. This along with the fact a trucker is trying to maximize their profit means a trucker is not going pick up your car and bring it straight to you. That may happen but I think only by luck, so you need to realize they have responsibilities and restrictions as well. I am not trying to slam this industry, it fills a real need. I just came away realizing how naive I was. The only other piece of advise I can offer is do your research on having a car shipped BEFORE you fly off to some other city and buy it. I almost decided I would have to fly back to Las Vegas and drive it home. Good luck to you all!
Shipment Details
Origin State:
Nevada
Pickup:
Early
Destination State:
California
Delivery:
On Time
Customer Service
Honesty:
Knowlegeable:
Promptness:
Customer Service:
Review Details
Quote or Order Id:
257375
Quote or Order Cost:
$943