Anyone here a car hauler?

[53' Stude]

At my work I see car haulers such as Cassens, Jack Cooper and others.

Lately I see tons of "scab companies" that are very sly "individuals"

One today was trying to unload a F-150 that has a recall on it. Guy literally screwed up and the truck landed on its roof

I see a lot of car haulers and have made quite a few friends with lots of them.

So, are any of you fine folks in the car hauling/delivery business?

 

[Mad_Hatter]

In a past life I was a shipping broker did it for about 3yrs before I got burnt out (you basically work 24/7).. let's just say the industry is rife with shady companies and practices.

Truly caveat emptor.

 

[xxch4osxx]

Hotshot car hauling or trailer load car hauling?

 

[Chris142]

Not me but my friend does hot shot car hauling. He hauls cars worth more than most houses.

 

[joekingcorvette]

A buddy of mine had a Z-06 Corvette hauled long distance. Someone burned about a 1/4 tank of gas out of it before it reached home. There was some evidence of use but I can't remember what it was. Bugs on the front bumper cover and a couple other items that indicated someone had a test ride.

 

[Donald]

If haulers have the proper insurance can one really make money hauling cars? And then the expenses. Or do the haulers sleep in the truck? Eat Big Macs?

 

[53' Stude]

Originally Posted by xxch4osxx
Hotshot car hauling or trailer load car hauling?


Either. I have few friends that own diesel pickup trucks and their own trailers. They haul Ram 2500's and Ford Transit vans to my workplace

Originally Posted by Donald
If haulers have the proper insurance can one really make money hauling cars? And then the expenses. Or do the haulers sleep in the truck? Eat Big Macs?


I imagine if you work for Cassens, Jack Cooper or Moore Transport you are paid ok. Some trucks, the guys arrive near my work early in the morning, sleep for few hours then unload their cars and go back for another load

 

[thastinger]

Got a neighbor that works off of Uship with a 3500 dually Ram and a 5th wheel 3 car hauler....He is gone all the time and isn't working his way through med school with it.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Most of the industry is independent (LLC) 1 or 2 truck haulers. You have large outfits that move vehicles off the rails to a yard for regional distribution. Large outfits don't monkey around with consumer moves, it's not worth their time.

Indy's will charge anywhere from $0.35c/mile to $1.00, depending on mileage. Coast to coast usually gets you the lowest per mile cost. But... and there's always a but, large vehicles like a long bed truck or long wheelbase van can cost you more. The hauler knows how much a linear foot is worth on his rig. Additionally, a longer rig not only takes up more space but adds to the weight and impacts the total load. And the industry is very seasonal and regional with snowbirds driving up prices this time of year along the Eastern seaboard and Midwest to Arizona for example. Cheapest time of year to ship is the dead of winter..not many car buyers that time of year compared to spring and summer. It also happens to be the time of year where you'll encounter the most delays due to inclement weather. Long haulers have to comply with DOT regs so they're either sleeping in their rigs somewhere like a T/A Ctr or a cheap motel (but not usually the latter as margins on shipping are slim).

Enclosed carriers are a different beast all together and command a premium.

 

[53' Stude]

Thanks for the education

 

[AVB]

I passed a double deck car hauler that I thought was going to fall apart headed south out of Atlanta last week. The top deck was swaying side to side so hard that it was rocking the truck.

My previous company mainly hauled trailers, but hauled cars as back loads and between trailer loads. There is good money to be made, but it is a tough business. The owner busted his tail as a owner operator and was able to expand to 7 trucks, but he got tired of dealing with hired drivers.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Originally Posted by 53' Stude
Thanks for the education

Sure thing... the big takeaway from the time I spent being a broker is it's a tough racket. It's a thankless job too...if a transport goes well you rarely hear anything about it. But man..if a shipments delayed or a car gets damaged consumers are gonna tear you a new one and lodge all kinds of complaints. Most people have no idea what all is involved in getting a car shipped from point A to point B on time and un-damaged. There are so many things beyond your control as the driver or broker that can go wrong... and it's always your fault, even if it was mother nature that delayed the transport. I got tired of being at the beckon call 24/7 (you'd be surprised how late/early ppl will call especially if/when in different time zones) of the customer AND drivers. I've had drivers mid shipment call me up and say that they want more $$ or they're gonna drop the load somewhere or make the pick up difficult. So I had to either a) take it out of my commission or b) go shake down the customer for more moolah and I bet you can guess how well that goes over... and then there's customers who demand a full refund and whine about how they're gonna call their AG or dispute the charge if you don't refund because there's bird crap or road grime on their precious ride, even though I advised shipping covered but they were cheapskate know it all's and literally signed a waiver declining covered shipping. (ppl watch one episode of Shipping Wars and all of a sudden they're an expert on the transportation industry ...‚)

Ok...rants over!...‚......

 

[rubberchicken]

I live in an area where boat ownership is much higher than average. I have heard many horror stories about transporting large boats by land. Missed pickup dates is super common, sometimes missing by weeks or never arriving at all. Damage of all sorts. Missing items from the boat. Most of the advertisers for boat transport are brokers, and sub out the actual work. Some go under every few years to reappear under a new name.
A close friend of mine bought a sailboat in the 40 foot range from the Maine area, and the hauler or broker held him hostage for an additional $500 when the boat was in transit.
The worst story I heard was a friend of mine who had their 40 foot boat on stands for the winter. A boat hauler was dropping off another large boat right next to his, and he misjudged something and tangled with the boat on stands. Both the boat on stands and boat on the trailer tumbled off onto the ground. His boat sustained about $30k in damage, and the other boat was seriously damaged as well. The cops were called, the marina manager and the service manager were very good in trying to make sure all procedures were followed, but in the end it still took my buddy 6 months to collect on the damage.

 

[Pew]

Originally Posted by 53' Stude

I imagine if you work for Cassens, Jack Cooper or Moore Transport you are paid ok. Some trucks, the guys arrive near my work early in the morning, sleep for few hours then unload their cars and go back for another load


A close friend of mine worked for Cassens for a few years and got out a couple years ago, he hated it and I could tell it was stressing him out bad. They also have a high turnover rate, do not pay very well, and will make you work regardless of the road conditions. It could be a blizzard dumping a foot of snow or a biblical rainstorm and they'll still make you go out and run your load. The company is looked down upon locally here. The union associated with Cassens is also the reason why he won't ever join a union anymore.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Originally Posted by rubberchicken
I live in an area where boat ownership is much higher than average. I have heard many horror stories about transporting large boats by land. Missed pickup dates is super common, sometimes missing by weeks or never arriving at all. Damage of all sorts. Missing items from the boat. Most of the advertisers for boat transport are brokers, and sub out the actual work. Some go under every few years to reappear under a new name.
A close friend of mine bought a sailboat in the 40 foot range from the Maine area, and the hauler or broker held him hostage for an additional $500 when the boat was in transit.
The worst story I heard was a friend of mine who had their 40 foot boat on stands for the winter. A boat hauler was dropping off another large boat right next to his, and he misjudged something and tangled with the boat on stands. Both the boat on stands and boat on the trailer tumbled off onto the ground. His boat sustained about $30k in damage, and the other boat was seriously damaged as well. The cops were called, the marina manager and the service manager were very good in trying to make sure all procedures were followed, but in the end it still took my buddy 6 months to collect on the damage.

Some companies have "yards" and will impound the load until the dispute is settled. Sometimes it's for legit reasons but more often than not it's a shakedown. Haulers will often accept a load on a low-balled offer to ship... they have zero intention of keeping the offer amount, they just want to get your ride on their truck and when they're a hundred miles away (it's now hostage) they will call up the broker or customer and tell them they're going to need some more money at/prior to delivery.. otherwise you can come pick up the car at a yard with a cashier's check or at a rest stop in BFE some 500 miles away. He'll just claim he's had a breakdown and that gives him the "out" from the shipment. Seen it happen plenty of times.. while there are def' a lot of sleaze ball brokers out there..the good ones can easily get effd in a shipment. Haulers do it to brokers, brokers do it to customers and customers do it to haulers/brokers trying to get free body/paint work or one time I had a customer claim the hauler purposely drained the oil (...‚) from the engine and caused his engine to seize [after it was delivered]. Truth is.. a) the engine never had oil in it or b) the motor was seized already and was trying to shakedown the haulers and my liability insurance for a new engine. Either way both the hauler and I refused paying it and said he could take it up with our insurers..I added the caveat that insurance fraud is a felony. Never heard a thing from him after that...

Never a dull day in the transport industry......

 

[53' Stude]

Originally Posted by Pew
Originally Posted by 53' Stude

I imagine if you work for Cassens, Jack Cooper or Moore Transport you are paid ok. Some trucks, the guys arrive near my work early in the morning, sleep for few hours then unload their cars and go back for another load


A close friend of mine worked for Cassens for a few years and got out a couple years ago, he hated it and I could tell it was stressing him out bad. They also have a high turnover rate, do not pay very well, and will make you work regardless of the road conditions. It could be a blizzard dumping a foot of snow or a biblical rainstorm and they'll still make you go out and run your load. The company is looked down upon locally here. The union associated with Cassens is also the reason why he won't ever join a union anymore.



Pew: I know two guys that haul for Cassens. They say it's a job and they dont mind it. Maybe they have been there a long time, not sure. Thank You for the info

 

[bunnspecial]

FWIW, the last car I had shipped to me was 2 guys driving a 1 ton dually(I think a Ram 3500) with a 5th wheel trailer that looked it could hold 3 reasonably sized cars. The car I had hauled was small and not running, so they'd wenched it up to the very top of the trailer and when they arrived had get one car off before they could get mine.

It was also a bit interesting to see them deal with my car. Many old "LBCs"(Little British Cars) have fairly narrow wheelbases, and I got to listen to the tires scrub on the inside the whole way down the ramp. One of the guys sat in the car with the door open and helped push it down the carrier. They made pretty quick work of the whole thing-they had it unloaded and the other car loaded back on so that could make the next delivery-in about 15 minutes.

I got the impression that this was very much a small owner/operator company. I contracted with a broker out of Illinois for the delivery, and they arranged/paid the carrier. I was emailed the name of the company and a phone number, and I called to confirm expected delivery date/time to see if/how much I needed to take off work to be sure I was there for them. The lady who answered the phone answered with a simple "Hello" and when I said I was trying to reach(company name) she seemed like I caught her off guard and then asked if I wanted them to make their OTHER delivery in a town 50 miles away first so that they would arrive later in the day. I said yes, and they pretty much arrived within a few hours of when they said.

That was just one recent experience. It was a bit over $800 for Delaware to Kentucky for a small, non-running car. From playing around with quote estimates, not running but rolls/steers/brakes added about $100 to the cost. I paid the broker around $125 by credit card and then paid the drivers $700 cash on arrival(it was $690ish, and they couldn't make change-the only other thing they could take was MO, but it was worth the few extra bucks to me to not have to drive to the PO and stand in line). I'm GUESSING that the amount on my card was the broker's portion, and the amount in cash was the carriers portion. If I'd paid it all by card, it was closer to $900. 3 cars at ~$700 each for ~3 days work doesn't sound like a ton of money to me to split between two guys, especially given that I imagine fuel eats up a pretty decent amount of that.