What does it actually cost to ship a car?
Two ZIP codes and you have your answer — with every line item shown. No email wall, no callback required, and nothing sold to anyone.
Pickups inside five days carry a short-notice premium. Leaving this blank assumes you are flexible.
Enter a pickup and delivery ZIP code and your estimate appears here instantly. No email, no phone number.
Here is the whole formula. Check my numbers against anyone else's.
Auto transport pricing is not a mystery — it is distance, deck space, and how badly a driver wants your lane this week. The first two I can publish. The third is why you still want a human to check the board before you book.
| Distance | Per mile | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under 300 miles | $1.35 | Short hops carry the loading and paperwork cost of a long one over far fewer miles. |
| 300 – 600 miles | $0.95 | Usually a single-day drive, so the carrier fits it around a bigger haul. |
| 600 – 1,000 miles | $0.74 | The classic regional lane — Ohio to Florida sits at the top of this band. |
| 1,000 – 1,500 miles | $0.61 | Long enough that the carrier is filling a trailer, not chasing one car. |
| 1,500 – 2,200 miles | $0.51 | Cross-country routing, priced on fuel and hours rather than distance alone. |
| Over 2,200 miles | $0.45 | Coast to coast. The cheapest per mile and the longest transit window. |
Every load also carries a $340 carrier minimum. Below that no driver takes the job, which is why a 40-mile move does not cost forty dollars.
Vehicle size
A sedan is the baseline. Crossovers add about 12%, vans 15%, pickups 22%. A motorcycle takes roughly 38% off, because it occupies a fraction of the deck.
Enclosed transport
Adds 45%. An enclosed trailer carries two to six cars where an open one carries nine or ten, and it costs considerably more to run.
Non-running vehicles
A flat $195. The load needs a carrier with a winch, and those trucks are a smaller pool competing for the same slot.
Short notice
Adds 9% when pickup is within five days. You are asking a driver to change a route that is already planned.
What this calculator cannot know
It cannot see the dispatch board. Auto transport is a live market — carriers bid on loads the way freight brokers bid on trucks, and a lane that priced at $700 in June can price at $950 in October because every snowbird in Ohio wants the same trailer in the same fortnight.
It also cannot see how rural your addresses are. A pickup ninety miles off the interstate is a detour the driver has to price in, and no ZIP-code model captures that.
So treat the number above as the shape of the answer, not the answer. If it looks roughly right, the real rate probably will be too. If a competitor quotes you far below it, ask them what happens when no carrier accepts the load at that price — because what happens is you sit and wait, then get called back and asked for more.
Shipping a common corridor? I have written up the specifics — distance, seasonality and timing — for 24 of the routes I run most often, and there is more detail on how pricing and insurance actually work.
About the estimate
- How accurate is this car shipping calculator?
- It is built from published market rates and is usually within 10–15% of what a carrier actually accepts. It cannot see live demand on your corridor, which is the one thing that moves a real price the most — a snowbird lane in October can run 25–35% above the estimate, and the same lane in June can come in under it.
- Why do you show prices when other brokers do not?
- Because a number you cannot check is not information. Most auto transport sites make you surrender a phone number to learn anything at all, and the number you eventually get is often a teaser rate designed to win the booking rather than move the car. I would rather you arrive at the call already knowing roughly what the lane costs.
- Is the estimate a binding quote?
- No. Your real price is set at the moment a carrier accepts the load at a specific rate. If market conditions mean the estimate is not achievable on your lane, I will tell you before anything is charged and give you the choice to wait, widen your dates, or adjust the rate.
- What is the cheapest way to ship a car?
- Open transport, flexible pickup dates, and booking six to eight weeks ahead of a seasonal peak. Date flexibility alone is typically worth $100–$200. Meeting a carrier near a major interstate rather than at a rural address helps too, since it saves the driver a detour.
- Do I pay anything to get a real quote?
- No. There is no deposit and no obligation, and I do not sell your details to other brokers — which is why most quote forms lead to a week of phone calls from companies you never contacted.
- Does the calculator work for motorcycles and non-running vehicles?
- Yes. Pick Motorcycle under vehicle type, and switch condition to Non-running if the vehicle will not start, steer or brake. Both are priced into the estimate. Boats and RVs need permitted oversize hauling, so those I quote by hand.
Ready to get your vehicle moving?
Sixty seconds for an honest estimate. No deposit, no obligation, and no handing your number to five other brokers.