Why You Should Never Hire More Than One Auto Transport Company
Double Booking is Double Trouble
Listen, getting multiple quotes is a great idea. We highly encourage you to look for multiple quotes on time, cost, and quality of service – we’re pretty sure you’ll have trouble finding any other company that can compete with Number 1 Auto Transport. And that’s just fine. It doesn’t set anything in stone.
The trouble can begin when you follow through with multiple quotes and push into the booking stage. Understanding how we contract carriers is essential in knowing what double-booking can lead to. Just make sure you never hire more than one auto transport company.
Understanding How We Transport Your Vehicle
Once you reach out to Number 1 Auto Transport and confirm that you want to work with us, we will look for a highly qualified, efficient, and economical carrier from our list of preselected veterans and well-reviewed transporters. This involves putting the transport details to the individual carriers and carrier boards.
Auto transport carriers, including our trusted associates, will often look to make tightly packed trips efficient. They’ll look for vehicles with similar pick-up and drop-off locations and time requests or fill their truck with stops on the way to an already-committed route. That’s how many of them provide meager prices that we can pass on to you.
Almost every auto transport company or team you work with will operate in a very similar manner. Some will post on the same boards and will court the same carriers. Carriers will see multiple listings pop up with your details – the make, model, year, pick-up, destination points, details such as drivability, or any special requirements. Depending on how hard the client pushes, they may see more than two or three. It has the potential to cause plenty of confusion.
Land of Confusion
All of this confusion generally leads to one of two things:
- More than one carrier shows up, and you are billed for all carriers’ efforts. Many carriers will charge a cancellation fee once the transporter has been dispatched.
- More often, no carriers will take the bid or show up. After all, when most carriers see multiple bookings, they ignore them because they don’t know who has the order.
Suddenly, something you thought will create a win-win situation is now a lose-lose situation for yourself and often for the brokers you’re working with.
For you? You’re either behind a few days or putting in a few extra dollars. If you were expecting to move multiple vehicles or could need to move vehicles in the future, you’ve also likely lost the chance to build a solid relationship with a broker or company.
For brokers, this could lead to losing trust with carriers and stress their ability to provide service going forward. In the auto transport business, trust is a commodity. If a broker or auto transport group develops a reputation for double booking, it will likely lose trusted partners.
At Number 1 Auto Transport, we’ve worked hard to develop relationships with our carriers and customers. It’s how we consistently provide on-time, on-budget, damage-free vehicle transport. We work diligently with our customers and carriers to avoid confusion in requests and acceptances.
The Accidental Double Book
We know that not all double bookings are intentional. Sometimes you may have forgotten that you have already confirmed with one broker or transporter. Some brokers have also taken quote acceptance as permission to proceed with booking, even though the customer hasn’t signed off on anything yet.
At Number 1 Auto Transport, we go to great lengths to avoid being part of the confusion. We will review your transport request details and confirm that you have not already selected a second party. We will not move forward with any booking until it has been thoroughly confirmed with the customer and signed off on – we’ll check with you again once you’re ready to accept our quote and move on with the booking.
So, remember, never hire more than one auto transport company, and make sure you’re hiring one you trust! Here at Number 1 Auto Transport, we look at every quote as having the potential to start a long-term relationship. We feel that by creating a relationship, we can nip that worry in the bud – once you shop with us, you’ll never want another auto transport company touching your cars, trucks, SUVs, or motorcycles!
