The world of vehicle transport is more complex than you may imagine, with unique characteristics differentiating it from other freight economies.
For example, auto transport can involve moving a single car or a fleet of vehicles via an enclosed or open carrier to cities, metropolitan areas or rural regions. There are also the roles of auto transport carriers and brokers. When people think of car shipping, they tend to imagine auto transport carriers, whether or not they realize it.
Auto transport carriers and brokers are two distinct services. However, they can and often do overlap. Let’s illustrate the differences between these two services so you know how they can help fulfill your vehicle shipping needs.
Auto Transport Carriers: The Direct Movers
Auto transport carriers are companies that directly handle moving vehicles from one location to another with their equipment, which primarily consists of trucks, drivers, carriers, and trailers. These companies are also referred to as auto haulers or auto transporters.
Carrier Varieties
The most common type of auto transport carrier is a single-owner operator, meaning the company has one or a few trailers. Single-owner operator auto transporters with large truck fleets are far less prevalent.
Average Carrier Prices
Price is generally the first point of reference consumers consider when choosing between different car transport services. You may or might not pay a lower final price with an auto transport carrier vs. a broker. However, auto haulers tend to provide higher initial quotes than a broker service, which we’ll explore more in-depth later. If you want several quotes from carriers, you’ll need to get in touch with multiple companies, which is often time-consuming.
The Accessibility of Carrier Fleets
Single-owner operator carriers tend to not market themselves to the public or offer an easy-to-use online platform since they may lack the time and money. Far-less-common large carrier fleets are more likely to advertise or have an easy-to-use website, while small-sized haulers tend to lean on brokers or dispatch boards.
Once you assemble a list of carriers, you’ll have to assess their viability. Since single-owner carriers can be difficult to research, you can have higher-average difficulty verifying their reputation and ability to follow legal transport requirements like having insurance.
Carrier Fleet Customer Service
Auto transport carrier customers often view communicating with a single party from start to finish as the most advantageous aspect of the working relationship. Having one point of contact can simplify how you can answer inquiries like questions about your specific order or the nature of certain routes, but customer service often isn’t as high of a priority with carriers.
While some carriers can offer quality customer service, client communication can be worse since these companies have fewer resources and are more focused on trucks completing orders instead of answering personal questions.
Logistical Challenges of Carriers
On average, it’s more challenging to find a single-owner operator carrier capable of handling your vehicle class and route within your requested time frame. Suppose there’s a delay during a route due to something like a breakdown. In that case, you’ll have to wait for a single-owner operator carrier to fix their truck instead of relying on backup plans associated with brokers.
Ultimately, you’ll have to perform much more preliminary work with a carrier vs. a broker to help the stars align. These stars or value points include safety, customer service, speed, cost, and reliability.
Auto Transport Brokers: The Logistics Connectors
Auto transport brokers are the middleman between you and car carriers. They organize and streamline the carrier services logistics instead of physically picking up and moving customer vehicles. Brokers almost always don’t own transport truck fleets or equipment.
Brokers facilitate carrier-customer relationships with a network of small and large carriers. Besides relationships with carriers, brokers can source carrier availability through methods like the central national dispatch board or other load boards. A broker directly contacts carriers through its personal network or has carriers contact them by posting available loads.
Employing network and posting methods allows brokers to cast a wider net and source more customer options since specific routes or truck inventory limitations aren’t at hand.
Saving Time with Brokers
When selling a car, it’s easier to complete a sale through a dealership since they’ll handle steps like paperwork organization.
On a similar scale, brokers save clients time by arranging logistics like:
A bill of lading
Pickup and delivery arrangements
Gathering documents
Verifying carrier licensing and insurance
Assistance with the above points can be especially helpful for someone who has never worked with an auto transport company.
Carrier-Customer Communication Explained
You might be under the impression that it’s easier to contact a carrier instead of a broker if issues arise during transport—but this often isn’t the case. Even if you directly find a carrier to work with, you can experience difficulty getting in touch after the job begins. Broker customers typically only speak with carriers for pickup and delivery notifications.
Broker Verification
While brokers offer some distinct advantages over carriers, you’ll still need to verify their reputation. However, it’s often easier to background check brokers since they invest more money into reaching the public.
Navigating Auto Transport Complexities With a Broker
A broker can provide recommendations for certain services based on a customer’s unique needs, using their comprehensive knowledge of technical auto carrier aspects. These aspects include but aren’t limited to, predicting potential shipping challenges and handling logistical hurdles.
Predicting Shipping Challenges
Brokers can excel at predicting shipping challenges to avoid or mitigate service risks by using data analytics for tasks like anticipating market fluctuations. This preliminary work can help customers avoid stressful instances like capacity constraints or price spikes.
Weather Monitoring
Weather plays a vital role in risk mitigation during auto transport, as conditions like snow and ice can cause accidents resulting in drop-off delays or other problems like route readjustment, which can incur higher fuel prices, and therefore, greater car shipping costs. An auto transport broker’s generally greater understanding of route optimization can result in planning with weather challenges in mind to help you control costs and maintain a timely order.
How Brokers Can Logistical Hurdles In Real-Time
While brokers have resources to help anticipate logistical hurdles, they aren’t fortune tellers. Working with a broker or carrier can result in scenarios like breakdowns, but a carrier will generally be more able to keep things moving.
One way brokers handle logistic hiccups is through backup plans. These backup plans may consist of using different carriers in their network to complete an order if the shipment’s assigned carrier falls through.
Another roadblock single owner-operator carriers may struggle with is completing a route—especially if the final destination is in or near a more remote area. A broker can similarly use their network to find carriers able to complete a portion of the route one carrier may not handle. This substitution strategy can be more common during cross country car shipping, but may also occur during state-to-state car shipping.
How to Determine if a Company Is a Broker or Carrier
The easiest way to determine whether a company is a carrier or a broker is by:
Visiting the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website
Entering the company’s name in the ‘Value’ box
Checking the result’s ‘Entity Type’ box to distinguish the company type
Understanding the differences between these two options will help you establish proper service expectations and better accommodate your shipping needs. Whether you work with a broker or carrier, reputation, reliability, and customer service are top priorities.
