Reliable auto shippers?

[tom woolner]

Does anyone know a reputable suto shipper?
TIA
Tom

[Tom Drew]

One very important thing to pay attention to when contracting with anyone to ship your car is to make sure your shipper's INSURANCE COMPANY supplies you with a current insurance certificate. Have your auto insurance agent look it over to be sure it is the right kind of coverage and that the coverage is in effect.

I was involved in shipping a car with a well-known auto transport firm based in New Jersey. This company has been running full page ads in Hemmings for at least 15 years. Damage occured to the car in shipment as a result of the way the driver loaded the other cars in the trailer. The driver admitted his mistake and was aware of the damage. I was told to contact the owner of the company to make a claim. I called immediately and was told that the owner was not in and I should call back. It took a week to get hold of this guy, he never once returned any of my calls. When I did finally catch him, he became immediately defensive over the phone and said his opinion was that the damage wasn' t any big deal and he couldn't do anything for me. I was thunderstruck, and sensing I would get exactly nowhere with him, calmly requested the name and phone # of his insurance company, since he was not willing to take care of the damage. He then told me that his company was "self-insured". I asked him to describe what that meant and was told " it means we take care of damage claims ourselves". Just to confirm, I asked him again if he had ZERO INSURANCE COVERAGE for damage to cars that his company shipped and he replied "yes, that's the situation". I asked him if in effect he was telling me I had to sue him to recover any damages and his response was "well, you gotta do what you gotta do..."
After checking with my attorney, I found out that I would have to take this jerk to court in New Jersey, hire a lawyer in New Jersey, and by the time everything was said and done, probably spent alot more out of pocket than what it cost to repair the car.

So learn from my story, and make sure the insurance is in order!

Tom Drew