My earlier musings dealt with previous experiences having cars transported, but now I think I finally understand enough about how this process works. Hopefully I can save you some time and anguish here. This was my fourth time having a car transported and just to keep life interesting, this one was a Los Angeles to Minnesota haul, but no engine in the car. The seller wasn't on a tight time table, so I had some time to sort things out and see how best to deal with the transport.   

I started with an online transport quote tool. There are a number of them available and all appear to ask the same basic info. You quickly get responses via email from transport companies giving you their selling pitch and a price. Many then follow up by phone. The majority are brokers. These people quote you a price, work with you on details, have you sign a contract, post the haul on an electronic 'board' for truckers to see, and take a portion of the quoted price as their fee. For example: quoted price: $950. Broker takes $150 as fee, trucker gets $800. Truckers pay a yearly fee for access to this board and can size up their load by any factors they wish. If they want to take a car, they contact the broker and close the deal.  

Probably the best thing I learned from this time around was an online tool called transportreviews.com. Anyone who's had a car hauled can submit their experience and rate the broker/carrier used. You can quickly size up anyone who's quoted you a price. I got quotes ranging from $750 to $1150 and the reviews really got me to a short list of who I was comfortable with using as a broker. (editorial comment here: just for entertainment, read some reviews about DAS. I'm still mad at those people)   

Second best thing I learned is you can still line up a haul without having to provide a credit card up front, like so many transport companies are pushing now. In my case, I picked a broker, signed the deal, faxed it back to them and waited. When they scheduled the pickup all I had to do was fax them a check for the amount of their fee. I was to pay the balance to the hauler in cash when the car arrived. Not all brokers operated this way, but I really like this because you've not been charged up front for a haul that's yet to happen and I do believe having cash waiting at the drop off point is a good incentive for the hauler.

Do double check that the broker knows the car doesn't run. Fully half who quoted me missed that their 1st time through. An inop vehicle added about $150 to the price. 

Third thing I learned is apparently as soon as your load is up on the board, all brokers can see it. I was immediately deluged by calls and emails from other brokers insisting my car would never be hauled, it was underpriced, the broker I went with didn't know what they were doing, the car would be damaged because of repeated load/unload, etc. Of course they all wanted me to switch to them. Maybe this is just a sign of the times. I did not switch.  

Fourth: the price posted on the board can have a direct impact on how soon your car gets picked up. A low transport quote may well mean you end up waiting longer than you'd like until a hauler is interested in the load. In other words, drivers are going to try their best to maximize the money generated by the load they chose to haul. This is probably even more relevant to an inop vehicle, so if you're in a hurry, or just impatient like me, think twice before taking the lowest quote you get. 

Fifth: when you're dealing with an 'inop' there's apparently very limited damage liability, if any. The carrier that hauled my car presented me with a form I had to sign before he'd unload the car, which released him from any liability should the car be damaged while unloading. The seller of the car had to sign the same release form when the car was loaded out in LA. The good news here was the hauler involved for mine had been doing this for years, was a car enthusiast himself, and knew what he was doing. Bottom line here- read the contract thoroughly, ask questions. There's lots of fine print dealing with loose parts, contents of the vehicle, modified vehicles, missing parts, etc. At a minimum you'll want a vehicle with working brakes, steering and 4 tires that hold air.      

It took me 3 weeks but the real message here is you can get a non running vehicle transported successfully, without spending a fortune on it. So don't pass up that great deal on a project car you've been staring at!