Shipping my car to STX

I shipped a brand new vehicle here from Seattle a couple of months ago and it arrived with everything intact. A friend shipped his car from Los Angeles and it came with some missing knobs/switches, smelled horrible inside, had dirty front wheels and warped front rotors, and it had several post-it notes with addresses inside (like someone used it for deliveries.) Makes me wonder if the real risk is in the storage prior to shipping as opposed to the transit legs of the trip?

They stole the A/C knobs and the door lock pulls were taken off of mine. They also stole a cheap wrench that I purposely left in the map pocket, just to see if they would steal it.
They didn't bother with the jack of tire tools, maybe they couldn't find them as they are in the side panel by the rear seat.

To help people understand the problems it would be useful if people that had problems told everyone who they used to transport their car. Was it Crowley or was it Tropical Shipping.

I have never had a problem with shipping cars with Tropical. Perhaps it is because they put your car in a container and it comes directly from West Palm Beach.

My understanding is that Crowley doesn't use containers and the cars go via PR.

Jim

I shipped a car with Tropical and had no problems. It was 5 years ago and I was allowed to put as much stuff in it as I could fit as long as I provided a list and it did not block the view of a driver. I filled the trunk with stuff (nothing too expensive) and it was all there when it arrived here on STX.

Maybe I'll just take the tire tools out to be on the safe side. 😉 I'm using Flemings' so I will let everyone know how it goes. It leaves next week. They've been really helpful every time I've contacted them.

Wow that's crazy. I guess take the knobs off to 😉

It sounds like if it was being driven around it must have been in storage for a bit. If the entire ordeal takes place in less than 7 days I couldn't imaged too much going wrong.

I shipped mine Crowley from Port Everglades 3+ years ago with a pricy road bike in it (torn apart so it would have been a big hassle to mess with) and logged my mileage. It had less than 8 miles on it and the bike arrived no problem. The one thing that was gone was my road atlas of the US. I guess I didn't need it anyway 😎

We just shipped our car, using Crowley, from Fort Lauderdale. I had water bottles and dog treats under my seats. Everything was still there when it arrived in STX.

Is this why most shipping companies want you to ship your cars empty?

We shipped a van and a sports car 5 years ago when you were allowed to pack the car to the windows through Tropical Shipping. When it arrived it was totally intact, right down to the McDonalds bag of trash!!!

We have a jeep to ship from California near Los Angeles and interested in what companies you used that would ship from the West Coast.?

We did ship one of our vehicles last August on Tropical from Riviera Beach (WPB) and they were GREAT - NO ITEMS WERE ALLOWED IN THE VEHICLE. Tropical has changed their policies. Although, we had NOTHING taken or was the vehicle used in tranist.

DO NOT LET NATIONWIDE AUTO TRANSPORT SHIP YOUR VEHICLE FROM CA. TO FL.!!!!(td)
I had Flemming do the trans for my car from AZ to STX. They ( most all companies) contacted a broker to have the car shipped to FL. It turned out to be Nationwide. Nationwide had me sign papers, I didn't read all of the fine print, shame on me, and shipped the car to STX. They overcharged me $500 more then Flemming was going to charge. When I called to complain they said " well you signed the papers".
I believe that you are better off having someone "pull" the car down to the STX than someone " sending it there. If it is being "sent" there, no one knows it is coming and you can have problems.
I shipped some security gates there from AZ using Flemming. The ship, for some reason didn't go to STX like they were supposed to but instead went to STT. Since Flemming was expecting the shipment, they were on the lookout and realized the error and took care of it. If ,IMHO, it was being "sent" to STX, I would have had to track it down and took much longer.
Flemming was great(tu).
DO NOT LET NATIONWIDE AUTO TRANSPORT SHIP YOUR VEHICLE FROM CA. TO FL.!!!!(td) Make sure that whoever you use does not use Nationwide!!!

When you ship a car on Tropical it goes as space available. It is up to the load master's discretion what gets loaded on each ship. In 2004 it took five weeks for my car to arrive from West Palm Beach. It had been an active hurricane season and building supplies had a higher priority than automobiles.

Never plan on your car being on the next boat!

Jim