subject: Transporting Your Vehicle – Free Range or Not? [print this page] The process of shipping ones car seems incredibly simple. It is only when you get ready to actually do it that questions start to arise. In this article, we take a look at the issue of whether you should ship free range or not.
The term free range comes to us from the food industry of all places. It refers to animals that are allowed to live out in the open versus those that are cooped up in a cage and never see the light of day. Although we are not talking about food and, perhaps, ethics, a similar issue arises when shipping your car. Simply put, you need to look into what type of shipping container will be used.
A free range shipper is one of those trucks that has no walls or roofs. You see them all the time on the freeway. There are roughly four cars stacked on the top level with another four on the bottom. They are often used when dealers are shipping new cars from a port to their floor rooms. These transport trucks expose your car to the elements. This might not seem like a big deal, but a shipment across the country from east to west could easily encounter everything from baking hot sun to freezing temperatures in the Rocky Mountains. I wont even begin to mention the issue of rocks flying up from the road or other cars.
Closed shipping is the other alternative. As the name suggests, your vehicle is shipped in a closed container. It may be a truck with walls or an actual shipping container. Most cars shipped internationally go in containers because they are on boats and salt can do a lot of damage. Domestic shipments are completely up to the choice of the client.
So, which should you chose for your car? Well, the answer depends. If you are shipping a 1989 Honda Civic, going free range is probably fine. You might want to spend a little extra for closed shipping for your new 2010 Bentley!
