You are moving across the country and you decided to ship the car instead of doing the trip across the country. Either you had enough fun vacations with your kids or they are old enough to hate the idea, you are not doing it. You are going to hire someone to deliver your car to your new residence. Here are a couple of car shipping preparation guidelines that you may find useful.
Choosing the right company is a must in car shipping preparation
Usually, the moving company that is helping you out with the move offers a car relocation package as well. They will probably give you a bargain, or maybe not, but get a couple of estimates. Then investigate how good they all are. Going online can help you out, so look for recommendations from happy customers, or bad reviews if there are any. NJ car shipping services are a great benefit if you hire the right company. So, this search is the most important part of car shipping preparation.
Car maintenance
Take your car to a checkup. Check all the fluids in the vehicle, coolant, and engine-oil being the most important ones. Having to fix some of the issues is maybe better with the mechanic you are already familiar with. You don’t want to pay in your new town just to “learn” where not to go. And the most important thing is that you will have a functioning vehicle when you pick your car up.
Preparation for shipping
There are several things you need to do before you give your car to the shipping company:
- Check your battery
- Find your spare keys
- Leave about ¼ of your tank full
- Secure any loose items in the car
- Disconnect antennas
- De-activate alarms as you don’t want them to drain your battery
- If you have any racks for bicycle transport or something similar, secure or pack them
- Inflate or deflate your tires per instructions from the shipping company
Take a record of your car’s condition
The important step of car shipping preparation is washing your car really well. Take pictures of your car, especially of any existing damage and the general condition of your car. Along with the pictures of any damage, take pictures from a couple of angles. You will want to cover all surfaces. This is important in the case that the shipping company denies the damage they made during transport.
Car handover
Give shipping personnel spare car keys as they will probably need to move it at some point.
Remove parking passes and toll tags. If your car is shipped by the road you don’t want to be charged these.
Remove all private belongings from the car a couple of hours before delivery, if you are the one delivering the car. In case you will be already gone, arrange to deliver the car to the shipping company or get someone to do it for you.
Delivery of the car
You are either going to have your car delivered to your new home or you will have to pick it up yourself. In both cases the first thing that needs to be done is inspection, check for any damage. If everything is OK, you will then need to sign the bill of lading. You are ready to go; you might want to clean the car once again. And don’t forget, if you moved out of state, you will need to change your vehicle registration and driver’s license.