Hire a Driver to Transport Your Car Cross Country: Complete Guide

To hire someone to drive your car cross-country, create a free listing on CitizenShipper’s marketplace and receive quotes from background-checked drivers within hours. Professional car transporters charge $0.40-$0.90 per mile for cross-country transport, with most routes costing $800-$2,500 depending on distance and vehicle type. The process takes 2-5 minutes to list, and drivers typically deliver within 3-10 days.

No matter if it’s second-hand, via a vintage car seller, an auction, or through Craigslist, many times to get the car you’ve always wanted, you’ll have to shop all over the country. You have three main options to transport your vehicle long distances.

Should You Hire Someone to Drive Your Car Across Country?

Of course, you could do the road trip by yourself. But even if you have the time or energy to drive across the country to retrieve the car, there’s one dilemma: you’ll need two drivers to get back home. You could also fly out to the car, but airplane tickets these days are getting to be cost-prohibitive.

If you don’t have anyone to help you drive the car back and don’t want to buy a plane ticket, consider hiring a professional car shipping company to do it for you. It’s not difficult to find and hire a vehicle transporter, but to ensure you get the best, most affordable service, you should know what to expect. This guide will provide all of the information you need to hire a driver and what characteristics to watch out for.

Step 1: List Your Cross-Country Car Transport Need

How can you find the right driver to transport your precious new vehicle? Finding a driver takes less than 5 minutes on CitizenShipper. You can consider a traditional car transportation company, but the biggest drawback is that most operate as brokers, meaning you have no idea who will show up to move your car. An alternative to typical car movers is a vehicle shipping marketplace like CitizenShipper.

Benefits of a Car Shipping Marketplace Like CitizenShipper

You can directly post your online transport details and then sit back and relax while professional car transporters send you quotes. That’s right, no more filling out dozens of forms on individual websites and waiting for the transporters to get back to you. When you use CitizenShipper, the transporters come to you.

Details to Include in Your Listing:

• What kind of car needs to be transported?
• When and where do you need it shipped?
• Do you prefer door-to-door transport or terminal-to-terminal?
• In which time frame do you need the car to be transported from where to where? 
• Do you prefer enclosed transport or open transport?
• Any other special details about the transport, such as if you require VIP service or if the vehicle is particularly fragile.

Once the quotes roll in, it’s time to review the driver’s profiles in detail: What licenses do they have? Which previous driving experiences did they gain? How are they insured?

Step 2: Find Out if the Vehicle Transporter is Trustworthy

One benefit of hiring a transporter through CitizenShipper is that all drivers have passed a basic background check. It includes an investigation of all drivers’ criminal history and verifies their addresses and phone numbers.

• To further research the driver’s trustworthiness and reliability, use the review area of the driver’s profile.
• The review area includes previous customers’ experiences with the driver, what they appreciated, and things they missed in the service.
• These reviews will give you great information about the driver.
• If you read negative reviews, check how the driver reacted – everyone makes mistakes, but it’s more important to see how they’re dealing with criticism. 

Step 3: Communicate Directly with the Car Transporter

After you narrowed down your research to the drivers you’re interested in, you can contact them directly via the CitizenShipper platform’s chat function. This direct contact will for sure support your gut feelings about who to choose, but there are also some things to watch out for:

1. Is the driver responsive and patient? Fast, direct, and patient answers to all of your questions can be a critical factor in choosing the right driver. You might want to have a person who is open to you and your insecurities about your new car’s transport.
2. Is the driver informed? That the driver knows their job is crucial. You are in good hands if the driver can help you with insurance issues and any upcoming insecurities about your transport circumstances.
3. How many transport updates is the driver willing to give? This question is not for everybody. But some people feel the need to get updates during the shipping or are happy about some pics from the road trip, maybe even want to see their car in an exciting landscape. If you need this to relax and know that everything is ok, you should check if the driver you consider hiring is up for that.

No matter what your unique needs regarding the move are, indirect communication, you will get a sense of your driver, and here you can specify all the details that are important to you.

Step 4: Negotiate a Good and Fair Price

Price matters, but the cheapest option often means cutting corners on insurance or experience.

• First, set a budget.
• Based on the budget, you can compare the offers you got.
• Don’t simply choose the cheapest bid – instead, search for a mixture between your financial capabilities, the drivers’ experience, and fair pay for the job. 

Step 5: Secure Insurance

While hiring an independent driver can be an excellent and affordable possibility to transport your car, you have to make sure that there is the right insurance for your vehicle to be driven by another driver. If not, it might be possible that your insurance will cover less or nothing in case of an accident. Maybe there is an additional short-term insurance possibility if the car is solely insured by you. Check your current policy and keep in mind that any claim can increase your policy’s rates. Get in touch with your driver if you feel insecure about anything.

Conclusion

If you take your time to reflect on what your needs and wishes are for a good driver and to research and communicate with the drivers on our platform, you will for sure find a transporter who meets your specific needs.

Hiring an independent driver is an excellent alternative to transporting via a car carrier. However, if you still think another mode of car transportation might suit you better, you can check out all of our platform options and find the transport method that fits you the best. Create your free listing now to start receiving quotes from verified drivers!

Frequently Asked Questions