Time Required to Ship Your Car

Driver Limitations

While international car shipping laws vary, federal law stipulates that automobile shipping drivers travel no more than 500 miles per day, which includes any all auto transport delivery stops along the way. They are also only allowed to drive 6 days per week and must take a longer “rest period” every two weeks.

However, with A-1 Auto Transport’s efficient system, we can responsibly utilize our driver’s time by providing them with the most efficient transport routes possible.

What Can Change?

There is a multitude of variables that can affect your vehicle's shipping time. Things such as mechanical difficulties, as well as natural disasters which present difficult travel conditions can cause slight delays in the shipment of your vehicle.

In these cases, A-1 does everything we can to get your transport back on the road in the shortest amount of time possible. A-1 Auto Transport also works closely with hundreds of active car carriers and long-distance movers across the United States, so that when something is going to cause a significant delay, we can arrange the pickup and continued transport of your vehicle by another one of our certified carriers. And although there is no way of preventing natural disasters such as hurricanes or snow storms, A-1 Auto Transport is prepared to work through those problems and ensure that we continue to provide you with the best possible service.

It is not always possible to provide an accurate time frame for shipping a car, as many factors come into play with pickup as well as delivery times. For a rough time frame ,however, see the chart below.

Lead Time

If you have your car picked up by an auto carrier at your home, it may be taken to an Origin Terminal. The car carrier that picked up your vehicle may not be the one that takes it on its cross-country journey. Your car may be at the terminal for a few days before the line haul auto carrier arrives to take it to its destination. This period is included in the two to the three-week estimate of the time it takes to ship a car.

Cross docks

In the shipping process, your vehicle could be unloaded at a “cross-dock” to switch it over to another carrier. that will be transporting your car for the next stretch of the journey. The time between your vehicle being unloaded and reloaded could be up to a few days, depending on the exact location to which your vehicle is being shipped to, as well as the availability of carriers for that route.

Other Cases

At A1 Auto Transport, we understand that not everything fits perfectly into a set design, and therefore we are completely open to accommodating special orders if at all possible. Things such as enclosed transport, specialty vehicles, oversize vehicles, and auto transports that have remote destinations might take longer.

For any other type of shipment, your A-1 sales representative will be happy to discuss any particulars or help you to figure out an option that will work for your needs. If those needs differ significantly from what A-1 Auto Transport can provide, we do have a network of qualified partners, some of which may be more apt to deal with your special needs.