Understanding How Vehicles Are Dispatched

Transporting a vehicle all starts with dispatching. When you hire an auto transport broker, their main goal is to find a carrier to have your car dispatched via a carrier as soon as possible. In order to better understand how auto transportation works, you need to have a thorough understanding of how vehicles are dispatched.

When is Your Vehicle Dispatched?

Once you book your auto transport with an auto transport broker, your broker will seek out various carriers based on the available routes as well as which carriers are located within your area. Many brokers, especially ones that have been operating for years, are fairly efficient in knowing which carriers and routes are available.

How fast your vehicle is dispatched depends on where you live for the most part and how busy the carriers are. If you live close to or in a major city, the dispatch time will be shorter since there's greater demand in that area. If you live in a rural area, the dispatch time will be much longer, unless you arrange to either drop off your vehicle somewhere or have it picked up with door-to-door service.

How Long Does the Whole Process Take?

The whole dispatch process can range from just one day to a few weeks. As mentioned, some of the factors that affect the length of the process can be:

• Your location
• The popularity of your route
• The time of the year (holidays will take longer)
• What auto transport option you select

The average time that it takes to have your vehicle dispatched is around four days.

What Auto Transport Brokers Do

Auto transport brokers will often place your vehicle shipping requirements on a load board, known as a central dispatch board, for all carriers to see. They will also directly get in contact with some carriers at times, especially ones that generally travel your route, that they often work with to try and arrange everything. Some carriers will continuously check the dispatch boards and call the broker if they see a vehicle load that they can handle. When this occurs, the dispatch process is generally much faster.

Since all carriers offer different prices, the broker will try to chose the carrier that offers the most affordable price, as they also need to make a profit themselves based on the price that they have charged you. If they chose a carrier that charges too high of a price, the broker's profit margins will go down considerably.

Many brokers have arrangements with certain carriers that they frequently do business with, which, once again, speeds up the dispatch process. If the route is a not a common route though, the broker will often have to use a carrier that they're not quite as familiar with.

A-1 Auto Transport always makes sure to hire only the best carriers around. Our years of experience means that we're quite efficient in getting your vehicle dispatched as fast as possible. Contact us today!