Vehicle Transport Services: Prepare Your Car For Shipping
You thought choosing vehicle transport services is hard. But it’s not. Once you have a shipping experience with a company, you can choose it again for the future too. The major thing is to prepare your car for auto shipping. Since the auto shipper does not drive the vehicles from one location to another, they are loaded on a multi-car carrying truck.
Now, it could be an open carrier or an enclosed auto carrier, either way, you need to take care of a few things before shipping cars to another destination.
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Prepare Your Car For Vehicle Transport Services
The common job of the vehicle transport services is to transport the cars. Shipping companies like Ship and Deliver offer to ship an operational and inoperable car. Even if you have booked a quote for shipping an inoperable car you need to take care of necessary preparations to ensure it reaches the destination in the condition as it is.
It’s alright to be confused and nervous when placing a car shipping order for the first time. Ship and Deliver take care of the customers, especially for the first-timers.
Follow the steps mentioned down below to ensure your car arrives in the right condition at the new place.
1. Time To Wash The Vehicle
The first and foremost thing you need to do is to wash the vehicle. The exterior must be clean before shipping your car. So that when the driver comes to pick your car he can properly examine your car, report it and then upload it.
The documents will report the current condition in which the car will be uploaded. If your car is clean, then of course it will become easier for you and the driver to see any damage (in case) at the time of arrival.
Tip: Clean your car once you book the car shipping. Don’t wait until the driver arrives to pick it up.
2. Take The Car Pictures
Once you clean the car, it’s time to take pictures of the car. The reason is quite clear. In case your car is priorly damaged it will be visible in the pictures. Make sure the pictures are high quality and are properly dated.
Take pictures from different angles and it should be clear. In the case of a rare auto transport accident or damage, these pictures will come real handy in such a case scenario.
Tip: Ship and Deliver take photos as part of the vehicle condition but it’s best if you follow the practice too.
3. Remember The Odometer
While you are taking pictures of the car’s exterior, do not ignore the interior. Also, take the picture of the car’s odometer. For your own peace of mind that your car is only “shipped and not misused or mishandled during the shipping by the driver” you can take snapshots of the odometer. After all, you will be handing the car keys to the stranger, so for a self-precautionary measure, you can take this step.
Although Ship and Deliver is a responsible vehicle transport service, it’s always better to be cautious.
Tip: Share the picture of the odometer with the receiver to communicate.
4. Remove The Personal Items
Car is a personal asset. But shipping a car means you need to remove any personal items to prevent any damage or losing the items.
To prevent any risk or damage to the items, it’s best to remove the custom parts or personal accessories before loading the vehicles. Vehicle transport services ask for the details in case you have secured any personal items inside the car that need to go along with the car shipment.
Tip: Secure the items inside the dashboard (only if small in size).
5. Keep The Tank Clean
Because your vehicle will be shipped by an open or enclosed carrier, and not driven, you do not need to fill your car tank prior to the shipping. In fact, if you do fill the car tank, it will make the vehicle heavier (a car is weighed before loading) and will add to the weight of the car. Also, it will be an unwanted risk during the shipping too. So it’s best to keep the fuel tank empty at most.
Just leave little fuel in the tank (as much as possible).
Tip: Withdraw a large amount of fuel in advance to avoid any accidents in hot seasons.
Quick Points To Remember
- Always remember to check the car for any leaks once you empty the tank before shipping the car.
- Check the tire inflation as well. Under-inflated or over-inflated tires are risky.
- Make sure the car is properly locked even after it’s loaded.
- Disable the sensitive alarm. Movements of the auto transport services otherwise can dismantle them.
