These days its seems that every where you turn there is some type of new scam. It can be hard to trust people when these scams appear every where that you look, but if you know what you are doing, you can spot the scams from a mile away. Auto shipping is no different. There are some auto shipping scams out there, but how do you know if the company that you have chosen to ship your car is a legitimate auto shipping company? Should you just blindly pay them, hand them the keys to your car and sit back and hope for the best? You could do this, but it never hurts to do a little bit of research on your own. It is not difficult to find out if an auto shipping company is a scam, you just have to know what to look for. Here are some tips that will help you determine whether or not the auto shipping company that you have chosen is the real deal, or a complex scam that is designed to steal your car or truck.

The Government is Watching!

The government has their hand in the auto shipping business. The entire business is regulated by them. Every single auto shipping company is required to be licensed, and obtaining this specific type of license is no easy feat. One of the prerequisites is that the auto shipping company must have a valid MC number.

What is an MC Number?

MC stands for motor carrier. A Motor Carrier or MC number is a number that is assigned to an auto transport company by the government. If the auto shipping company does not have an MC number, then stay as far away from them as possible.

Validate the MC Number

Just having an MC number is not enough. It could be that at one point in time the auto shipping company that you have chosen had a valid MC number, but now it is no longer valid. The Department of Transportation website provides an easy way to verify the MC number. All you need to do is run a search on the MC number. The results will tell you if the number is active and who it belongs to. If the auto shipping company’s name is not the same as the name that was returned by the MC number search, then it is not a good idea to use the auto shipping company.

Do More Research!

If the MC number is not enough for you, then you can always check your local Better Business Bureau. The Better Business Bureau will be able to give you a lot of information on the auto shipping company. You will be able to find out if there have been any complaints filed against the company, and whether or not they have been resolved. The Better Business Bureau can be an excellent resource for finding out whether or not the auto shipping company that you have chosen is the real deal or a scam.

What is considered to be a reasonable delivery time when it comes to auto shipping. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has some guidelines. The word reasonable is used quite a bit by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration when it refers to the amount of time that is acceptable. The bad thing about that is the fact that the word reasonable is a relative term. What is reasonable to one person may not be reasonable to another. It creates a gray area that a lot of people are uncomfortable with.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has given this reasonable amount of time a name. It is called, “reasonable dispatch service.” This does not affect shipments that are shipped with guaranteed delivery dates.

What Happens if There is a Substantial Delay in The Shipment Process

The company that is responsible for shipping your automobile, or transporting your personal belongings must notify you of the delay. The method of notification varies and it must be taken care of at the shipping companies expense. The company that is doing the shipping has the right to choose how they want to notify you about the delay in shipping using any of these methods. They may contact you by phone, fax, email, certified mail, or overnight courier. If they have chosen to notify you via certified mail, the mail must be sent with a return receipt requested. If the moving company fails to notify you of any of these delays, you may not have to pay the full price of your shipment.

When the moving company does notify you of the delay, they must also notify you of the dates that they expect to deliver your automobile or personal belongings.

In the unlikely event that there is a delay, the moving company must also supply you with a written record of the date change. They must also keep this record for a period of up to one year. When you request a copy of the notification, the moving company must supply you with a copy by either first class mail, or in person.

One of the problems that stems from delayed deliveries is this. Most people have created time in their busy schedules to pickup or receive their goods. When they delivery fails to fall within this allotted time space, you must make new plans to receive the goods. Now you will have to make new plans to be available for the delivery of the shipment. This can be a big inconvenience for many people because now the delivery company can decide when the items should be delivered, and it is your responsibility to be there to accept the delivery of your vehicle or personal belongings. If you are not available for the new delivery times, then the shipping company can place your goods in storage at your expense. This is never a good sign. If the new delivery date conflicts with your schedule, most car shipping companies will make considerations for your time.

The rising cost of gas is having an affect on everything that we do. It increases the price of groceries, it makes it more difficult to travel long distances in your own vehicle, but it has helped the auto shipping industry. Four short years ago gas was under $2.00 per gallon. It was right around $1.98 per gallon. Today it is well over $4.00 per gallon. Around eight years ago, gas was under $1.00 per gallon. At the rate that the price of gas is rising, it may difficult to do anything that involves a motor vehicle that is powered by gasoline in the near future. This includes moving.

More and more people are deciding to move much closer to cities. There is a simple reason for this. They will not have to drive as far to get to work. They can even use public transportation in order to avoid the high cost of refueling their vehicles. The car shipping industry has seen a huge boost in business because of the high price of gas. You would think that it would be the other way around, but it is not.

Auto shipping companies get a better rate of gas than your average person. Our costs for gas may be $4.00 per gallon, but that is not the case with auto shipping companies. They can purchase their gas for much less. They can do this because they buy gas in much larger volumes than your average consumer does. The end result is a significant amount of savings that gets passed down to the consumer. The auto shipping industry is one industry that has seen positive affects from the rising costs of gas. They have seen more business, which allows them to purchase even more fuel and pass on the savings to us.

Here is a good example of how having your car shipped can save you money. You want to move from one side of the country to the other. It could be from the East coast to the West coast, or it could be the other way around. No matter which way you look at it, you are going to need to drive your car about 2700 miles to do it. That is a lot of driving that needs to be done. Suppose your vehicle gets around 25 miles to the gallon. You are going to need around 108 gallons of fuel, and with today’s gas prices you would be looking at a bill of around $459.00. That is just the amount that you will have to pay for gas. That does not include the hotels that you will need to stay in. This cross country trip takes about three days to complete so start adding those costs to the total as well. You might as well start adding food int there too. You have to eat. What about the wear and tear on your vehicle? As you start adding up all of these costs you will quickly find out that it is much cheaper to have your car shipped.

What do you think of when you hear the words car carrier? For most people, it is a phrase that they have never even heard of, or it may remind them of those giant trucks that are always transporting vehicles down the highway that no one likes to get behind, but there are other types of car carriers. Sometimes cars get shipped in planes, and when they move from one country to another they must cross the vast blue ocean on a ship. All of these different ways that cars get shipped really rely on one thing, fuel. Those big trucks that you see barreling down the interstate with all of the vehicles on their backs use diesel fuel. The big transport airplanes require their own unique fuel, and the ships will require fuel too.

Nissan, the auto import giant that is responsible for such great vehicles like the 300ZX, the Xterra, and very popular Altima has created the world’s first Eco-friendly car carrier. Can you guess which type of car carrier this is? If you guessed a truck then you are wrong. That leaves just two choices. It could be the plane or the ship. It is the ship.

Now Nissan can transport all of their zero emission cars on their very low emission ship. This is one auto manufacturer that is truly leading the way in creating lower emission vehicles.

This giant auto carrier is named the Nichiomaru. This Japanese words simply means, “King Of Japan.” How is this car carrier ship any different than all of the others that are currently being used? This is the very first ship of its kind to feature solar panels, but that is not all. This ship also uses an electrically controlled diesel engine. This Eco-friendly combination is a first for car carrier ships, and it can help reduce fuel consumption, but Nissan did not stop there. They wanted the entire ship to be as energy efficient as possible so they continued their ideas right down to all of the lighting and appliances on board the massive ship. All of the lights are energy efficient LED lights, and all of the appliances on board are the most energy efficient models that exist to this date.

How does this Eco-friendly ship help

By using this ship Nissan can save as much as 1400 tons of diesel fuel each and every year. You read that right. That says tons, not gallons. That is a huge improvement. The ship will also help by producing less carbon dioxide each year. How much less you ask? How does 4200 tons sound? There is that word again, tons. That is a ton of savings!

The shipping path that the Nichiomaru takes usually takes 4 circuits a week to complete, but this ship can make 6 circuits and it still uses far less energy to do it.

In an age when gas prices are soaring through the roof it is always nice to hear about a company that is doing everything that it can to lower their usage of fossil fuels.