uShip, the Online Shipping Marketplace
By Tony and Michele Hamer, About.com Guide
After spending a year searching for our next restoration project, we found and bought a 1961 Mark II in Austin, Texas. Part of the negotiation of purchase on the seller’s side was how soon we could get the car out their garage. The couple was adopting two boys and they needed the garage for storage – we had a feeling if we could promise a prompt pick up, they might be more negotiable on price.
We did a Google Internet search and there was quite a few vehicle transporter companies available. We chose to use uShip because we could submit one listing that would reach hundreds of feedback-rated companies who would bid on the job. Positive Customer feedback was a high priority in our decision to help ensure that pick-up and delivery commitments would be kept.
uShip’s website is fairly easy and straight forward so listing our transport request took a total of ten minutes. Once you set up your account, which is free, the listing process takes about ten minutes and consists of choices from drop down menus and filling in blank fields.
We posted a listing to transport our non-running Jag from Austin, Texas to Prescott, Arizona on May 4th and received 20 different bids, most of which came within the first two days. These bids were sent to our account on the uShip site, and by text and voice mail to our phone. This really helped the process to move quickly and we were able to make a deal with the sellers.
The bids we received ranged from a low of $550 to a high of $975, and had stipulations depending on the cars availability for pick-up. Basically if transporters have an empty slot that needs filling, there is only a short window of opportunity for our car to make into the schedule and not hold up other customer’s delivery.
We accepted Bluestar Auto Mover’s bid because they had made a competitive offer, they could pick up the car in two days, had positive customer comments on uShip and was given 4 stars from 131 reviews on http://www.transportreviews.com/company/bluestar-auto-movers.asp.
The deal with Bluestar was that we would give them a deposit for the transaction on our credit card and pay the balance in cash to the driver; this is pretty much standard in the industry. Bluestar Auto Movers actually contacted our seller a day early to pick up the Jag, May 13th and in turn, delivered a the car a day early, May 15th.
The Mark II arrived with no visible damage caused by the journey on a split level trailer that could fit a total of five cars. Our car was on the top level and fortunately for the vehicle underneath it, hardly any fluids were left in the Jag to leak on it.
Overall our experience with uShip and Bluestar Auto Movers was pretty good, every step was completed quickly and smoothly. Our only complaint would be that the transporter didn’t have an electric winch. The driver had to get the Jag off the top level of the trailer by using a manual release chain attached to the car’s axle. With every six feet of the descent, which was 3 inches at a time, the driver had to reposition the chain.
The whole process took about 1.5 hours in the blazing Arizona sun. But to the driver’s credit, he was patient and methodical under those adverse conditions.
Read the original review on About.com.
