When you’ve bought a car, truck, or recreational vehicle that’s some distance away, and it’s in good running condition, you have a few options for bringing it home. You can go get it yourself, pay a transport company to trailer it to you, or you can pay a driveaway service to send a licensed, insured individual to drive it to your door.
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A driveaway service can save you a good deal of time, effort, and/or money, depending upon your situation. Let’s look at a few examples.
Catching A Ride With A Buddy
Say you’ve won a Peterbilt 379 day cab on auction. (Congratulations, by the way.) It’s a few states over, so you’re considering your options. A friend offers to drive you there, but you’ll have to wait until he’s available on the weekend. Your expenses would include gas for his vehicle coming and going, fuel for the Peterbilt’s trip home, food for you both, and—because the truck doesn’t have a sleeper—one or two hotel rooms for the overnight. A reputable driveaway service can save you money in this scenario. The cost of driveaway is often a flat rate plus reimbursement for fuel. Even better, you won’t have to spend most of your weekend on the road.
Flying Out To Get It
Here’s another real-world example. You’ve just bought a Thor Motor Coach RV that’s about 800 miles away, which means that if you were to go get it, you would have lodging if you needed to spend the night. Unfortunately, you don’t have another driver, so you would have to catch a one-way flight to the nearest city. Besides airfare, you would need to pay for transportation from the airport to the RV’s location. Driveaway services are popular with owners of motorhomes for these and other reasons. In a situation like this, hiring a driver can save you time and money—and spare you the hassles of air travel.
Hiring A Hauler
Booking a carrier to haul your new SUV or piggyback your new Kenworth is an easy solution, although it’s usually pricier to hire transport like this than it costs to use a driveaway service. The latter is often much faster, too, as the driver won’t be stopping off along the route to pick up and drop off other freight.
Find The Right Driveaway Service With FR8Star
FR8Star makes it as easy to hire a driveaway service as it does to book tractor-trailer transport. It’s free to ask for quotes from bonded, insured driveaway companies with appropriately licensed, professional drivers. The bids you receive will include all costs associated with delivering your vehicle. (Note that transport companies that also provide driveaway services may also send you a second bid indicating how much they would charge to haul your vehicle by trailer.)
You’ll want to do a little research on the services submitting bids to you. Look at credible reviews online, as well as each service’s driver requirements such as a minimum age or whether they’ve had to put up collateral against failing to complete the delivery. To help you understand how long a driveaway service has worked with FR8Star and how well their customers have reviewed them, FR8Star places them in tiers labeled Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.
Important Details
When you’ve narrowed your choices down to two or three services, ask to see their insurance certificates. Ask questions, and be sure you understand the amount and extent of their liability and property damage coverage. Once you’re satisfied, award the bid to the driveaway service of your choice. The driver and FR8Star personnel will be easy to communicate with to make sure the trip goes as smoothly as possible.
Originally Posted: September 10, 2020
Updated: August 25, 2023