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5 Reasons Why Every Dealership Needs a Car Shipping Partner
Jul 22, 2022
Image source: Envato elements
When you start or buy a dealership, you might only envision your vehicles moving when customers come onto the lot, find one they like, buy it, and drive off with it. That's obviously the best-case scenario you want to see, but there will be other times you need to move your inventory. Having the right car shipping partner is crucial to making sure your inventory is where it needs to be so you can get ready for sales and actually make them happen.
5 Reasons Your Dealership Needs a Car Shipping Partner
There can be many reasons why you need a car shipping service. Having a reliable partner to turn to for this works out well for many reasons.
- Bring In Vehicles You Buy: If your dealership sells used vehicles, then you might need to buy inventory from other parts of the country and have them shipped in. For that matter, some new vehicle dealerships have started dabbling in used vehicles just to keep their lot full when supply chain disruptions interrupted their supply of new vehicles.
- Send Out Vehicles You Sell: If you sell vehicles online through your website, the customers might not be able to come to pick them up themselves. Offering delivery services makes it easier on them and increases your likelihood of making sales you rely on for revenue and profit.
- Move Inventory: If your dealership has multiple locations, or you just move your business to a new spot, then you'll need a way of getting your inventory from one lot to the next. Putting lots of vehicles on one truck is a lot easier than driving them over one by one and getting all those drivers back.
- Get Vehicles to Auctions: Your actual sales lot might not be the bulk of your business. Selling online through your website is a good idea, but you should also consider online auctions. Physical auctions are also good things to explore. Many of them might need your vehicle to be present, so you'll need a shipping service to get it there.
- Send Vehicles to Service Specialists: You want your inventory to be in great shape so it can make a good impression and sell well. That might mean getting vehicles fixed up. Doing business in bulk can mean volume discounts on anything from tires to paint jobs. Sending your vehicles by the truckload to service specialists can make it easy to get those discounts.
How Does a Car Shipping Business Work?
Car shipping companies move passenger vehicles from one location to the next without actually putting added mileage on them. That's a twofold win for your dealership. You avoid the labor of one of your staff driving vehicles places. You also keep the mileage down, and that helps the vehicles retain their value and sales price. A car shipping company has open and enclosed trucks they can dispatch to the location of your choosing. They put the vehicle on the truck and then do the driving for you before dropping it off at the intended address.
You should call around various car shippers or use their websites to get quotes and leads. Doing this will give you an idea of how much to budget for the service if you're just window shopping in advance, or it can be a way of finding the best deal if you actually are in need of the service soon.
Choose one that has a great price, but also make sure they have a good reputation for effective deliveries. Find out what you need to do to prepare a vehicle for shipping so you can have it ready. If a vehicle isn't ready at the time of pickup, you might face delays or charges. You might even miss that truck and have to wait for another one.
Open or Enclosed Vehicle Shipping
As covered by Retirement Living, you can choose from open or enclosed vehicle shipping. There are pros and cons to doing it both ways.
Open carriers are usually going to be cheaper. They also have a lot more routes available, as open carrier trucks often account for approximately 90% of all available vehicle shipping services. The potential downside is the possibility of damage to the exteriors of your vehicles.
Enclosed carriers will protect your vehicles from the elements. However, these carriers are more expensive. There also aren't as many such trucks, so you might have route limitations.
Making the decision between the two can be tricky. If you're on a deadline, you might have to go with an open carrier just because you'll find one faster. They might also deliver faster because they're used more commonly. Enclosed carriers might have to go further between stops since they're not selected as often.
Insurance can factor a lot into this as well. An open carrier might insure the carried vehicles for weather damage, but you have to make sure. In any case, you need to take lots of photos of the vehicles prior to loading so you can document their condition prior to loading. The recipients also need to check them thoroughly for status and condition after they arrive at their destination.
The Biggest Reason
The biggest reason your dealership needs a car shipping partner is simply that any business can do well when it has great partnerships. When you have a regular car shipper you work with, they can get to know your needs and offer services or suggestions you might not know about. How well they serve you can and should improve with time.
See: Financial Guidelines That Will Help You When You Decide To Buy a New Car
Having a car shipping partner you can count on might be just the edge you need over your competition. When your vehicles are treated right and get to their various destinations quickly and accurately, it means you can maintain an impressive inventory on the lot and also impress clients who are further away.
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