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Shipped my Civic with a broker once and direct with the carrier the second time, the price gap shocked me
I moved from Phoenix to Denver in March and needed my 2016 Civic shipped, so I went with a broker first because the quote was $650 and it felt cheap. The pickup window slid by four days, nobody could tell me where my car was, and the final bill came out to $840 with fees I never heard about until delivery. Six months later I moved back and called a carrier directly, and they quoted $780 flat with a two day pickup window. The driver texted me a photo of the car on the trailer the same afternoon and it showed up in Denver in three days, no surprise charges. I know brokers work for plenty of people, but the $60 difference was nothing compared to the headache. Did direct booking work out for you, or did a broker save you money in the end?
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jordan1841mo ago
The $60 gap you're talking about is the part most people miss, because brokers make their money by adding a cut on top of what the carrier actually charges. Calling a carrier direct means you're talking to the person who owns the truck and knows the schedule, so when they say a two day pickup window they can actually stick to it. That photo text the same afternoon matters more than people realize, since it's proof the car is loaded and moving instead of sitting in some lot waiting for a driver to bid on the job. Brokers can be handy when you're shipping a weird route or need someone to hunt down a truck for you, but on a common run like Phoenix to Denver there's no real reason to hand over a middleman fee. The lowball quote is the bait too, since those extra fees at delivery are how the broker and driver split the difference. You basically paid $60 less for way more stress the first time, which is a trade nobody should take.
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