The Dealer’s Guide to Vehicle Transport

What nearly 10 million vehicle moves and our research reveal about transport costs, timing, carrier performance, and reducing delays.

Key takeaways from Super Dispatch platform data and additional research

• Cut per-unit cost. Transport cost per vehicle drops roughly 30% once a load reaches three vehicles.
• Distance changes the math. Short intra-city moves average about $5.14 per mile, while long hauls over 1,000 miles average about $0.85 per mile.
• Transport has its own seasonality. Rates typically rise in late spring and again around October before falling toward some of their lowest levels late in the year.
• Single-vehicle moves are getting more expensive. Single-VIN pricing rose on Super Dispatch through 2025 while multi-VIN pricing held flat to slightly down.
• Every day in transit has a price. NCM Associates 20 Group data puts used-vehicle holding cost at about $37 per unit per day, so transport delays come straight out of gross.
• Carrier history matters. The share of carriers with positive ratings above 95% rises from 59% under 10 moves to about 81% after 11 or more. On-time history and communication are stronger indicators than fleet size or years in business.

Whether you move a handful of vehicles a month from one store or coordinate transport across multiple rooftops, the same principles apply.

Dealership seasonality: when to buy, sell, and ship

Dealer demand and transport pricing move on different but related calendars. Planning around both helps you position inventory before demand peaks and avoid paying more to move it at the busiest times.

Spring: source before demand peaks. U.S. Census figures for used-car dealers show sales rising to roughly $13.99 billion in March 2025 and $13.29 billion in April, the strongest months of the year. And, in 2026, the peak month was April at 14.934. The average federal refund was $3,275 for the 2026 filing season through mid-April, up 11.3% from a year earlier. Inventory needed for spring demand should be sourced and moving before the rush.

Fall: move ahead of the October transport spike. As new model years arrive, dealers, especially franchised stores, clear older inventory through year-end promotions. Super Dispatch platform data shows a secondary transport price spike in October. Moving units earlier in the fall reduces exposure to that premium.

Late fall and winter: use the lower-cost window. Used-vehicle sales soften after spring and through winter. In the 2025 Census series, used-car-dealer revenue was lowest in November at about $10.69 billion. Transport pricing also trends lower from around November onward, creating a useful window to reposition inventory for the next sales cycle.

The practical takeaway: buy and move inventory in quieter, lower-cost windows when possible so vehicles are on the lot and ready when demand arrives.

What dealer vehicle transport actually costs

Three variables do most of the work in transport pricing: distance, load size, and fuel.

Price per mile falls as distance grows. Short moves cost more per mile because the fixed work of pickup and delivery is spread across fewer miles.

Move type	Typical price per mile
Intra-city	~$5.14
Intra-region	~$2.35
Inter-region	~$1.82
Long-haul (1,000+ miles)	~$0.85

Nearly 80% of vehicles on the platform travel under 1,000 miles, so most dealer moves sit in the higher per-mile bands. For outside reference, Kelley Blue Book puts a typical 1,000-mile move at about $1,020, while FreightWaves places open transport broadly between $0.55 and $2.00 per mile depending on distance.

Batch three or more vehicles when you can. Per-unit cost drops roughly 30% once a load reaches three vehicles. Through 2025, single-VIN prices rose about 5% in the first half and 10% in the second, while multi-VIN loads stayed flat to down 3%.

Plan for fuel movement. Fuel is about a fifth of what it costs to run a truck. ATRI put fuel at roughly $0.48 of the $2.34 per-mile operating cost in 2025. After the February 2026 disruption, diesel climbed above $5 per gallon nationally and auto transport prices rose roughly 30% from pre-disruption levels. You can follow the running average on our auto transport fuel cost tracker.

Use enclosed selectively. Open carriers still handle about 97% of orders. Enclosed transport typically adds 30% to 60%, so save it for vehicles whose value or condition justifies the premium.

Super Dispatch’s free Pricing Insights tool applies lane-level market data to individual moves so teams can sanity-check a quote before booking. The full auto transport industry report contains the underlying pricing and trend data.

Kunes Auto Group, a 43-store Midwest dealer group, used Pricing Insights to sharpen quoting and grew transport volume 30% in a year, generating $50,000 in additional revenue.

The moves dealers manage every day

Dealer transportation is not only about bringing auction purchases in. A working process has to handle several move types, often on the same day.

Move	What to plan for
Auction to dealership	Release status, gate pass or lot requirements, storage deadlines, and VIN and pickup details.
Dealer to auction	Sale or check-in deadline and auction receiving requirements. Build in enough lead time that trade-ins and aged units make their sale date.
Dealer to dealer	Trades and rooftop transfers need fast turnaround, a named contact at the receiving store, and clear ownership of the handoff. Some short in-group moves go on dealer plates, so decide up front which ones go on a truck.
Dealer to customer	Accurate ETA updates, a professional handoff, and condition documentation at delivery. A full-size car hauler often cannot get into a residential street or gated community, so confirm the delivery point and plan a nearby meeting spot if needed.
Non-running vehicle	Disclose inoperable status before booking and say whether the vehicle rolls, steers, and brakes. That helps determine the loading equipment required, which carriers can take the move, and the price. An undisclosed non-runner can mean a refused pickup and a wasted trip.

Plan for more home deliveries. As more of the buying process moves online, more vehicles go straight from the lot to the buyer’s driveway. On those moves, the transport experience is also the customer experience, so ETA accuracy and a clean handoff matter as much as price.

A repeatable transport workflow

Most dealer transport problems do not begin on the highway. They begin at the handoffs, when a vehicle is not released, pickup information is incomplete, documentation is missing, or no one sees an exception until the vehicle is already late.

1. Confirm the move. Capture the VIN, origin, destination, contacts, vehicle condition, operability, and any auction or gate requirements before booking.

2. Verify release status. For auction pickups, book as soon as payment clears and confirm the vehicle is released or ready before the carrier arrives. Storage terms vary by location, so check the auction’s rules.

3. Book and dispatch. Match the move to the right carrier and make sure pickup requirements are in the order before dispatch.

4. Track exceptions early. Watch pickup progress and ETA changes so the dealership can react before a delay becomes a missed sale, a broken customer promise, or a storage bill.

5. Document pickup and delivery. Keep the signed BOL, condition reports, photos, and delivery confirmation tied to the move.

6. Close the loop. Make final status and documentation easy for operations, accounting, sales, and management to find without chasing the transport coordinator.

Speed is worth real money. NCM Associates 20 Group data puts the average daily holding cost of a used vehicle at about $37. AutoSavvy, which manages transportation across 26 dealerships, cut average delivery time from 12 days to 4.7. At that benchmark, 7.3 fewer days in transit is worth roughly $270 per vehicle in holding cost, on top of the $60,000 in carrier costs AutoSavvy saved in its first four months, all managed by a three-person logistics team.

For a fuller walkthrough, see our guides to transporting cars for dealerships and auto transport for dealers.

When a vehicle arrives damaged

The BOL and condition report matter most when something goes wrong. A consistent process protects the record you need for a claim.

• Inspect before you sign. Compare the vehicle against the pickup condition report before the driver leaves.
• Note damage on the delivery BOL. Write every new issue on the paperwork and photograph it. Damage that is not noted at delivery is much harder to prove later.
• Keep the file together. Signed BOL, pickup and delivery condition reports, photos, carrier details, and all related communications.
• File in writing. A phone call is not a claim. Submit a written claim to the carrier, or through the broker or platform that arranged the move.

Know the federal clock. For interstate shipments covered by the Carmack Amendment, a carrier can set a claim deadline in its bill of lading, but federal law does not allow it to be shorter than 9 months from delivery. Once the carrier receives a written claim, federal regulations require written acknowledgment within 30 days and a payment, denial, or firm settlement offer within 120 days, with written status updates every 60 days after that if the claim is still open.

Check cargo coverage, not just authority. Federal rules generally do not require cargo insurance for property carriers outside household goods, even though most car haulers carry it because brokers and shippers require it. Coverage limits vary by carrier and policy. With the average 3-year-old used vehicle selling for $32,461 in Q2 2026 according to Edmunds, a full nine-car load of late-model units represents roughly $292,000 in inventory. Ask for a certificate of insurance and confirm the carrier’s cargo coverage is sufficient for the vehicles you are tendering, particularly on high-value loads.

Set your own minimum coverage requirements and escalation steps with your insurance or risk advisor.

Vetting carriers before you hand over a vehicle

Before assigning a vehicle, verify who you are dealing with. The FMCSA SAFER Company Snapshot is a free federal tool that shows a carrier’s USDOT number, operating authority status, and safety, inspection, and crash history. SAFER does not by itself confirm active insurance. FMCSA also began moving carrier registration and filing activity into its new Motus system in May 2026, so check current FMCSA filings for authority and insurance as part of your normal process.

Then look at operating history. Across nearly 10 million shipments, the strongest quality indicators are on-time performance, customer service, and communication, not fleet size or years in business. Experience shows up too: the share of carriers with positive ratings above 95% climbs from 59% for carriers with fewer than 10 moves to about 81% after 11 or more. Platform quality also improved through 2025, as on-time deliveries rose from 82% to 85% and the share of orders going to low-rated carriers fell from 9.5% to 5.9%.

The practical lesson: weight service history and communication more heavily than size. For a step-by-step checklist, see our carrier vetting SOP.

Looking for broader dealership resources beyond transportation? See our guide to the best online resources for auto dealers.

Keeping the dealership informed

The daily transportation question is rarely strategic. It is simply: “Where is my car?” A good process makes that answer easy for everyone, not just the person who booked the move.

Give teams one status to trust. Sales, used-car management, operations, and leadership should be able to see whether a vehicle is waiting, assigned, picked up, delayed, or delivered.

Keep documents with the move. BOLs, condition reports, delivery records, and notes should be accessible without digging through email threads or shared drives.

Tie transport cost to the deal. Attach a stock number, PO, or deal reference to every transport order so accounting can match the carrier invoice to the right vehicle without chasing the coordinator. Approval rules and chargebacks vary by dealership, so build this into the process accounting already uses.

Where a TMS fits as volume grows

Most dealerships already have a DMS for core operations and a CRM for customer relationships. The gap appears when vehicle movement becomes complex enough to need its own workflow.

A DMS can show which vehicles you own and where they belong, but it typically is not built to handle carrier assignment, transport pricing, in-transit tracking, BOLs and condition reports, and carrier performance across many active moves. A shipper TMS gives the team responsible for vehicle movement one place to coordinate those tasks instead of spreading them across email, spreadsheets, phone calls, and carrier portals.

For a single store moving only a few vehicles, that distinction may not matter much. The same operating principles still apply: clear move details, good carrier selection, visible status, and complete documentation. As monthly volume, sourcing radius, rooftop count, or carrier count grows, centralizing the workflow becomes more valuable.

Auto Lenders Group is one example. The dealership group brought vehicle transport in-house with Super Dispatch and expanded its buying reach to 49 states while keeping labor hours down.

For a deeper look at where the two systems overlap, see our guide to the difference between a DMS and a TMS, or watch this short overview of how Super Dispatch handles the transport side.

Price it, post it, get it booked

For a dealer, the daily question is not only what transport costs. It is how quickly you can get a price and get the vehicle moving. Super Dispatch is built to shorten both. Check a fair market rate for a lane in seconds with Pricing Insights, then post the load to a large network of vetted carriers so it gets seen and booked. Once a carrier is assigned, order management, real-time GPS tracking, electronic BOLs, and ETA updates stay in one place, so your team can see and manage every move without chasing status.

The goal is not to make every dealer a transportation expert. It is to make the daily work of moving vehicles faster to price, book, and track.