The answer is quite complicated. Most transport companies will tell you that you cannot have anything inside of the car period. Others tell you to put whatever you want inside of it.
We typically tell our clients they can leave some items in the car when shipping it, but here are the restrictions:
- You can't ship anything live inside the car! This would include pets, plants, your children, or mother-in-law!
- You can't ship food inside the car... That's a no brainer you would think.. Can you imagine the smell of a turkey left in the car closed up for a week!!! yikes...
- It's not a good idea to leave any valuables in the car. I'm talking about cash, paperwork with your name and contact info on it, jewlery, portable navigation systems and etc.
- Anything that could explode under pressure during the car transport. This would be ammunition, paint, gasoline, propane, spray cans, and matches.
- Nothing illegal. It might sound stupid but people will try to transport drugs across country and hide them inside the vehicle. This is an obvious no-no... You also don't want to leave things like prescription drugs, guns, medical supplies and etc inside the car.
- Limit your personal goods to 150lbs and keep them inside the trunk. This is a great guide as you can't fit alot in the trunk and it's out of sight out of mind.
There is a big crackdown by the FMCSA right now on allowing car carriers to haul household goods. So if your car is full of stuff and the carrier gets weighed and is inspected by a picky agent he will have to dump all of your stuff on the side of the road or face a huge fine...
The best bet is to leave car hauling for car carriers and personal goods moving to UPS or Fedex...
For more information about Shipping Your Car contact Scott
