You got a great deal on a car from a Copart auto auction but now you’re wondering how much it costs to ship a car from Copart. Unfortunately, you made the same mistake a lot of Copart buyers make – looking for a car shipping company AFTER you’ve won a car auction at Copart.
The better move is to determine the cost to ship a car from Copart and secure a car shipping company before you even place a bid! Why? To limit (or completely prevent) your Copart storage fees.
Copart charges daily storage fees that kick in within a few days of an auction ending. If you don’t have a plan in place, you’ll very likely get dinged storage fees as it may be difficult to line up a transporter in such a short period of time.
Take a look at the daily storage fees we took a screenshot of from the website for the Copart in Billings, MT:
Looking at the fee schedule, you can see if your car doesn’t get picked up by day 4 you’ll start getting dinged daily storage fees.
I can’t tell you how many times we get a panicked call from a Copart buyer looking for an auto transporter to pick up their car ASAP to avoid paying Copart’s storage fees.
The problem is you’ll be hard-pressed to find an auto transporter that can get a driver to a Copart within a few days of placing an order with them. If you wait to secure a shipper until after the Copart auction ends, you’ll very likely pay storage fees.
To increase your odds of not having to pay storage fees, get a car shipping quote before you even place a bid on a Copart auction. You can start by getting an instant quote on our website.
PLEASE NOTE: We now charge an additional $200 for every auto transport that involves Copart. You’ll need to add $200 to any instant quote you get on our website if it involves Copart or IAA (another popular auto auction company).
Why the extra charge?
Copart transports have always been challenging but they are getting even more challenging. As a result, they are getting more expensive to do.
The Challenges of Copart Auto Transports
Whenever we are dealing with an auto transport from Copart we know our customers are “under the gun” and time is of the essence. In the car shipping business, money talks so if we need to get a vehicle picked up ASAP, we need to offer a carrier top dollar to entice them to drop what they’re doing and make our Copart transport a priority.
The problem is, in general carriers don’t particularly care for Copart transports to begin with. They don’t like them because they know the vehicles purchased from Copart often don’t run, or at the very least will have a difficult time starting, and they know there are tight pick up restrictions.
Whenever we assign a Copart auto transport to a carrier we always tell them to make sure they have a jump box handy because there is a 50/50 chance the vehicle won’t start (even if the auction says the vehicle runs and starts). This is especially true in the cold winter months. Carriers want to be compensated extra for the added time and care these Copart transports often require.
But what has really pushed the extra charge are the new procedures many Copart locations have implemented. They are now requiring carriers to use their Copart mobile app to schedule a specific pick up day and time. This is a major inconvenience that carriers don’t want to deal with!
The last thing a carrier wants to do is load a mobile app on their phone, go through all the steps of creating an account, and then go through the process to schedule a specific day and time to pick up the vehicle. And it doesn’t help that Copart only allows vehicles to be picked up during the week (and most locations don’t allow vehicles to be picked up after 5 pm).
Carriers don’t schedule pick ups or deliveries by exact times. There are just too many variables on the road that can’t be accounted for to promise to be at a location at a specific time – weather, traffic, detours, truck breakdowns, etc. can all wreak havoc on a driver’s schedule.
Carriers always operate in windows of time (kind of like your cable company). For example, they won’t promise to be at a location at 2 pm but instead will promise to be there sometime between 1-3 pm. Unfortunately, windows of time don’t work with Copart anymore. They now require specific times and if you’re not there then you have to reschedule – often times the next day.
To be perfectly frank, Copart auto transports are a pain in the butt for most carriers. All things being equal, if a carrier has the choice between taking a Copart auto transport or any other transport, they are going to choose the latter! To overcome this, we have to pay carriers more just to entice them to do Copart auto transports, let alone do them quickly to help our customers avoid paying storage fees.
Whether you’re dealing with us or another car shipping company to ship your vehicle from a Copart location, make sure you fully understand the terms of the transport. How quickly will they have a driver at Copart to pick your car up? And will they guarantee it? They may tell you they can have a driver there in a couple days just to get your business but then when you place an order the reality is it may be closer to a week. Know what you’re getting into!
Will the carrier tack on additional charges? Again, Copart auto transports aren’t easy so don’t assume the price you’re told is the price. They may have to charge you extra as well to get the job done. We know they’re tough so that’s why we charge extra for them upfront. We don’t want there to be any surprises!