Ontime Automotive’s friendly and professional car shipping team make the process as easy as possible for you, but there are still a few things you can do to prepare your vehicle for car transport.
In this guide we’ve put together our five top tips for vehicle transport, so that you – and your car – can have a worry-free experience every time.
1. Clean your car
There are several good reasons to clean your car ahead of vehicle transport. From a practical perspective, it helps with the initial condition inspection, where we note any pre-existing bodywork scratches and dents.
During transit, it’s good if there are no loose items or objects rolling around inside your car. This includes rubbish like empty drinks cans and water bottles. If you have a reusable water bottle, try to stow it in a side pocket where it won’t come loose.
Finally, if your car is clean when we collect it, it should be clean when we deliver it. Our covered car transporters mean when we drop off your vehicle, it should be as shiny and sparkling as the day you handed it over to us.
2. Remove valuables
It’s a good idea to remove any valuables – and even any non-valuable possessions – from the vehicle ahead of car shipping.
We will absolutely treat your possessions with respect, and your vehicle is fully insured while it is under our care, but for peace of mind on all sides it’s better if anything of significant value is taken out beforehand.
3. Check your charge
A healthy battery is not necessary for car transport – we can load and unload your vehicle without turning the engine on – but when you come to collect the car, it’s likely you’ll want to drive it away.
This applies to the starter battery in petrol and diesel cars, as well as to the main battery in electric vehicles. Our electric car transporters can keep your charge topped up en route, so your vehicle arrives with plenty of range remaining.
4. Alarms and immobilisers
Needless to say, it’s better if your vehicle’s car alarm stays silent throughout the trip, and that any immobilisers and other anti-theft devices do not trigger – especially if you’re connected to the police or a private security call centre.
If possible, turn off any security devices on your vehicle that might be triggered by the normal movements of car transport. If you can’t turn them off, make sure our drivers know about them and have the keys or fobs needed to silence them.
5. Fill ‘er up?
One mistake many customers make is to fill the tank with petrol or diesel before vehicle transport. This is not really necessary, and can mean we’re needlessly transporting the weight of an extra 50 litres of fuel.
We usually won’t need to start your car – our vehicle transporters are specially equipped to load and unload it while turned off – so the whole process should use little to no fuel.
Because of this, it really depends on how far you want to drive the car from your collection point, and a quarter-tank is often more than enough to get to a local petrol station.
Final thoughts
These are just some pointers – Ontime Automotive’s car transporters are fully insured and our professional team will treat your vehicle and possessions with respect at all times.
If you’re prepping your car for long-distance vehicle transport and want to check whether you need to do anything, or you’d like to book your next car shipment, contact Ontime today and we’ll be happy to help.