Many families move to a new state with months’ notice. All removal quotes, school registrations and tenancy start dates are double checked. Then, 2-3 days after you arrive, it feels like your car will magically appear at your new address. If you have two cars, both adults may need to drive the family vehicle.
Why Driving All Your Own Vehicles Is Often a False Economy
Calculating the cost of a multi-vehicle convoy suddenly became less straightforward. For routes between 400 and 600 km, gasoline accounts for only a small portion of the total cost. If your interstate trip falls on a weekend, accommodation for a two-night drive plus food and tolls on the road, especially tolls across Sydney to Canberra, will add up. The route from Sydney to Canberra consists of several tolls and unless the driver has an active E-Toll or Linkt account assigned to both vehicles, the bill will arrive at a postal address that is no longer in use.
What’s more worrying is that the physical and mental toll of driving one vehicle while your partner leads the convoy in another is vastly underestimated during planning and painfully obvious during recovery. Arriving at a new home littered with boxes and two days on the road already feels like a test of endurance for the family.
Professional interstate transportation eliminates these variables and, for families, the costs are surprisingly low. For the more than 400,000 Australians who move house every year, the car transport sector can transport two, three or even four cars on a single trip for a small fraction of the total cost once all driver-related costs are taken into account.
Consider whether to go door-to-door or pick-up/drop-off from the warehouse.
Once the multi-vehicle shipping calculations are complete and your family has a shortcut to keep you sane on that front, there’s one more big decision to make. Are you using a door-to-door service that essentially uses your home as the carrier’s pickup and delivery warehouse, or is there significant value in saving over $200 on a 40-minute taxi ride and shipping all your vehicles to and from the carrier’s warehouse?
Infographics in vehicle brochures may include ‘road access’ notices, which are easily overlooked during the planning stage. The length of the car carrier is 20-25m, so for those who have parking in front of their house and a few other things to consider, this is an important consideration to avoid heartache later.
If a street has power lines running overhead or is too steep for carriers to navigate, it may be inaccessible. Likewise, if there are no through roads to and from the new address, or the carrier is unable to back out of the family’s front driveway, a road encounter scenario unfolds, sometimes with little or no warning.
For most families, vehicle pickup takes place at a garage, which usually gives you more flexibility with times, while a variety of options are available, including door-to-door drop-off at your new address. Before finalizing an agreement to move your vehicle, ask your carrier about your options.
Unusual vehicles require further discussion
Families with converted 4x4s, underpowered vehicles or other vehicles that are unreliable to start should provide full details when arranging to transport their vehicle from Newcastle to Canberra rather than expecting the transport company to take it as is. The carrier needs to know what modifications your unusual vehicle will have at the time of booking.
Lowering the vehicle makes ramp height difficult, and roof racks, bull bars, and snorkels generally change the vehicle’s parameters for loading into a multi-vehicle trailer. Unreliable vehicles require winch procedures that are not provided by all carriers. Each of these variables will affect the price quoted, the type of vehicle carrier used, and the equipment brought with you at pickup.
As a rule of thumb, it is a good idea to take everything into account when booking vehicle transport in accordance with Australian design rules. While we ensure that your vehicle is road legal, transportation requirements do not necessarily apply. If a vehicle arrives at your front door that is significantly different from what was described at the time of booking, the airline reserves the right to refuse carriage upon arrival.
What insurance and carrier responsibilities specifically entail
Transportation insurance is not the same as full coverage, and when it comes to valuables exceeding $40,000, the nuances are critical.
Standard carrier liability insurance generally covers the cost of damages resulting from the carrier’s negligence. This includes failed fastenings, accidents during loading/unloading or damage to the chains on the panels. These rarely include pre-existing damage (which is why condition reports make your family feel like it’s Oscar season), damage to loose items or personal belongings, and in many cases weather-related accidents (assuming the carrier can demonstrate professional protection for the goods).
Ask your carrier in writing what your shipping insurance covers and what the claims process is. Likewise, review your personal auto insurance to see if it covers your vehicle while in transit. Both are valid inquiries, but it’s easy enough to call your insurance company and ask within 10 minutes of receiving the carrier quote.
As a rule of thumb, if coverage is something you care about because of the cost of a potential claim, and your carrier or insurance company doesn’t explicitly state it in writing, it probably won’t be covered.
Tips for preparing your vehicle before transport
The carrier will conduct a condition inspection upon pickup and issue a bill of lading, also known as a condition report. This document serves as a legal record of the vehicle’s condition before transport begins and is used as a comparison tool upon delivery. It is a good idea to prepare your vehicle’s condition and complete additional documentation before the carrier arrives.
Clean the interior and exterior of the vehicle before handing it over. Biosecurity checks at state borders are not uncommon, especially for drivers departing from or transferring from Tasmania or WA, and removing dirt and plant material from vehicles can make inspections easier to comply with and reduce the risk of delays.
In addition to state biosecurity requirements, a clean vehicle provides a reliable way to create a comprehensive condition report through photos. Take high-resolution photos of all panels, roof, underbody and interior before handover. All defects must be clearly visible in the images.
Other preparation tips include:
• Empty the fuel tank about 1/4 full. A full tank puts excessive weight on your vehicle and adds unnecessary fuel costs to your mode of transportation.
• Secure loose items in the trunk or inside the vehicle.
• Deactivate your car alarm if it is prone to false alarms because a faulty alarm system is a headache for everyone.
Schedule vehicle pickup and drop-off times
This is a big deal that families chronically do not plan for. Your vehicle must arrive before your family. When the truck arrives three or four days early, as most do, the new home appears to have everything except the items the family desperately needs.
This could include car keys left behind at a real estate agent who is only open on weekdays, baby food in a box somewhere, a missed trip to moms’ group, forgetting to pack your child’s school shoes and, most worryingly, a shortage of everyday items that are much easier to buy from your local hardware store than to ship to your new address.
It shouldn’t be like that. The car can and should arrive before the family so it can be unloaded and ready when they arrive. The easiest way to do this is to get a mover who can move your vehicle two days after it is scheduled to arrive at your new home. Even if a family member is unavoidably late, no one suffers a loss.
East Coast family moves are mostly straightforward because timing is everything. The more predictable the arrival time, the better the carrier can plan. Families who move with a carrier that serves a specific corridor (specializing in East Coast moves) have much more flexibility in their schedules than families who request a regular carrier.
Transfer vehicle registration when crossing the state
One of the things families forget to do when moving between states is vehicle registration. Once registered as a resident in the new province or territory where you plan to reside, drivers will have between one and three months to transfer their vehicle registration.
In most cases, I think three months is plenty of time for the first month after moving and painfully short for the third month when you’re unpacking boxes at your new address.
For cars traveling from NSW to the ACT, this procedure requires drivers to have their car inspected by Service NSW or Access Canberra, whichever applies to their new region of residence. NSW generally requires a blue slip depending on the age of the vehicle, which is a form of road test.
The good thing for families is that the registration fee paid for the original week is usually refundable, especially the unused portion. Refunds are not automatic and the family must claim them, so this is something to add to your family moving checklist. The same applies if you have any modifications to your vehicle that require professional inspection for registration purposes.
Get the details right when coordinating
A large interstate move using two or more cars is not a ‘outsource and forget’ job. Families that successfully navigate the process view vehicle transportation as a separate element to managing their overall move. Less prepared people don’t even consider it until a week before the big day.
It goes a long way to book early, be honest with the carrier about all parameters, take photos of the vehicle’s condition, and schedule accurate transit times so your vehicle is where it needs to be when you need it.
