What a car shipping comparison site can promise

A comparison site cannot guarantee a pickup. It does not have the truck. What it can promise is narrower, and it should say so in the same place it shows a price. RideShipper can show you a range before you give a phone number, send a quote request to auto-transport companies, and point you at public federal records. It cannot promise that a carrier will accept the low end of the range, that the car will move on a date, or that anyone will pay a damage claim.

RideShipper is a free comparison and quote-request service owned by World Media Group LLC. Customers do not pay the site. A company that receives a request may pay for that introduction. The site is not a motor carrier and not a broker. It does not move cars, negotiate the rate, take a deposit, hold a card for the shipment, or put its name on the bill of lading.

This page is an explanation of those limits. It is not legal advice. The citations are the public documents opened on November 10, 2026.

The line federal guidance draws#

A broker, in the statute, is a person other than a motor carrier or its employee or agent who sells or arranges motor-carrier transportation for compensation (49 USC 13102). The regulation uses the same idea: arranging transportation by an authorized carrier, for pay (49 CFR 371.2).

FMCSA's final guidance of June 16, 2023 says the agency cannot rewrite that statutory definition on its own. In that guidance, merely making information about potential shippers publicly available, whether or not a fee is charged, does not require broker authority, as long as the entity is not otherwise involved in any transaction between the shipper and a motor carrier. The same guidance says handling money exchanged between shippers and motor carriers is one factor that strongly suggests the need for broker authority, but it is not an essential requirement for someone to be a broker.

That is the fence. A site that shows a range and introduces you stays on one side if it does not take the freight charge, pick the truck, or appear on the transportation contract. A company that collects your payment and pays the carrier is on the other side, and it has to live under the broker rules, including the rule that a broker must not represent itself as a carrier and must show broker status in its advertising (49 CFR 371.7).

What this site will say, and where#

You see a price range before you enter a name, email, or phone. The range is a model, with a version and a date, or later a count of reported prices when a lane has enough of them. It is not a quote from a carrier. The method is how price estimates are made and how the index is built.

If you want quotes, the form asks for your name, email, and phone, and a consent box that starts unchecked. Licensed auto transport companies that serve the route then contact you. Sending that request is not a booking. You can also call (800) 989-8833 for quotes by phone, 24/7.

You can have the estimate emailed and create no lead. That email is not a quote request. You can ask to stop contact. Those are promises about the form, which the site controls.

You can look up a company. The on-site licence check reads federal records. The FMCSA Company Snapshot, opened November 10, 2026, is a free one-company record of identification, size, commodity information, and the safety record, including a safety rating if any exists. A clear record is not a promise that your shipment will go well. An empty or mismatched name is a reason not to pay that company. How money and ranks work is how RideShipper makes money.

What this site will not say#

It will not say the price is locked. A lock is a sentence in your contract with a broker or a carrier.

It will not say the car will be picked up on time. On-time performance is the carrier's operation. A date field on a form is not a dispatch.

It will not say the car is insured by RideShipper. Carrier liability for the property runs through the bill of lading and 49 USC 14706. The public-liability schedule is a different filing, explained on what it costs to ship a car. The site does not adjust claims.

It will not say "our carriers" or "we ship your car." Those sentences are how a lead site starts to sound like a broker. The companies are theirs. The contract is yours with them.

It will not promise that every company that calls is a good one. It can label broker or carrier when the federal file supports the label. You still read the deposit and the re-quote line. The comparison of the two roles is broker versus carrier. How quote sites behave in general is how quote-comparison sites work.

A promise that would be false if we made it#

"Guaranteed pickup if you request a quote today" would be false on this site, because the site does not control a truck and does not sign the carrier's order. If a company that contacts you offers a guarantee, that offer is theirs. Ask them to put the date, the remedy if they miss it, and the price in the document you sign. Then decide. The site's terms are the place those limits are repeated for the product: terms of use.