Ship or drive a car: questions and answers

Compare cash you would spend either way. Driving cash is fuel, lodging, and meals, plus a separate line for wear, and your time is its own line. For federal travel in the continental United States from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, the standard lodging rate is $113 and the standard meals rate is $68. Many cities are higher. The IRS business mileage rate of 76 cents a mile for July 1 through December 31, 2026 is a deduction rate, not a receipt for this trip. The shipping side is a range, not a ticket.

Do not treat a dollar from an old post as today's price. Compare that offer with the current range for your cities and with the cash cost of driving. A shipping range is not a booked price. The carrier that accepts the load sets what you pay. Use the ship-versus-drive tool so fuel, lodging, and meals stay editable, and do not drop in the IRS mileage rate as if it were a receipt. Your time at pickup and delivery is not zero.

It depends on what the car would sell for where it is, what it would sell for after it arrives, and the shipping range in between, plus whether you need a car when you get there. This page will not guess your sale price. If the car is financed or leased, the lender or lessor has to allow the plan in writing. A lease is not yours to hand to a truck on your signature alone. Get a range before you decide, and do not lock a flight to a delivery day that is only a window.

Selling in Hawaii and shipping to the mainland are different plans. A car to or from Hawaii moves by ship, not by a longer highway quote. Matson and Pasha publish their own ports and limits. A road calculator does not buy the voyage. Compare what a buyer will pay on the island with what a buyer will pay after it arrives, and only then look at a private shipment if the government or the ocean line is not the path you are on. Get the ocean fare from the operator.

Compare three different contracts. Shipping both ways is two ranges, not one. Driving is fuel, lodging, meals, wear, and your time. A long-term rental at the destination is the rental company's current price, which this page will not copy. If you need the car for only a few weeks, a one-way shipment plus a rental can cost more than it looks once you add the return. Price the dates you actually have. Someone still has to meet the truck.

You would be towing, so you pay the rental, the fuel, the lodging, and the wear, and you are limited by the tow vehicle and the trailer. A hired carrier is a different product: the car rides a trailer while you travel another way. Compare those cash lines for your Missouri and Oregon cities. This page will not copy a rental price and will not pick a highway. Check a current road report for weather and passes before you choose a route.

The U-Haul homepage opened on November 10, 2026 leads with rental trucks, trailers, towing equipment, and storage. It does not, on that page, show a hired car carrier. Renting equipment you tow is a different product from a carrier that hauls the car while you fly. If a U-Haul page you open offers a shipping service, read that page's current terms. This answer will not copy a rental price. Match any text message to a page on uhaul.com before you pay.

Stop if the message does not match a page on uhaul.com. The homepage opened on November 10, 2026 is a rental site, not a carrier dispatching a truck to your house. A pitch that asks for a deposit by a payment app, before a company is named, matches the BBB vehicle-transport alert of July 21, 2023. If someone claims to be a motor carrier, look up the USDOT or MC number on the FMCSA Company Snapshot.

A moving-truck cargo box is not a car hauler. U-Haul's trailer and towing menus are the equipment you rent and tow yourself. Whether your car fits a trailer they rent is on their current trailer page and your car's size and the owner's manual. A hired carrier uses a car-hauling trailer and a driver who does that job. Those are different products and different prices. This page will not copy a rental rate. Do not load a car into a box truck because a forum said it fits.

A tow dolly lifts two wheels. An auto-transport trailer carries the car with all four wheels off the ground. Which one your car allows is in the owner's manual, especially for all-wheel drive and hybrids. U-Haul rents equipment in both families. This page will not copy their price. A hired carrier is a third option, and it is the one to use when the manual forbids towing on the drive wheels. Read the manual before you reserve either piece of equipment.

Follow the how-to videos U-Haul links under Trailers and under Towing, and follow the instructions on the equipment you rented. This page will not reprint a hitch sequence, because the hardware differs and a wrong step is a safety problem. Check the ball size, the chains, the lights, and the breakaway gear the instructions name before you leave the lot. If you are unsure, ask the location that rented it to look at the hookup. Do not improvise from a forum reply.

Do not unhitch a loaded auto transport from memory. The rental instructions control whether the car has to come off first. If those instructions are silent, call the location that rented the equipment before you unhitch. A loaded trailer changes the weight on the hitch, and a guess can drop the car. This page did not find a universal permission on the U-Haul homepage opened November 10, 2026. Treat silence as a stop, not as a yes.

It depends on whether you can tow that car safely, whether the owner's manual allows the equipment, and how the rental, fuel, lodging, and wear compare with a carrier's range. There is no universal yes. Use the ship-versus-drive tool for the driving cash, and the cost calculator for the carrier range. Do not paste in a rental price from memory, and do not use the IRS mileage rate as if it were your receipt. Your time and fatigue belong in the comparison.

Most household cars do not ride a freight train as a ticket you can buy. The passenger option Amtrak publishes is the Auto Train, and only between Lorton, Virginia, and Sanford, Florida. You ride the same train as the car. It is not a highway carrier, and a truck estimate does not price it. Check-in starts at 11:30 a.m. Standard and extended vehicles must be in by 2:30 p.m. Amtrak says exceptions cannot be made. Read the current fare on Amtrak's page. This page will not copy it.

Amtrak publishes the Auto Train fare on its own page. This page will not copy that fare or call it a truck price. The route is Lorton, Virginia, to Sanford, Florida, and you travel with the car. A standard vehicle is limited to 192 inches long including racks, 85 inches high, and 84 inches wide including mirrors, with at least 4 inches of ground clearance. Personal items left in the car are solely your responsibility, and you cannot reach the car during the trip. Report damage before you leave the terminal.

There is no national answer. Most cars never board a freight train as a consumer booking. The only passenger comparison is Amtrak's Auto Train against a truck between Lorton, Virginia, and Sanford, Florida, because those are the terminals. Read Amtrak's current fare next to a truck range for those cities. A lower fare on one of them is not a lower trip once you add your own ticket, a rental, or a hotel. Do not apply that one route to a trip across the rest of the country.