So, you’re planning on shipping your car to a new location, but you have some personal belongings you want to include with the vehicle. How should you proceed?
Though it’s optimal not to store belongings in your car while transporting them, sometimes this is unavoidable. That said, sensible ways exist to include these belongings with minimal risk of damage or property loss.
Below, we’ll give you tips for what steps you should (and shouldn’t!) take when shipping personal items in your car.
As a rule, the best way to ship personal belongings with your car is to store them safely, indiscreetly, and in a well-concealed manner.
Usually, this entails hiding (or, ideally, removing) the most valuable items, keeping the remaining belongings in the vehicle’s trunk, and taking out as many personal items as you can ahead of time.
Let’s look at these three steps more closely.
A crucial step you can take to keep your most prized or expensive items secure is to remove them from the vehicle.
If that’s not possible, it’s good practice to at least conceal these belongings to the best of your ability. You might, for example, keep these belongings in an inconspicuous container below the visible window line of your car.
For those items that don’t require the highest degree of security, the trunk of your car is usually your best bet.
This area conceals objects enough to prevent visibility while being compact and enough to keep shifting and moving to a minimum while the car is en route to its new home. If you’re cleaning your car out ahead of time, you should also be able to maximize trunk space for the essential belongings.
Even if some items must be shipped with your car, keeping the number of things you send as low as possible is still a strong idea.
Suppose you find a different way to move a belonging to its new location (or are willing to part with it entirely). In that case, it’s almost always preferable to keep it out of the vehicle while it is in transit to your new location.
Now, we’ve covered the dos of shipping your personal belongings. But what about the don’ts?
Fortunately, this is often a common sense problem to solve, but we’re still happy to walk you through the broad strokes of what possible traps you can stay clear of when preparing your vehicle for shipment.
Just because you can fill your car with several belongings doesn’t mean you should!
If an item doesn’t need to ship with your vehicle, we highly recommend removing it from the car ahead of transport. This removal is for the safety and security of the item; even if it isn’t lost during transit, it may incur damages along the way.
It’s an unfortunate fact that not all shipping companies are equally trustworthy.
Picking a transport company without proper vetting, and leaving personal or valuable items in your vehicle, is potentially a recipe for disaster.
A little studious research can save you a lot of stress in this area!
One essential piece of advice is to always ask your shipping company ahead of time if they have an issue with your shipping personal belongings with your car.
Two companies often don’t have the same policies regarding personal items, so double-checking is the best way to avoid any trouble.
Even if the policy is available on the website, we’d still recommend verifying with the company on the phone or in person in case you missed something. It’s not the most convenient way to proceed, but it can prevent a big headache down the line!
Shipping your car with personal belongings is always a gamble, but sometimes it’s the only option. Following a few key pieces of advice on storing these belongings safely and efficiently can minimize the risk of items suffering damage or theft during transport.
Are you interested in more resources and blog posts on vehicle shipping and transport? Call Ship a Car or visit the rest of our website!
