Glossary
Auto Transport Glossary
Each entry below is one sentence a reader can quote, followed on its own page by what the term means in practice, where published definitions disagree, and every source with the date it was read.
- Entries
- Terms
- Category
Contracts and paperwork
3- Sign this without checking it, and you've agreed the car already looked exactly as the sheet says. A bill of lading is the receipt a carrier issues for your vehicle, naming the parties and the pickup and delivery points.
- Skip the pickup inspection and you lose your evidence if damage shows up at delivery. A condition report is what you and the carrier fill out at pickup and delivery, noting damage and confirming the car's condition each time.
- One person can be both ends of this transaction, and often is. A consignee is whoever's named on a shipping document as receiving a shipment, different from the consignor, who sends it.
Transport types
4- The truck can't always reach your driveway, and "door-to-door" doesn't promise that it will. Door-to-door shipping means the carrier picks up and delivers at the address you name, instead of a fixed terminal you'd have to drive to.
- Pay for a "guaranteed pickup," and read closely — the guarantee almost never reaches delivery day. A guaranteed pickup is a paid add-on that guarantees the date or time window a vehicle is collected, never the delivery date.
- One car, one truck, no waiting for a multi-car route to fill up. Hot shot transport is a vehicle-hauling service that uses a medium-duty pickup and a small flatbed trailer, not a standard carrier's multi-car rig.
- Meeting the truck yourself can save money, or it can mean driving somewhere for nothing. Terminal-to-terminal shipping means you pick up or drop off your car at a carrier's fixed terminal instead of having the driver come to your address.
Industry roles
2- The company that quotes your price might never touch your car. A broker arranges vehicle transport and hands your shipment to a motor carrier, who does the actual driving.
- A high rating on this board tells you a carrier finished jobs before, not that it's insured today. Central Dispatch is a load board where brokers post vehicle-shipping jobs and carriers search and accept them.
Pricing
1- A car that won't start doesn't just cost more to fix, it costs more to move. A non-running vehicle surcharge is what a broker or carrier adds when your car can't drive onto and off the trailer on its own.
Logistics and operations
5- Two lanes, same mileage, different price — deadhead miles are usually why. Deadhead miles are the distance a carrier drives empty, between the end of one paid shipment and the start of the next.
- Skip this document and your truck gets turned away at the gate. A gate pass is the paperwork that lets a carrier drive a purchased vehicle off an auction lot.
- Car shipping borrowed a freight term, and it only half fits. Less-than-truckload is a freight arrangement where one trailer carries cargo from more than one shipper, because no single load is big enough to fill it.
- Ask for the top deck, and there's no guarantee it's yours until loading day. Top-load service is a request that puts your vehicle on the upper deck of a two-level open trailer, instead of the lower deck.
- If your car can't drive onto the ramp, this is how it still gets on the truck. Winch loading pulls a vehicle onto a trailer with a cable and powered drum when it can't drive up the ramps.
Vehicle condition
1- Say "inoperable" and a dispatcher still doesn't know which truck to send. An inoperable vehicle is a car, truck, or van a carrier has to pull or lift onto the trailer, because it can't drive on under its own power.
Regulatory and compliance
4- Two companies can both flash an "MC number" and mean two completely different things. An MC number is the federal registration number for one grant of interstate operating authority, the permission to arrange or perform transportation for pay.
- The government pays to ship your car, or it doesn't, depending on where your move starts and ends. POV is military shorthand for a service member's privately owned vehicle in a Permanent Change of Station move.
- Check the number on the truck door before you hand over your keys. A USDOT number is the ID FMCSA issues to a motor carrier, and it has to appear on both sides of the truck.
Insurance and claims
3- Read the fine print, because "act of God" means whatever the policy says it means, nothing more. An acts of God exclusion is a clause that removes natural-event damage from what the insurer or carrier pays.
- The insurance a carrier must prove it holds doesn't cover your car. Cargo insurance is the coverage a motor carrier holds on the vehicle it's hauling, not the truck, the driver, or anyone else on the road.
- A repair can make your car look perfect and still leave you holding a loss. Diminished value is the resale loss a vehicle carries after it's damaged and fully repaired, measured against what it was worth before the damage.
Timing and seasonal
2- A booking sets a range of days for pickup, not a single date. A pickup window is the range of days after booking in which a carrier is expected to collect a vehicle.
- Book the wrong week on a north-south lane, and you compete with everyone moving the same direction. Snowbird season is the fall-and-spring stretch when seasonal residents move between cold and warm states, in one direction at a time.
How we source these definitions
Every entry names the federal statute, regulation, court decision or published industry page it rests on, with the date that source was opened or captured. Where two published definitions disagree, the entry says so and shows both rather than picking one quietly.