GL: Re-positioning a vehicle

[Bob Williamson]

This topic may not seem directly relevant but it is an issue we have
encountered as full time cruisers for the last several years.  Each winter
we move a vehicle to Legrace's winter home then one of the chores we need
solve is how to re-position or return the vehicle before we start cruising
again.  Before leaving Ft. Lauderdale this week we needed to figure out how
to get it back to St. Louis.  In past winters we shuttled cars around
sometimes using rental cars or driving back to St. Louis then flying back to
Legrace, etc. etc.

A few weeks ago we drove our son's Ford Ranger pick-up back to Ft.
Lauderdale with "stuff" from St. Louis then faced the issue of getting it
back to St. Louis or doing something else like shuttling it up the coast as
we traveled north - but our preference was to get it back to Missouri.  We
had various options open to us like driving back accompanied by Lynn's
sister in her car (she was thinking about visiting their mom) then we could
all come back to Florida in her car; or flying our son down to meet us some
place; or .... Anyway you get the idea, we had various options.

One thing I had never considered was shipping it back via an auto carrier
until a friend made that suggestion.  I had no idea what it cost to ship a
vehicle so I found a web site that promised to get 10 shipping quotes within
a day.  Within 24 hrs I had 12 quotes ranging from $530 to $813 from various
brokers (Ft. Lauderdale to St. Louis).  Picked the cheapest bidder (after
researching them on the web and looking at their references), a couple of
phone calls & emails and one fax later, we had a contract to pickup the
pick-up in a week.  I didn't think the auto carrier was going to make it
Monday - I was flexible and preferred Monday but Tues or Wed was also
acceptable. Got a call Monday afternoon, they picked it up at 8:45PM and it
was delivered today at noon.  The driver had planned to drop it off on
Wednesday but a flat tire on the trailer and heavy rain slowed them down one
day.

So I know some of you also face issues in shuttling vehicles around and I
just wanted to relate our experiences doing something different this year
that worked out to be the cheapest, easiest and fastest option for us - of
course YMMV.

Bob & Lynn Williamson
On Legrace
Anchored in Jensen Beach, FL