Recently, we have completed the delivery of 2009 Mercedes-Benz C300 from Bakersfield, California, to Detroit, Michigan. The distance was 2,373 miles and the price was $1,896.00 for an open trailer shipment. It is $0.80 per mile.
It should be noted that C300 was drivable at loading time and could be driven up the ramp itself. This booking was door-to-door delivery, which is our standard service and the one that clients are frequently misinformed about.
The route
The 2,373 mile drive starts at Bakersfield and goes through the desert Southwest and plains to end at Detroit.
From Bakersfield, drivers will head east via CA-58 over Tehachapi Pass into the Mojave Desert. Drivers will meet I-40 in Barstow.
This interstate carries the trip through the middle part. It passes through Arizona, Kingman and Flagstaff, Continental Divide in New Mexico past Albuquerque and Amarillo in the Texas panhandle. It passes Oklahoma City.
From here, the road continues via I-44 northeast from Tulsa through Springfield, Missouri to St. Louis. I-70 continues from there east to Indianapolis, where the load will be shifted to I-69 towards Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit metro area.
What door-to-door actually means
The vast majority of quotes we provide are door-to-door, and there are a few things to keep in mind here, because the term implies something a little bit more than people usually think.
That is to say that we take the car directly to you, rather than to a terminal. The other option would be terminal to terminal, where you go to a terminal, park your car, and then pick up your car at another terminal on the far side. Door-to-door eliminates both of those drives as well as the time spent in storage.
Door-to-door doesn’t necessarily mean literally your driveway. A nine-car carrier can be around 75 to 80 feet in length and extremely heavy when loaded. Narrow streets, low trees, cul de sacs, gates, apartments and low bridges can all prohibit access by such a vehicle.
In case the street will not be suitable, we arrange another place to meet close by. Normally, a big commercial yard located in a walking distance from the address with enough space to maneuver the truck.
Some residential neighborhoods do not allow such maneuvers at all. There are quite a few cities where such trucks are not allowed on residential streets by the city code.
Let us know about your street in the moment of making the reservation. In case you live in an area that is definitely not reachable with a big truck, informing us at the quote stage will help us organize our efforts accordingly. Learning about it while the driver is already in your neighborhood – is the option that no one wants.
We make a note of it in the moment of booking, and not during the delivery itself, since a client who is informed in advance considers it to be a small issue, whereas a late client considers it otherwise.
What $0.80 per mile reflects
There were two factors that led to this cost.
One is distance. Loading, pickup, securement, coordination and delivery costs incurred by the carrier remain the same on every task and do not change according to the road distance. When shared equally amongst the 2,373 miles, the cost allocated to each mile will be very small. The same amount of costs when split among several hundred miles will be over twice as expensive.
Another factor is open transport. Open trucks move more vehicles on each shipment and move many more times than enclosed trucks, which is always factored into the rate.
The corridor is neutral to positive. Interstate 40 is one of the major transcontinental highways while Detroit is considered to be one of the busiest markets for vehicles in the entire country considering its industry. The availability of carriers was not a limiting factor.
Open transport
The C300 was shipped on an open trailer, appropriate for a used production car with an OEM paint job.
Enclosed trailers are for cars where the rock chip can be an actual cost. A C-Class that is sixteen years old is a car to drive and not a collector’s car, and over 2,373 miles the added cost of an enclosed trailer would have been significant for a car that doesn’t need one.
Loading was simple because the car was operational and the C300 sits at standard sedan ride height. There was no concern about ramp angle and securement was via soft straps on the tires, not chains on the suspension like we do on all cars.
Transport summary
- Origin: Bakersfield, CA 93308
- Destination: Detroit, MI 48228
- Distance: 2,373 miles
- Service cost: $1,896.00
- Cost per mile: $0.80
- Vehicle: 2009 Mercedes-Benz C300
- Condition: Operable
- Trailer type: Open
- Service: Door to door
- Route: Bakersfield, CA → CA-58 east over Tehachapi Pass → Barstow → I-40 east through Kingman, Flagstaff, Albuquerque and Amarillo → Oklahoma City, OK → I-44 northeast through Tulsa and Springfield → St. Louis, MO → I-70 east to Indianapolis, IN → I-69 north through Fort Wayne → Detroit, MI
