Recently, we completed the shipping of a 2022 Kia Sorento Hybrid that had to be shipped from Thousand Oaks, CA to Katy, TX. It involved 1,566 miles of open trailer travel at the cost of $1,300.00, equaling $0.83 per mile.
It is worth mentioning that the Kia Sorento in question could be driven at pickup, so the driver merely needed to drive the car onto the deck via a ramp. This is the quickest way to load a vehicle, and it simplifies the entire process.
The route
This is one of the easiest routes to plan in the country. The route follows a single interstate for almost its entirety of 1,566 miles.
The driver starts by heading south on US-101 from Thousand Oaks and then takes I-405 after which he hits I-10 in West Los Angeles. The interstate picks up the slack and travels out of the basin and crosses Palm Springs. Then, it passes through the Colorado River in Blythe and moves into Arizona.
I-10 does the job all the way till Phoenix and Tucson and goes through New Mexico after passing Las Cruces. This interstate moves into Texas near El Paso. From El Paso onwards, I-10 travels the distance through the empty lands of Van Horn, Fort Stockton and Ozona, to reach Kerrville and San Antonio. The route ends with Katy being located on I-10 west of Houston.
Shipping a hybrid SUV
Hybrid vehicles do come up with a customer question too much for comfort. A traditional hybrid such as the Sorento will be transported the same way a gasoline SUV will. There is nothing to plug in, there is nothing to charge, and the carriers don’t have to worry about anything extra on their end.
However, the practice we can keep is the fuel level requirement. We require about one-quarter tank in each car. This is sufficient for loading onto the truck and repositioning on the deck and for the vehicle to drive off at delivery point without adding extra load to a truck that is already loaded to the brim.
Load capacity does matter in this case. The Sorento Hybrid weighs just above 4,000 pounds due to the batteries, which is more than a similar gas SUV model. So, carriers take into account those numbers when planning the truck’s deck space, so we double-check the exact trim and engine type in advance.
What $0.83 per mile says about distance
“Under a dollar a mile would be ideal for a long haul.” It all has to do with the difference between costs that vary based on mileage and costs that don’t.
Costs associated with pick-up and loading a carrier are relatively constant regardless of whether the haul is 300 or 1,500 miles. The same goes for securement, coordination, and delivery services. These are all the fixed costs. But fuel, hours, and tolls vary with mileage. On a short haul the fixed costs are spread across a small number of miles and thus increase the per-mile total. Spread across 1,566 miles it does.
Then there’s the lane itself. The I-10 between Southern California and Texas is one of the most heavily traveled trucking lanes in the country. There’s a constant flow of trucks traveling in both directions and therefore capacity isn’t an issue and prices remain competitive.
Open transport
The Sorento shipped on an open trailer. It’s a current-production family SUV with a factory finish, so it doesn’t need what an enclosed trailer offers a classic or an exotic.
Open transport is the cheaper option by a wide margin too. Open trailers carry more vehicles per trip and run far more often than enclosed ones, which is why the large majority of cars on the road move that way.
Ground clearance was never a factor. The Sorento sits high enough that ramp angle didn’t come into play at either end, so loading and unloading both went quickly.
Transport summary
- Origin: Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
- Destination: Katy, TX 77494
- Distance: 1,566 miles
- Service cost: $1,300.00
- Cost per mile: $0.83
- Vehicle: 2022 Kia Sorento Hybrid
- Condition: Operable
- Trailer type: Open
- Route: Thousand Oaks, CA → US-101 south → I-405 south → I-10 east through Palm Springs, Blythe, Phoenix and Tucson → Las Cruces, NM → El Paso, TX → Fort Stockton → San Antonio → Katy, TX
