The transport of a 2025 Porsche Macan from Falls Church, Virginia, to Santa Clara, California, ended just a few days ago. The trip covered 2,841 miles in an enclosed carrier, costing $2,776.00, or $0.98 a mile.
The Macan could be driven at the time of pickup. This per-mile cost is the lowest we have posted for an enclosed car, and it is under a dollar, which is shocking. It is important to understand how distance affects the cost of an enclosed car, and how it doesn’t.
The route
This 2,841-mile route goes from Falls Church to Santa Clara, stretching across the United States from Washington DC to Silicon Valley.
The starting point for this route, Falls Church, is found inside the Beltway, west of Washington. From here drivers will travel west on I-66 and move onto I-81 heading north to Harrisburg, PA.
In Pennsylvania the route continues west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike through Pittsburgh and onto I-80 through Ohio and Indiana and Illinois and Iowa, past Des Moines and Omaha in Nebraska.
This route continues further west on I-80 through Cheyenne, Wyoming, over the Wasatch Range to Salt Lake City, Utah, and across Nevada through Elko and Reno. I-80 travels up the Donner Pass into California and into Sacramento.
Finally, the drive moves southwest to the Bay Area, with the ending point, Santa Clara, at the southern end of San Francisco Bay and thus on I-880.
What distance does to the enclosed premium
Enclosed always seems to double the rate in customer minds. The margin gets closer for longer hauls. This haul demonstrates just how close.
The markup does not scale with the route but is largely set. Enclosed costs more because there are fewer trucks on the haul and fewer drivers running the equipment. That’s overhead associated with the route, and it doesn’t scale with the miles.
As the haul gets longer, that overhead gets less. We reported a 518 mile enclosed haul at 3.71 cents a mile. The same service over 2,841 miles cost 98 cents a mile. Nothing has changed on the trailer front. Just the math.
That makes enclosed in long distances something of a regular player. For 98 cents a mile, this belongs right in with many open mid-range rates we have published. In terms of per mile, the coast-to-coast enclosed rate isn’t an exception.
Nevertheless, it is still the real figure, since $2,776.00 represents a more substantial amount than the price of an identical vehicle on an open trailer along the same route. The discrepancy decreased on a per mile basis. Yet, it never went away, and those considering the purchase need to do the math.
If the plan is to go with the enclosed shipping, then it is all about distance. The coverage spans over 2,841 miles instead of only a couple of hundreds, while the cost of per mile insurance coverage stands at its lowest level.
What $0.98 per mile reflects
Two factors competing, distance being the winner here.
The distance is a key driver. Loading and unloading costs the carrier the same in any case, and security and coordination and delivery too, and after covering 2,841 miles sharing will be small even for an enclosed vehicle.
An enclosed vehicle retains its premium. Small number of vehicles and operators make this higher than an open transport along the same route.
The corridor is helpful here. I-80 is the main transcontinental corridor northbound, and both Seattle and Bay Area are major markets with traffic in both directions.
Vehicle is simple. A Macan is a compact sport utility vehicle at standard ground clearance, so there was no need for a liftgate or any equipment premium.
Enclosed transport
The trailer sides enclosed the entire load path, which in a route including Wyoming and the Nevada desert is where an open deck would reveal the disparity.
Loading was easy. The vehicle was running and driven onto the deck by itself, and there was no clearance problem as there often is with a low sports car.
Securement involved soft straps over the tires rather than chains around the suspension system, with no contact made with the wheel faces. Porsche rims are costly to be refurbished, and curb damage may go unnoticed at delivery time, thus it pays to take pictures of them yourself before the truck gets there.
Transport summary
- Origin: Falls Church, VA 22046
- Destination: Santa Clara, CA 95054
- Distance: 2,841 miles
- Service cost: $2,776.00
- Cost per mile: $0.98
- Vehicle: 2025 Porsche Macan
- Condition: Operable
- Trailer type: Enclosed
- Route: Falls Church, VA → I-66 west → I-81 north to Harrisburg, PA → Pennsylvania Turnpike west through Pittsburgh → I-80 west across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois → Des Moines, IA → Omaha, NE → Cheyenne, WY → Salt Lake City, UT → Elko and Reno, NV → over Donner Pass → Sacramento, CA → I-880 south → Santa Clara, CA
