Jul 30

Things to Know When Shipping to Pebble Beach

Most of these things I knew already but every day is an adventure.   When you are showing a car at Pebble the car needs to be there by Tuesday night before the Sunday show.  Wed arrival and you are asking for trouble.   The cars are garaged in the trailer lot inside the trailers.   You need to be nice to your driver as he is doing stuff for you all week long.

To me there are 3 major "boutique" large transports:  Passport, Reliable and Intercity.  I think Intercity might be the smallest of the three but they are based near me, although that means nothing for the truck.   I have typically used Intercity and never had problem.

Things to think about:

1.  If you are coming from the east coast to the west coast and back enclosed with a boutique transport company you are spending 10k.

2. Pickup windows and drop off windows are merely a suggestion.   I told Intercity we could have the car ready to go by 8/1 which would give them 10 days to get it across the country.   They called me on afternoon of the Tues 28th to tell me the truck would be there in the morning.   I told them we were not ready and agreed on Thursday morning (30th).    Trucker called me yesterday and said he had to get it on Wed (29th).  It was pouring out here.  Fortunately all I needed to do was pack it, it was ready to go otherwise.

3. Be sure to video tape your entire car when it is sitting in front of the transport for load.  These guys are professionals, but stuff happens.   I, of course, forget because I was timing it to not get soaked and basically pulled up to drive on.  The driver does a full photo/video set just before you pull on.

4. Make sure you have starting instructions in the car.  Make sure the driver knows how to shift the car also.  Cross country there is a 90% shot your car is coming off the trailer at least once between east coast and Pebble.   This is typical for any transport in any haul btw.

5.  Be sure to have the Drivers name and contact info.  Also be able to identify his truck in a sea of trucks in the truck lot.

6.  Bring a wad of cash to tip your driver.  He is babysitting your car all week and not rolling miles.  Do not believe they get paid to sit there.

Jul 30, 2026

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Replies (22)

· Jul 30

I forgot to mention. These trucks are huge. If you live in suburbia like me or where the shop is you need a good pickup/drop off spot. The drivers are miracle workers but they are not magicians. We have two spots we can use depending on time of day and season. This parking lot is 1/2 mile away for a boat ramp. Because it was pouring there was nobody there. Typically at 5:00 PM in July it would be at least 1/2 full on a Wed night.

· Jul 30

When I told my restorer that we had to load last night he was extremely mad. The car was perfectly detailed and getting soaked wasn't really optimal. Fortunately we caught a 20 minute window where it stopped raining, although it started again when we were loading and the car did get wet but not soaked. I had brought a bunch of towels to wipe it down so hopefully when we get to Pebble it won't be a disaster to clean.

(edited)

· Jul 30

Somehow I imagine that your saying the restorer was extremely mad about having to load the car in the rain is an understatement. I would have flipped a nutty if I just got done detailing a car and that happened. But at least you did get the brief window so it didn’t get totally trashed.

· Jul 30

Travis, don't have a lot of choice. Bus is leaving and you can get on or not. I'm not Ed's boss so I don't exactly have much sway. He was willing to wait into the night as long as it took but the only real break came when we took it. Rained till 1:00 AM after that.

· Jul 30

Oh, I get it. Just figures, it’s been relatively dry this year and then pickup day ends up being in the middle of a monsoon.

· Jul 30

Not sure about Conn but they have been saying we are in a drought after record snowfall and steady heavy rain every 10 days. The grass here is about as green as every for begining of August. I'm wondering if it might be a scam.

· Jul 30

Some more pictures.

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· Jul 30

This is great insight.  I'm shipping 4 cars between our two homes (We're selling one and moving).  It is a very vulnerable feeling and stressful ( I can't imagine if it was transport to Pebble, that elevation of the process might push me over the edge).  I used to have my own trailer and rig to pull.  No longer.  As you say AJ, the starting process is another thing to cause worry, as well as fuel shut off mechanisms and other things.  These "Rube Goldberg" contraptions present challenges to transport drivers that they might not have experience with.  My Locomobile has about 9 steps to start it, the driver has never heard of Locomobile before......(what could go wrong?)

I remember a year or two ago a Hispano Suiza burned down in a trailer after Pebble.  My memory was it was alone in a single trailer, imagine if that car was in a multi vehicle transport when the flames started.....

AJ, I'm excited for your car to make its appearance.  I'm wondering if you'll be hooked and look to take another car in the future through the process or if the stress makes you think "once was enough, I'll go as a spectator and enjoy myself in the future"

· Jul 30

Thanks John. Funny you should mention the Hispano. I remembered last night that the car had been insured for peanuts as it was mostly a disassembled project for my ownership. Also the only risk was the building burning. Now its on a transport doing 2400 miles cross country. I reached out to my insurance company to boost the insurance.

· Jul 30

Before picture........

· Jul 30

They sold the carcass at Amelia Island last year. What a shame.

· Jul 30

Oh boy. That is horrible.

· Jul 31

Brought 224k hammer at Amelia last year. Such a shame. Destined for garage art or a museum display?

· Jul 30

Talk about bad luck on the weather. I'm never going to have this problem but your post is informative. Good luck at the show!

· Jul 30

It broke long enough to get the car down the road while it was not raining. It started again as we were loading but it wasn't a down pour. Unfortunate but not the end of the world.

· Jul 30

You must be so excited and relieved. Having followed your posts the car looks fantastic! Did you put a gps tracker in your car?

· Jul 30

Good idea. But no I did not. It is going to do some side routes but the driver told me only one time off the truck in Fort Worth. Hopefully not in a hail storm.

· Jul 30

2 minutes after I responded to you I got an email with a link to a tracking application and all the loading photos. Not sure how long they have been doing this but it is a nice feature.

· Jul 30

Could you not push the pickup to the next day when it is not raining?

· Jul 30

No, like I just said to Travis, I had about a 6 hour window where I could load the car.

· Jul 30

You really have to give those truck drivers credit. Hauling that level of responsibility behind you all the way across the country would give me an ulcer.

· Jul 31

Not an easy job.