We have been helping arrange motorcycle shipping services for thousands of customers since 1999.  We try very hard to educate our customers about the process involved in scheduling a motorcycle shipment prior to a customer making a commitment to ship their bike.

The way shipment scheduling happens varies from one motorcycle shipper to another.
In general, most motorcycle moving companies have customers fill out a booking form.  This form will contain the origin and destination locations, it will also note the origin and destination points of contact along with the phone numbers for those points of contact.  Additionally, the form will have information noted about the bike such as the year, make, model and VIN number. When the motorcycle transit company has all the shipment details they will set up a preliminary schedule and provide an estimated range of days for pick up and for delivery after pick up.

Motorcycle transporters generally meet their schedule estimates but they don’t guaranty their time frame estimates because there are many factors that can affect pick up and delivery schedules. Some of the factors that can affect the schedule include the actual pick up and delivery location, weather, road conditions, traffic conditions, DOT driving limits, mechanical failures, prior and en-route bookings, point of contact availability, etc. Bike shippers need to combine as many motorcycle shipments together as possible on each run in order to optimize the available space on their truck and to be able to keep shipping rates as low as possible.  The more bikes on a given truck the longer it will usually take for pick up and for delivery after pick up.  It’s best to be as patient as possible when shipping a motorcycle, scheduling is not an exact science.

Some motorcycle movers only service a certain regional areas of the country and they only operate in those area of the country, they do not travel outside of those regions. When that is the case they usually make runs through that regional area every couple of weeks. Shipment scheduling with smaller regional motorcycle carriers is usually easier because they handle shipments in those regions on a regular basis. Additionally, their time frames are usually faster than the nationwide motorcycle transporters schedules.

Nationwide motorcycle carriers usually use much larger trucks than the regional transporters do. As such, the nationwide transporters can hold significantly more motorcycles on their trucks than a regional transporter can. A number of nationwide transporters use full size 18 wheelers to transport motorcycles. Many of these 18 wheeler rigs utilize a double decker trailer arrangement. These types of shipping trucks usually have lift gates for loading and unloading the motorcycles on and off of their truck. They can sometimes fit as many as 30 to 35 motorcycles on a truck when configured as a double decker. When you consider how many stops one truck needs to make on a given route you can see why coast to coast transportation usually takes longer from pick up to delivery than most of the regional transporters do. In some cases, one truck may make as many as 70 stops from the pick up location to the delivery location. Each stop adds extra time to a transporters schedule and we do our best to reflect those extra time requirements in our quotes on long distance motorcycle shipments.

If you are considering buying a motorcycle out of state and having it shipped there are many questions to ask the seller prior to the actual purchase. In addition to motorcycle shipping expertise, our staff has a great deal of experience buying and selling motorcycles out of state. We have compiled a motorcycle buying checklist to ask the seller regarding the condition of the vehicle prior to purchase and prior to lining up a motorcycle shipper to handle the shipment of the motorcycle.

Prior to purchasing a motorcycle, one of the most important tips for buying a motorcycle is to ask the seller for detailed photos of the motorcycle. That will give you a visual assessment of the vehicle. After you have the photo’s contact the seller and discuss the list of questions noted below on this motorcycle buying checklist.

1. Does the vehicle have any cosmetic damage?
2. Has any cosmetic repairs been done to the vehicle?
3. Are there any mechanical problems with the vehicle?
4. Has there been any mechanical repairs done to the vehicle?
5. Is there any periodic maintenance needed on the vehicle?
6. Are there any missing or damaged parts on the vehicle?
7. Is there any rust or corrosion on the vehicle?
8. Do all the mechanical and electrical systems working properly?
9. What is the condition of the tires, brakes and battery?
10. Are there any aftermarket parts on the vehicle?
11. If there are aftermarket parts on the vehicle, are the original parts included in the sale?
12. Are the gauges in proper working order?
13. Is the title clean and clear?
14. Ask for a copy of the front and back of the title.
15. Is the vehicle in running/rolling/riding condition?
16. How many keys come with the vehicle?
17. Are there any spare items that come with the vehicle?
18. Is there a helmet and/or riding gear that comes with the vehicle?
19. How long has the seller owned the vehicle?
20. Does the vehicle leak any fluids?

Document the seller’s response to each question. If possible, try to have the seller take the vehicle to a local motorcycle shop for independent assessment of the vehicle. Contact the service department at the shop and go over all these used motorcycle checklist questions with the shop personnel also. If there are any problem areas with the vehicle you can attempt to renegotiate the deal with the seller prior to purchasing the vehicle and lining up a motorcycle moving company. See if the seller will allow the motorcycle transport company you select to pick up the vehicle at the motorcycle shop.

To reiterate, when contacting a local motorcycle shop,we recommend talking to the service department staff about inspecting the bike and or storing the bike for you. If the motorcycle shop wants to charge you a fee to inspect the bike and or store the bike until the shipping company can pick it up, we have some advice for you as follows. We recommend that you have the shop do some minor maintenance on the bike such as an oil change and many times if you do that shops will not charge an extra fee to inspect the bike and or store the bike until the shipper can pick it up.

Our goal is to build a lasting positive relationship with our customers. We want you to feel confident enough in us to allow us to handle all your motorcycle shipping and powersports shipping needs and to refer our services to other potential shipping customers.

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