Rob Sass of Maryland Heights, MO writes (10/2/03):
I am e-mailing you in regard to generalized comments made regarding the
auto transport industry.
I am the Business Development Manager for Passport Transport. Passport has been in business since 1970 providing nothing but fully enclosed transport for vehicles. Since 2000, we have been a wholly owned subsidiary of FedEx Custom Critical (one of your "good guys").
All of the trailers which are company-owned are custom built to safely accommodate anything from a 100-year-old antique car to a race car with very little handling in near absolute safety. We serve a wide array of customers from those relocating their Toyota to individuals shipping multi-million dollar collector vehicles. For the latter, "driving it yourself" or "getting a friend to drive it" is simply not an option.
For 34 years our cutomers have felt anything but imperiled when entrusting irreplaceable cars to us. As for the everyday car, there are still advantages to shipping as opposed to driving. Time is money, a cross-country trip can take 7-10 days. Most people simply don't have that kind of time available and in many cases it's cheaper to ship when the value of your time, gas and hotels are factored in. Moreover, this does not take into account wear and tear and mileage that is avoided by shipping with a qualified shipper.
Finally, the real perils of the road from inattentive or impaired drivers, damage from weather such as hail and rock damage are avoided. Like any other service, quality varies widely. Sites such as yours can be a helpful start in the research process, however, I don't think that all of your readers should be left with the impression that auto transport is a per se hazardous undertaking. Certainly it is not at Passport nor with our established competitors such as Horseless Carriage or Intercity Lines.
If you're ever in St. Louis, MO, we'd be happy to show you how we do things.
