I am far enough through this process to attest that those that are fortunate enough to get their cars transported by truck have comparatively won the lottery.
For comparison my cars journey:
8/1 Transported by truck to storage at Lathorpe from Fremont
8/15 Transportation starts with shipment by truck again to Richmond rail hub
8/17 Loaded onto a train to DFW
8/27 Arrives at DFW
8/05 Car is expected to ship from DFW to San Antonio by rail.
Compare that to the truck that I ran into yesterday offloading at the San Antonio Showroom. The driver had come direct from Fremont in 4 days. Loaded at the factory / offloaded at the showroom.
It makes sense that its not only the longer transportation time, but going by rail only increases the likelihood of the vehicle being damaged, purely by the number of times that the car is being moved onto and out of tight spaces. As for the truck I saw yesterday, the I can tell you that the driver was meticulous in inspecting the cars to ensure that there was no damage.
Compare that to the number of times cars are being moved that go by rail. My car was trucked to Lathorpe for storage for 15 days, it was then trucked to the rail hub at Richmond CA to DFW. It was then off loaded at DFW for the last 7 days and now is waiting to be on loaded on another train to San Antonio. When it arrives to San Antonio it will get a final truck to arrive at the showroom.
It would be very interesting to see if it were true that those people that have reported damage to their vehicles have a higher likelihood of transport by rail rather than truck.
For comparison my cars journey:
8/1 Transported by truck to storage at Lathorpe from Fremont
8/15 Transportation starts with shipment by truck again to Richmond rail hub
8/17 Loaded onto a train to DFW
8/27 Arrives at DFW
8/05 Car is expected to ship from DFW to San Antonio by rail.
Compare that to the truck that I ran into yesterday offloading at the San Antonio Showroom. The driver had come direct from Fremont in 4 days. Loaded at the factory / offloaded at the showroom.
It makes sense that its not only the longer transportation time, but going by rail only increases the likelihood of the vehicle being damaged, purely by the number of times that the car is being moved onto and out of tight spaces. As for the truck I saw yesterday, the I can tell you that the driver was meticulous in inspecting the cars to ensure that there was no damage.
Compare that to the number of times cars are being moved that go by rail. My car was trucked to Lathorpe for storage for 15 days, it was then trucked to the rail hub at Richmond CA to DFW. It was then off loaded at DFW for the last 7 days and now is waiting to be on loaded on another train to San Antonio. When it arrives to San Antonio it will get a final truck to arrive at the showroom.
It would be very interesting to see if it were true that those people that have reported damage to their vehicles have a higher likelihood of transport by rail rather than truck.