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What if My Car is Damaged During Shipping?

Car Transport Damage Guide

Although there is no way to guarantee 100% damage free shipments, damage issues happen approximately 1% of the time. If you are one of the unlucky 1%, don't worry. There's procedures in place to fix damage.

How to Prevent a Damage Loss

Make sure driver understands the damage is new and was not on the original bill of lading. You’ll need to make sure you do a thorough inspection at delivery and note the damage on that paperwork the driver gives you to release your vehicle.

scuffed bumper on car

Damage must be clearly marked and noted on the final bill of lading which must be signed by the driver in person. If the carrier leaves without signing on the damage you cannot claim the damage.

This is not our policy but that of the dispatch boards and the D.O.T.

Using our services is similar to using travel company like an airline or hotel website. If you had an issue, you would talk with the airline or hotel direclty to get it resolved. This is no different. The damage caused to the vehicle is the carrier's responsibility.

How NX Helps with Claims

One of the differences of using our services over some brokers or or even other carriers directly is we will help facilitate the damage resolution process.

With our position in the shipping marketplace, we can often get claims resolved faster or better than if you were to try and handle it directly with the carrier. Carriers know that we help provide many of their shipments and want to keep a good working relationship with us.

We also help influence other car shipping brokers through an industry rating system, and when they aren’t willing to cooperate with us on damage issues, we rate them accordingly.

negtive rating on board

The dispatch board investigates ratings and if they find the damage was noted on the bill of lading but left unpaid for, the carrier will receive a negative mark on the board.

There are other issues brokers will overlook, like if they are late maybe once or twice. A late cancellation perhaps. Nobody is perfect. But "damage / unresponsive" is a huge red flag and can mean less brokers will want to trust that carrier with customer's vehicles. Carriers will avoid this at all cost.

Our Resolution Specialist will assist you with the process of filing and resolving this claim. This person does not make the determinations or issue settlements, but rather acts as a facilitator to assist you with this process. This is just one more step that National Express takes to go above and beyond our competition.

After the Bills of ladings are submitted with an estimate, the carrier will send you a payment that should arrive within a couple of weeks.

What If You Notice Later?

We know life can make it so we miss certain things. Unfortunately, this would be a situation where little to nothing can be done. As soon as the carrier hits the road, you may be out of luck. We will still attempt to contact the carrier for you, however they may not recall the issue.

Understanding the importance you place on your vehicle, we work exclusively with the most reputable carriers in the industry to make absolutely sure your car arrives in the same condition you entrusted it to us with.