Dealership Car Shipping – The PAL Carrier Network
Mike Marshall of Preowned Auto Logistics talks about the PAL carrier network, and how that sets PAL apart from other companies handling dealership car shipping.
John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher and I’m here today with Mike Marshall, logistics manager at Preowned Auto Logistics, a car shipping and auto transport and logistics company in Massachusetts. Today our topic is the carrier network in regards to dealership car shipper. Welcome, Mike.
Mike Marshall: Thanks John, glad to be here.
What Is a Car Shipping Carrier Network?
John: So, Mike, in the world of car shipping, what is a carrier network?
Mike: Yeah, so carrier network in very basic terms, it’s a qualified group of contracted drivers and equipment that run under the Preowned Auto Logistics name.
John: Okay. And how does carrier network help car dealerships and auction houses ship and receive cars?
Mike: Our carrier network really helps by doing safe and efficient inspections, safe loading procedures, and pickup and drop-off seamless to the customer.
John: Okay. So talk about those things a little bit more, what was the first one there?
Safe and Efficient Inspections
Mike: Sure, safe and efficient inspections. So when a carrier arrives at a pickup location the first thing to do is to inspect the vehicle, make sure there are no imperfections and, if there are, mark them and make the pickup location aware. And then they get loaded onto a trailer and they get loaded in regards to the weight of the vehicle and the size of the vehicle, they get strapped down to the trailers so they’re safe and they won’t move in transit. And the vehicle is then transported to the destination where the reverse happens. They get inspected again, they get unstrapped, driven off the trailer and then inspected by the consignee.
John: Okay. And what was the next way that the carrier network helps dealerships?
Mike: So the biggest thing is allowing dealerships to be able to call us or email us or whatever their mode of placing an order is. And it’s basically hands off for them. Our carrier network allows for a seamless move from beginning to end with no intervention from the dealership, everything goes through Preowned Auto Logistics.
The Advantage of PAL’s Carrier Network
John: And so what’s the advantage of your carrier network versus another car shipping company’s carrier network? Do you have more people? Are they more varied in the types of cars that they can transport? Is it the way that the rules and regulations that you have are set up so that you’re making sure that your carrier network is all following along with your guidelines, that kind of thing? What is it that sets you guys apart?
Mike: Sure, we do a number of things that set us apart from the pack, so to speak. And one of them is our qualification process for carriers. We have a pretty detailed process of paperwork requirements and driver and equipment requirements. We make sure they have a certain amount of insurance, we make sure their tax documents are in order, that their DOT Operating Authority is in order. We monitor those to make sure that they’re up-to-date and, if not, we do get up-to-date documents on our carriers. And we also train them on the way that Preowned Auto Logistics works. We expect our carriers to keep us notified if there are any delays or, when vehicles are picked up, when they’re delivered, so we can give timely information to our customers.
Training for Carriers
John: How is it that you do that training? Is that a remote thing that you do with conference calls and things like that?
Mike: Yeah, we have an onboarding process. When a new carrier needs to be set up with our company we start with documentation, and then we speak to them about how our shipments work. For each shipment there is a carrier agreement and that carrier agreement lists out all of the requirements for any particular shipment. During transit our dispatch team contacts the carriers to make sure that everything’s on track, that they’ve picked up, that they’ve delivered, if there’s anything that happened along the way with a delay, and then we can pass that information along. So it’s a combination of a pretty detailed onboarding process and then a dispatch process for tracking once something is in transit.
Variety of Trucks in the Carrier Network
John: How do you guys make sure that in your carrier network you have a good variety of different types of trucks and things like that, that can transport all types of different cars and other vehicles?
Mike: Sure. Part of the onboarding process for the carriers is to survey them on what equipment they have. Some have multiple trucks that are multiple sizes that can take different vehicles, some are smaller. And before we dispatch any load we make sure the carrier understands what type of vehicles they’re picking up to make sure that they’ll fit on whatever equipment they have.
John: All right, that’s all great information, Mike. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Mike: Excellent. Thank you very much, John.
John: And for more information or to request a quote for your auto shipping needs, visit the website at preownedautologistics.com or call 877-542-1955.
