You should take certain precautions when preparing your motorcycle for shipping to another state or across states.
Here are five tips that you should look into before shipping your motorcycle to another state.
1. Plan Out Your Motorcycle’s Trip
The motorcycle’s ultimate destination will certainly impact how it should be shipped to another state. Using a pallet is a basic method of transporting a motorcycle since it allows for a forklift to lift it and move it both on and off of the truck that will do the transporting. A much better bet would be to have your motorcycle strapped down to a pallet or place it inside of a shipping crate.
Safeway Car Transport recommends the shipping crate method because it protects your motorcycle against side impacts. Additionally, they remark that the actual crating can be accomplished by the shipping company or by you. Whichever choice you make will have an effect on the overall shipping cost. Lastly, Safeway Car Transport strongly advises you to pick a crate with slots on the bottom to allow for forklifts to lift and move the shipping crate.
2. Do Research on Current Options
To ship your motorcycle to another state, you will definitely want to do thorough research on shipping prices from other companies to ensure that you get the best value for your money.
Chaparral Motorsports notes that you should not try to save as much money as possible by not getting adequate protective packages. Doing so could lead to extensive and expensive damage to your motorcycle if it’s involved in a traffic accident.
3. Open or Enclosed Trailer
You’ll have to decide if you want to use an open or an enclosed trailer for your state-to-state motorcycle shipping needs. Moving.Tips suggests choosing the enclosed trailer method: while the enclosed trailer costs more, your motorcycle will be much better protected from environmental hazards.
4. Scheduling Concerns
Once you’ve decided which company you want to work with, worked out costs and completed all required documentation, there’s still the matter of scheduling your motorcycle’s transportation.
You’ll want to know how many working hours or working days the company will need to ship your motorcycle to its destination completely. Additionally, you’ll want to schedule someone to be present at both the pickup and the drop-off locations, which means calling ahead for both locations.
For exceptional service and peace of mind, look into any tracking services that your desired shipping company can offer. Motorcycle.com mentions that tracking services for motorcycles will be similar to tracking for other objects: your motorcycle will be given a tracking number and then you can track your vehicle during the entire shipping process.
5. Cleanup and Checkup
Before it finally ships to another state, make sure to give your motorcycle a comprehensive and methodical cleanup session.
Move On Moving recommends taking detailed notes on any pre-existing damage to your motorcycle, including dents, marks, or scratches. It would also be a good idea to take some photos of your motorcycle as physical proof in the event that something bad happens during the shipping process.
Having the photos and notes of preexisting damage will make processing any necessary insurance claims much more efficient.