[Healeys] Shipping

[Editorgary at aol.com]

If I were shipping a car worth any more than $5,000, I would only ship it 
with one of the skilled and experienced mainline classic car shippers. When 
you nickle and dime something this valuable, the risk is that you wind up 
with a second-rate rig that isn't properly insured, driving by a person who 
isn't properly licensed and trained.
Ship with Passport, Interstate, or one of the others, and you know you're 
getting someone who is used to dealing competently with million dollar cars, 
owns his (or their -- most are husband and wife teams) rig, and does nothing 
but ship cars. A little known fact is that the classic car hauler drivers 
are the best-paid in the business, because they've got to combine the skills 
of a first-class mechanic with those of a proper high-class butler to manage 
to deal with the cars and the people they work with all the time.
My own money would be on Passport, because I've met their owner, their 
general manager, and several of their driver teams. It's an independent company, 
owned by a collector in St. Louis, with the general manager owning a 
minority share in the company. Walk into their offices in suburban St. Louis and 
you'll see a large video monitor that shows on a real-time GPS basis, the 
location of every one of their rigs at any given moment. These folks are real 
professionals at what they do. Sure, they charge standard market rates, but 
like the cars they haul, no excuses are acceptable.

G.