CentralDispatch.com Reports Vehicle Transportation Costs Continue to Rise, but Rate of Increase Declines

CentralDispatch® (www.CentralDispatch.com), the automotive industry’s transportation marketplace, today announced that vehicle transportation costs continue to rise. The national average price to ship a standard sized vehicle rose by $77 between April and July of 2008, based on the nearly 500,000 vehicle listings on CentralDispatch.com. The overall volume of vehicles listed for transportation on CentralDispatch.com rose 8% during this period.

San Diego, CA (EMWNews) August 19, 2008 — CentralDispatch® (www.CentralDispatch.com), the automotive industry’s transportation marketplace, today announced that vehicle transportation costs continue to rise. The national average price to ship a standard sized vehicle rose by $77 between April and July of 2008, based on the nearly 500,000 vehicle listings on CentralDispatch.com. The overall volume of vehicles listed for transportation on CentralDispatch.com rose 8% during this period.

The average cost to move a vehicle in the U.S. rose from $653 to $730 between April and July, an increase of 9.5%. This follows a 17% increase in the cost of vehicle transport between February and April of 2008. Though prices continue to rise, the rate of increase has slowed in recent weeks. And despite the increases, dealers and auctions continue to move vehicles both locally and nationally.            

Price increases have closely tracked the cost of diesel, which is up 39.2% from February to July according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In the past month, however, the price of diesel has dropped significantly, from a high of $4.76 a gallon for the week ending 7/14/08 to $4.35 a gallon the week ending 8/11/08, an indication that the period of transportation price increases may be drawing to a close.

“We are still dealing with high fuel prices and the auto transport industry in general continues to face a challenging period. But the recent drop in fuel costs should show up relatively quickly in the cost of transportation,” commented Joe Steinberger, VP of Product and Business Development for CentralDispatch. “Another point of note is that the total volume of vehicles being transported via CentralDispatch has increased. Pre-owned vehicles are in greater demand in the slow economy, so it makes sense that more vehicles are being transported.”

Nationally the greatest rise in volume of vehicles shipped was into the Southwest from other regions, up 22% between April and July. Further, the number of vehicles moving from the Northeast into the Southwest was up 60%, the single greatest rise for transportation between regions. Partly due to the increased volume of vehicles moving to the Southwest, the average cost to move a vehicle into that region increased from $694 to $794, a 14.5% increase. Nationwide, the only significant drop in transportation prices was the cost to ship vehicles out of Florida. The volume of vehicles moving to New York and New Jersey from Florida was down 25%, with the average price down approximately 3% along that route.

About CentralDispatch.com:

CentralDispatch.com came online in 1999 as a way for vehicle shippers to easily connect with carriers. It has since transformed the auto transport industry, taking if from relying on paper faxes and phones, to utilizing an efficient central database on the Internet. Today, thousands of dealers, transport brokers, auctions, manufacturers, rental car companies, salvage yards and others access CentralDispatch on a daily basis to move vehicles of all types. CentralDispatch has grown into the largest real-time auto transport marketplace. It enables shippers across North America to save time and money when transporting vehicles by providing access to virtually every licensed interstate car carrier in the United States, more than 5,000 carriers.