A company may be unwilling to produce the information required for you to feel secure in contracting them, but though you suspect something fishy you might not know what to look out for and how to ensure dependable service. A broker’s job is to verify current insurance, track record, general reputation with the industry and past customers, and the validity (and in some cases the reality) of their MC license.
The broker’s decision will be made on the company’s past performance, whether it has industry longevity or not. The broker will then give you a choice of several companies that have passed this initial test. You will have much better access to information that is pertinent to you so you can make an intelligent decision on which company best suits your needs.
A very popular website to help you in your search for auto shipping brokers and/or companies is Transportationreviews.com. You can find customer reviews on the site above and beyond what the broker may provide. A good way to analyze the customer responses is to measure the positive reviews against the number of cars shipped out in a week, month, or year. But remember, the lack of negative responses doesn’t mean there is no one out there with a negative experience. People tend to write only good reviews for publication and deal with the broker or company directly to get satisfaction from either a real or perceived unhappy event. A bad review may also be coming from a chronic whiner who is never satisfied with any service provider with whom he does business.
Full customer satisfaction is the goal of any worthy enterprise and the heart and soul of his business. But while 100% positive responses are not a sign of total reliability, neither are 100% negative responses significant proof a company is completely undependable. You should pay the most attention to whether the nature of the complaint is major or minor and if it reoccurs with any degree of consistency. You will have to perform this analysis yourself, the website won’t do it for you. Remember any negative comments could be coming from someone for whom the company bent over backward to please, and there was just no pleasing this irrational hothead.
What you don’t want to see is a company with a large variety of bad reviews. True, a company may have a weak link, but otherwise be of sterling reliability and reputation. On the flip side, a company that doesn’t appear to be doing anything right by its customers is not the one to deal with. They may be badly managed or constantly cash poor or both.
Nonetheless, customer response is only an early phase of your investigation and one of the very few you can research yourself without a broker. By hiring a broker, you will be able to take advantage of the information he can uncover that you can’t, not just cryptic customer reviews but official documents and records as well as professional experience, industry knowledge and advice. You will avoid the tedious details involved in industry bureaucracy and endless negotiations to set a price. A good broker is an effective negotiator who will save you money while charging a nominal fee, usually between $100 and $200 dollars for their services depending on the complexity and time restrictions your particular job entails.
To read more about Auto Transport or Auto Shipping please visit MetroGistics.