USHIP price quotes

#1
How many of you have successfully used uship????????????



Before I bought my Super Bronc there was a guy in the San Francisco Bay area with several on Fleabay. I signed up with uship to see what it might cost to ship it across the states, almost coast to coast.

Now the auction was a Buy it Now for $600.00 for a mostly complete but rough VT-1012.

The very first bid I got was for $591.00 plus uship fees. Nope not happening....

Declined the bid and the auction ended. Well the guy relisted it and the bids started coming in again. So here we go with round 2.... But I had already bought the Super Bronc I have so I wasn't interested but I was curious what would come in.

So once the bike was relisted I get these.

The second bid I got was a message from a guy trying to circumvent uship and deal with me direct for $279.00. Didn't give me a warm fuzzy....

Third bid was for $400.00 plus $30.00 uship fees. Straight up. No communication just a bid.

Well the bike sold yesterday so I get a fourth bid today with the question... "Is it ready to be picked up???".

I opened the email and looked at the bid and just had to laugh. This one was for $995.00 plus a $75.00 service charge from uship............

Is it me or is this just highway robbery? At the very least it seems absurdly high and a long way from a $400.00 bid...

I have a Super Duty with a Diesel and a 20 foot Featherlite enclosed trailer. Its beginning to sound like I need to start moving vehicles.......

Just had to rant a little....

Doug
 

capguncowboy

Well-Known Member
#2
I have shipped cars almost the same distance for less than that!

It really depends on what the drivers are willing to do it for. Some just like getting a little extra money for their trip, while others pretend like they're picking up the bike and driving it to you directly, with no other freight.

I've shipped 2 bikes through u-ship for people I've sold to. First one was to Michigan and went smoothly for $200 plus fees. The second, I had to drive 60 miles to drop it off. It was $350 to California and after everything was done, we were both happy.
 
#3
I had a bike shipped last month from Uship. My bike came from Wisconsin. I paid $140 plus a $29.00 fee. There is a note section on the site where you can put messages. In my case I told them that it was okay to carry my bike in the back of a pickup truck if they had the room. The guy who picked my bike up for me was carrying a car on a trailer and put the bike in his bed. He was coming my way anyway so it was just extra money for him. I also haggled a little on the price. He originally bid $150. I didn't know there would be an added fee until the deal was done. This has been the only time I used them but it worked out for me.
 
#4
I have never used U-Ship, however I have received numerous written bids from reputable and legitimate (read: Insured, with very good reviews) motorcycle transport companies. You will spend AT LEAST $400-500 to ship a bike coast to coast. Be very careful shopping for transport companies! While price is certainly a reasonable and expected concern, it should not be your # 1 priority, ESPECIALLY for a nice bike where you have already spent some major $$$. ALWAYS ask how they are transporting the bike. Out in the open on a flat bed or in the bed of a pickup truck exposed to the weather and thieves?- no thank you! You want an enclosed truck/trailer that has good built-in wheel chocks and tie down loops.
Michael
 
#5
I have never used U-Ship, however I have received numerous written bids from reputable and legitimate (read: Insured, with very good reviews) motorcycle transport companies. You will spend AT LEAST $400-500 to ship a bike coast to coast. Be very careful shopping for transport companies! While price is certainly a reasonable and expected concern, it should not be your # 1 priority, ESPECIALLY for a nice bike where you have already spent some major $$$. ALWAYS ask how they are transporting the bike. Out in the open on a flat bed or in the bed of a pickup truck exposed to the weather and thieves?- no thank you! You want an enclosed truck/trailer that has good built-in wheel chocks and tie down loops.
Michael
Of course if it's a nice bike you would want an enclosed trailer, that goes without being said. In my case I was okay with it being in the elements because it had already been out. My carrier was licensed and bonded so I was covered in case of accident or theft. His company was very reputable and legitimate. If you shop around and do your homework you can still get a deal. When you use Uship you can buy extra insurance if that makes you feel better. In addition, Uship holds the shippers fee until you get your item, then they send you a code that you must type in online to release the funds to pay the shipper. If there is any problem they don't get paid until the problem is taken care of. Uship also has a rating system as well as comment section and you can contact any of the shippers past customers if you like and talk to them directly. It is all up to you.
 
#6
It really depends...location, time of the year, type of transport...I've had bikes transported from NY to AZ for $200...and other bikes shipped from Kansas to AZ for $350...

I've found a lot of it depends on how 'urgently' you need it as well as the area of pickup/dropoff. If you're patient you can usually get close to your number, as long as you're reasonable. Keep in mind that these guys are working to feed their families...fuel costs, time, repairs, maintenance, wear and tear etc...It's not all peaches and cream.
 
#7
They had a date to pick it up after and a drop off date 3 weeks later. That is a pretty loose schedule to me. And all of the bidders provided enclosed transport and full insurance for there bid price. Its just absurd that one man can transport the item for $279.00 and another wants $995.00. Its just to wide of a gap. All shippers had good reviews and pictures of their equipment and DOT numbers and I think any one of them would have done a proper job. I just don't see a $720.00 swing in price from 2 operators within a span of 48 hours.

Doug
 

Hent

New Member
#9
Try quoting to a larger city and see if the price changes. Sometimes traveling off the highway can make a difference depending on where they're going.
 
#10
The Greenville/Spartanburg area is one of the largest shipping hubs on the I-85 corridor, if not the southest. We have the Inland Port, BMW, Kobelco, Michelin, Amazon, hundreds of suppliers for BMW and untold numbers of manufacturing facilities.... :shrug:

I would have thought it would have been very easy to get something brought in as a filler....
 
#11
In 2012 bought a really nice Yamaha motorcycle on ebay. At the seller's suggestion I used Haulbikes.com to move it from Dayton, Ohio to Portland, Oregon. This is a deluxe motorcycle that deserved deluxe transport. I shopped for years to find this bike, bought from photos and was scared to death about what might happen in transit.

These guys were the best! The cost was $582.00. They treated the with bike great care and sent email updates at every step. It didn't need to be crated or drained and it rode in a spacious trailer with nothing but other motorcycles. Kind of overkill for a minibike, especially one that's already been in the weeds, but I'd recommend them again to move something delicate.



 
#12
Well I got another bid today for $250.00 plus $25.00 uship fees. It is an open trailer bid. But its still a huge swing in charges.... I just let them keep coming....

Doug
 

markus

Well-Known Member
#13
Guy that bought a Fox campus off me recently got lucky with Uship going from here up to Conyers GA, The transport was down just south of me picking something up and actually lived within like 30 miles of its destination. When we loaded the bike up into his sprinter van the guy was saying all he cared about was getting enough $$ out of picking up the bike for a cheap motel room for the night so he didn't have to crash in the van at a rest stop :laugh:
 
#14
In 2012 bought a really nice Yamaha motorcycle on ebay. At the seller's suggestion I used Haulbikes.com to move it from Dayton, Ohio to Portland, Oregon. This is a deluxe motorcycle that deserved deluxe transport. I shopped for years to find this bike, bought from photos and was scared to death about what might happen in transit.

These guys were the best! The cost was $582.00. They treated the with bike great care and sent email updates at every step. It didn't need to be crated or drained and it rode in a spacious trailer with nothing but other motorcycles. Kind of overkill for a minibike, especially one that's already been in the weeds, but I'd recommend them again to move something delicate.



RD 250 or 350? I had one of those...fun bikes...I think they even made an RD400...Cool stuff ;-)
 
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