Patriot Auto Transport

Never had issues the multiple times I have shipped vehicles across country with them. They have always exceeded my expectations..

Never had issues the multiple times I have shipped vehicles across country with them. They have always exceeded my expectations..

Amazing service! 5 stars service;



I am a Realtor and I am very careful with vendors that I am referring to my clients. Patriot Auto and Alison were referred to me by another co-worker and I decided to reach out to them.

Alison is absolutely amazing! My client needed his vehicle to be transported from Los Angeles to Texas. My client is an older gentleman and definitely needed help with the entire process. For that reason mainly I was the one who was dealing with Patriot Auto and Alison in particular.

She is very responsive, always available, and very very helpful. Everything with transport happened exactly how Alison explained it will. The steps to follow are very simple and the communication process is flawless. The car was picked up and delivered as stated in the instructions.

My client and I are more than satisfied with the entire process and the service was fully satisfactory.

Alison thank you for everything, we will definitely use your services again!

Amazing service! 5 stars service;



I am a Realtor and I am very careful with vendors that I am referring to my clients. Patriot Auto and Alison were referred to me by another co-worker and I decided to reach out to them.

Alison is absolutely amazing! My client needed his vehicle to be transported from Los Angeles to Texas. My client is an older gentleman and definitely needed help with the entire process. For that reason mainly I was the one who was dealing with Patriot Auto and Alison in particular.

She is very responsive, always available, and very very helpful. Everything with transport happened exactly how Alison explained it will. The steps to follow are very simple and the communication process is flawless. The car was picked up and delivered as stated in the instructions.

My client and I are more than satisfied with the entire process and the service was fully satisfactory.

Alison thank you for everything, we will definitely use your services again!

Alison,
Thank you for all your help in what appears to be a nightmare of brokers.
You responded immediately from the start of our transaction to the delivery. The trucker Artur was professional and kept us up to date until he delivered the car.

thank you again

After extensively researching auto transport companies I decided on Patriot Auto Transport because of their great reviews and I was not disappointed. My car required being driven from Long Beach CA to Texas after I shipped it from Hawaii to Long Beach on Matson. The process was challenging as I was not in CA and the trucking company had to pick it up directly from Matson. Covid caused trucking shortages and increasing gas prices made the pickup much more difficult than usual. Alison at Patriot stayed in communication every step of the way and found a way to get the car to Texas without any increase in the original quote.

Wow...I realize that you are speaking with brokers...but not ever remotely helpful. Sad era of service.

Lesson learned:

If this is the first time you ship a car, please read:
Here is my understanding on how it works based on my experience (shipped my car twice across country):

Most car transporters place their bids in a common pool, where drivers will pick cars with their preferred bids to ship. If the transporter places a higher bid on shipping your car, it is more likely your car will be picked up quickly by a driver (because the driver wants to earn more and tends to pick cars with higher bids). Of course, the price for you will be consequently higher.

Different transporters have different strategies on how to place their bids. Some tend to place their bids low, so their quote to customer appears pretty low too (comparing to quotes from other transporters). This strategy may work pretty well when the demand is low (more drivers available, fewer cars to ship). Differently, some other transporter may place relatively higher bids, so the car is likely to be picked up and shipped sooner, with a higher price for the customer. This strategy may achieve better guarantee on their promised pick-up date/window.

So here is the deal: if your pick-up date(s) are pretty flexible, the former strategy may offer you a better price. Patriot Auto Transport is this case. When you sign up with Patriot Auto Transport, they will tell you "your car will be picked up within in ... (a range of date)", plus "this is not a highly traveled route and may yield an expanded pickup window..." in the fine print. Pay attention to this, because their pickup dates are not guaranteed. When you want to coordinate your moving activities (say house-hold loading, move-out, air tickets & hotel booking, etc.), and cannot afford changes on pickup/delivery date, then you better choose other transporters using the latter strategy (higher bid, guaranteed service).

Of course, in this discussion, we don't consider dishonest transporters who use low quote attract customer, and later raise their price when your car is picked up...
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Update: June 5, 2018

After 9-day waiting (business day, not calendar day), they refunded me the deposit because they couldn't get my car picked up on time. I know there is fine print in their contract saying "this is not a highly traveled route and may yield an expanded pickup window..." But as a customer, I can't help wondering why you put something like "you car will be picked up within 1-7 days after your first available pick-up date" in the contract at the first place. If you can always use the fine print terms/conditions to bail you out, what is the point to throw in those number???

From a customer perspective, the only thing that matters is whether their car can be picked up on time. If not, this isn't much to further talk about.
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Initial review: May 22, 2018

Deposit paid, after 8 business days, still waiting...

Used Patriot Auto to ship my car from CA to VA last summer, and the experience was good. So this month, when I moved back to CA, I chose their service again without even quoting from other transporters. I paid the deposit upfront, and was told my car will be picked up within 1-7 days after the first available pick-up date. Now it has been 2 days past the pickup window, and my car is still not scheduled for pickup yet. I cannot say I am not a little disappointed....

To be fair, Alison did answer to my inquiries promptly when I sent her emails.

Will update soon...

Terrible service! Was not treated well and the employee Carlos I was in contact with was extremely unprofessional. I ended up needing to cancel my shipment and gave weeks in advance notice. Carlos emailed me back responding, "NO REFUND!!!". I lost money and I didn't get to ship my car. I recommend spending more and going with a company with better google and yelp reviews such as Global Auto Transport.

The reviews here seem slightly inflated. The only reason why this review is not a 2 star is because the car made it. For the 8 days up to getting the car it was a non-straight forward MISERABLE process working with patriot auto. List below:

#1 Informal invoice - company said the 'email' was the contract or invoice with basically a quick quote and 'ok'. Nothing to really fall back on if you had a snafu with the car - or make you comfortable. This process was never clearly advertised beforehand. Basically the whole process made me really unconfident and stressed as an layman to moving a vehicle. This is also related to point 3.

#2 False expectations on tracking the vehicle - the website FAQ clearly (and emails i received) stated they actively track their transports. But upon calling after no news after 4 days, they rudely explained they had no ability to track. "We aren't Fed Ex". Thanks.

#3 Confusing and curt answers to simple and reasonable questions - this review is long enough but this was the common denominator throughout the process. Of my 150 reviews, I only have a couple 2 star reviews so I have a decent tolerance for rudeness/confusion without causing a fuss.

The transporter (not part of the company) was great. We will give him and his company a great review, and should have just hired him separately or via another broker. I leave off some specifics so we aren't hassled by them from this review.

Worst service ever.
They said the pick up date could not be determined. We said ok- and put in ready for pickup on a Friday. David sent an email saying they would get the car on Wednesday. I took the entire day off Wednesday and waited, and never ever got a call to say no one was coming.

On Thursday Gil picked up the car. He told me it would be from L.A. to MN in in 5-6 days. I waited until 7 days to contact the company. David did not offer much for help or apology, so I contacted Gil directly. He stated he had not even left CA yet and that the car would be delivered on Saturday (3 days after he told me it would get there).

This place is completely unprofessional. There was nothing on time, there was no customer service, there was not even a description or understanding of what was going to happen.

If cars are late usually tell a customer that up front.

I chose to go with this company because of the positive reviews here on Yelp, which had multiple wonders to say about "Dave". For the record, Dave was great. Very clear, friendly, and professional. The rate was fair as well.

What I think customers should know is, Dave seems to be the BROKER only -- the first person in a network of people involved with transporting your vehicle. That's fine and all, but when Dave couldn't give me a clear status update, he gave me the number of a dispatcher, seemingly from a different company. When this dispatcher ran out of details, he gave me the number of the trucker himself -- who never picked up his phone until the car was three days past the delivery window. The car finally arrived, four days late.

To be sure, everyone involved was pleasant enough. The car arrived just fine, and I actually would recommend "Dave and associates" again. Just don't bank on the vehicle arriving on time. If you do, you may have to do things like take a taxi to the grocery store like my wife and I had to.