Door-to-Door Auto Transport

Door-to-door auto transport means a carrier picks your vehicle up at the address you give us and delivers it to the destination address, with no terminal in between. Neptune Auto Transport arranges this across all 48 contiguous US states, for cars, trucks, SUVs and more, on both open and enclosed transport. It is our standard service and it is already included in your quote, not a separate add-on. The truck gets as close to your door as it can maneuver safely and legally.

Shipping that comes to you

With door-to-door auto transport, your assigned carrier picks your vehicle up at your home, office or wherever it is parked, and delivers it directly to your chosen destination. There are no terminals to drive to, no shuttle fees and no waiting around at a depot. It is the simplest possible experience for you.

This is the default service for the vast majority of our shipments because it saves customers time and hassle on both ends of the move. You hand over the keys at your location and receive your vehicle at theirs.

Neptune is a licensed transport broker, MC 1384866 and USDOT 3824247, not a carrier with its own fleet. That means we dispatch your shipment inside a large network of vetted carriers and look for the one already running near your pickup point on the dates you need. What you get is the same door-to-door service, with one Neptune specialist as your single point of contact from start to finish.

What 'as close as safely possible' means

Full-size auto carriers are large, often 75 to 80 feet long, and cannot always navigate tight residential streets, low-hanging trees, narrow cul-de-sacs or strict HOA and city restrictions. When a truck genuinely cannot reach your exact address, the driver will arrange to meet you at a nearby spot with room to load safely, such as a large parking lot a few minutes away.

This is normal and nothing to worry about. Your driver coordinates the details with you directly, and the meeting point is always as convenient as the equipment and local roads allow.

Narrow streets and dense urban areas

If you live in a dense city, this matters more. In neighborhoods like Brooklyn and much of New York City, or comparable parts of Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, streets are narrow, cars are parked on both sides, there are low wires and branches overhead, and street cleaning windows leave a 75 to 80 foot auto carrier very little room to work with. In those cases the driver will usually suggest a meeting point a few minutes away, such as a supermarket or shopping center parking lot, or a wide avenue where the truck can pull over without blocking traffic.

The same is true at many apartment complexes and HOA communities, where management will not let a truck that size into the lot. It is worth checking before your pickup date and telling your specialist. If we know up front that the address is hard to reach, it goes on the order and the driver arrives with a plan instead of improvising. It also helps to have someone who can drive the vehicle those few minutes to the meeting point if you cannot be there yourself.

How door-to-door pickup and delivery works

Before pickup, your driver contacts you to confirm timing and the exact location. At pickup you complete a documented inspection together, noting the vehicle's condition on the Bill of Lading, and the car is loaded and secured. You will have the driver's contact information so you can stay in touch during transit.

At delivery, the driver reaches out again to coordinate, brings the vehicle to your destination, and you perform a final inspection before signing off. The whole experience is designed to be smooth, communicative and predictable.

The Bill of Lading is the key document at both ends of the move. At pickup it records the condition of the vehicle, and at delivery it is what you sign to confirm it arrived in the same shape. Take a few minutes to go through it before you sign, ideally in good light, and if something does not match, note it on the document right then. In transit your vehicle is covered by the assigned carrier's cargo insurance, and that documented inspection is what backs up any claim.

Door-to-door vs terminal-to-terminal

Some companies push terminal-to-terminal shipping, where you drop off and pick up at storage yards. That can occasionally shave a little off the price, but it adds travel time, potential storage fees and the risk of your vehicle sitting in an unattended lot. Door-to-door eliminates all of that.

For nearly everyone, the convenience and security of door-to-door is well worth it, which is why Neptune offers it as our standard service nationwide.

To be clear about coverage: Neptune does not offer terminal-to-terminal service or international shipping. We arrange door-to-door vehicle transport within the 48 contiguous states, and we do not serve Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico. If your move starts or ends outside that footprint, it is better to know before you request a quote.

High-volume lanes and snowbird season

The busiest lane in our carrier network is California to the East Coast and the Southeast. It is a long corridor with heavy traffic in both directions, and that usually works in your favor: on a busy lane there is a better chance a truck with open space passes near your address on the dates you need, so the shipment tends to get dispatched with less waiting than it would on a lightly traveled route.

The other pattern that shapes the calendar is snowbird season, the seasonal move many people, a lot of them retired, make to warm states like Florida, Texas and Arizona for the winter, returning north when the weather turns. Once that migration starts, a large share of truck capacity concentrates on those corridors and in one direction, north to south heading into winter and south to north on the way out. Dispatch times and transit times move with that wave.

What that means in practice if you relocate seasonally between the Northeast and Florida, or between California and the Southeast:

• Request your quote and book as far ahead as you can when you are shipping in peak season, because availability tightens in the busier direction.
• If you can give a pickup window of several days instead of one fixed date, it is easier to match you with a carrier already heading that way.
• Outside peak season there is usually more flexibility on dates along the same corridor.
• Door-to-door service does not change with the season. It stays included, on both open and enclosed transport, at no extra cost.

If you make the same round trip every year, tell your specialist on the first call. Knowing the shipment repeats in both directions helps with planning the return dates early. You can also look at our route pages, such as New York to Florida or California to Texas, which go into detail on specific corridors.

Built into every Neptune shipment

Door-to-door service is included with our open and enclosed transport at no mysterious add-on cost. Whether you are shipping one car across the state or a household's vehicles across the country, we bring the service to your doorstep. Just provide accurate pickup and delivery addresses when you book so we can plan the most direct routing.

In transit, your vehicle is covered by the assigned carrier's cargo insurance. Amounts vary by carrier and typically run from $100,000 to $250,000, and up to $1,000,000 on luxury or enclosed loads. The coverage is held by the carrier, it is not a Neptune policy, which is why it is worth having the inspection well documented on the Bill of Lading.

On price: every quote is prepared by an agent after you submit the form with your addresses, the vehicle and your dates, so we do not publish flat rates or per-mile pricing. If you decide to book, the reservation fee is only collected after a driver has been assigned to your shipment, by credit card or PayPal, both with a 3% transaction fee, or by Zelle. The balance is paid directly to the driver at delivery, in cash or by Zelle.

Neptune Auto Transport operates out of Brooklyn, New York, under federal authority MC 1384866 and USDOT 3824247. Customers rate us 4.9 out of 5 on Google across 1,916 reviews, and we hold an A- rating from the BBB.