How to Cancel a Car Shipping Order

Most bookings go through a broker, which doesn't own a truck. It takes your order and offers the job to independent carriers until one accepts. That acceptance, usually called dispatch, is when your booking stops being a piece of paper and becomes space on a real truck on a real route.

Before dispatch, cancelling costs the company almost nothing, and its terms usually reflect that. After dispatch, a driver has planned a route around your car. That is why a fee appears at that point, and why it is not by itself a sign of a bad company.

This is the easy case, and the common one, because the days between booking and dispatch are exactly when plans move.

1. 1Send it in writingEmail is enough. Give the order number, the vehicle and the route, and say you are cancelling. A phone call alone leaves you nothing to point at.
2. 2Ask for confirmationOf the cancellation, the refund amount and the date the refund goes out.
3. 3Ask whether a carrier was assignedIf the company says one was, ask for the carrier's name and USDOT or MC number. That decides which terms apply.
4. 4Watch the statementRefunds take a few days to appear. Note the date you were given and follow up in writing if it passes.

Once a carrier has accepted your car, your booking is part of someone's week. Cancelling is still allowed, but there may be a fee, and the closer you are to the pickup window the more likely that is. If the car is already loaded, what you are asking for is a change of delivery or an early release, which is a different conversation at a different price.

• Ask what the fee is, and where in your booking it is written down.
• Ask whether moving the dates costs less than cancelling. Many companies reschedule for nothing.
• Ask what happens if the carrier is the one who can't make it. Terms usually treat that more generously.
• If you are cancelling because of a price rise you didn't agree to, say so in writing. It changes the argument.

There is no standard car shipping deposit. Some companies charge nothing until a carrier accepts the job, some take a booking fee on the day, some hold a card and charge it at dispatch. Because practice varies that much, the honest answer to "do I get my deposit back" is always the same: it depends on what you agreed to, and the agreement should say.

• Find out whether you paid a deposit against the total or a separate broker fee. They behave differently on cancellation.
• Check whether the refund is full, partial or subject to a fee, and at which stage each applies.
• Check whether the terms promise a refund if no carrier is found in your pickup window. Good terms do.
• Keep the receipt showing the company name and order number. It is what a card dispute asks for.

All of this is easier if you settled it on the day you booked, when the company wanted your business. Five questions by email are worth more than any argument you can have later, and asking them costs the company nothing.

• What can I cancel for, before a carrier is assigned?
• What changes once a carrier is assigned, and what is the fee?
• Is the deposit part of the total price, or a separate fee?
• Can I move the dates instead of cancelling, and does that cost anything?
• What do I get back if no carrier accepts my car in the pickup window?

Most cancellations end with a refund and nothing more to say. When one doesn't, work through these in order, because each step is easier if you did the one before it.

1. 1Put the demand in writingQuote the clause in your own terms, state the amount and give a deadline. Keep it short and unemotional.
2. 2Ask for the broker's recordIf you doubt that a carrier was really assigned, federal rules let every party to a shipment review the broker's record of it.
3. 3Dispute the card chargeCard issuers have dispute processes for a service you paid for and did not receive, and they set time limits, so don't wait months.
4. 4File a complaintThe FMCSA takes complaints about transporters and brokers that didn't provide the agreed service or acted deceptively.

If you cancelled because the company let you down, the temptation is to book the next quote that arrives. Slow down by an hour. The most common reason a booking falls apart is a price no carrier was ever going to accept, and that is visible in the next quote if you look.

• Get two or three quotes for the same dates, vehicle and transport type.
• Treat the quote far below the others as a warning, not a bargain.
• Look up the company's USDOT number and operating status before you pay anything.
• Ask for the cancellation terms in writing before you book this time.
• Give the new booking a wider pickup window. Flexible dates are the cheapest thing you can offer a carrier.