New York to Louisiana Car Shipping Guides

Moving to Louisiana

• From June to November, book with slack in the dates

  The Atlantic hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November, and NOAA puts the peak at 10 September with most activity between mid-August and mid-October. A named storm in the Gulf does not usually cancel a shipment, but it does pause it: carriers stop staging on the coast, and the backlog clears in the days after. If your move falls in September, agree a pickup window rather than a date, and expect the return leg to be busy once roads reopen.

• Carnival is the one time door-to-door will not work in New Orleans

  The city restricts parking along parade routes for two hours either side of each parade, bans large vehicles from parking within two blocks of a route for four hours either side, and closes parts of the French Quarter to vehicles outright for days at a stretch. An 80-foot carrier cannot work a parade-route block under those rules. Plan on meeting the truck outside the closures, or move the date — drivers know the season and will usually say so first.

• One wreck on the Basin Bridge delays every carrier on I-10

  The Atchafalaya Basin Bridge carries I-10 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette for 18.2 miles across the swamp with no exits along it. When a crash closes it, the state detour runs traffic up to US-190 and back, which adds hours rather than minutes. It is the single most common reason a Louisiana transit slips by half a day, and no carrier can plan around it.