North Carolina to Virginia Car Shipping Guides

Moving to Virginia

• A tall car on the top deck is a routing problem in Hampton Roads

  VDOT posts the westbound Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, the US 58 Midtown Tunnel and the I-264 Downtown Tunnel at a maximum 13 feet 6 inches, with the Monitor-Merrimac at 14 feet 6 inches by permit. A standard tractor-trailer already runs at 13 feet 6 inches, so a car carrier carrying a tall SUV or a van on its upper deck has no margin at all. If your delivery is in Norfolk, Hampton or Virginia Beach, it is worth telling the broker what the vehicle is, because it may decide which crossing the driver can use.

• The corridor state and the mountain state

  I-95 runs the length of the populous east through Richmond and northern Virginia, and I-64 crosses from the coast to the Blue Ridge. Carriers are plentiful on both. West of Roanoke the I-81 corridor carries heavy freight through the valley, but the towns off it in the Appalachians are a different proposition, with grades, weather that bears no relation to the forecast in Richmond, and longer waits for a truck.

• Hurricanes reach Virginia more often than people expect

  NOAA counts 116 billion-dollar weather disasters in Virginia between 1980 and 2024, including 23 tropical cyclones alongside 53 severe storms and 19 winter storms. The five years to 2024 averaged 8.0 events a year against a long-run average of 2.6. The coast takes the tropical weather and the mountains take the snow, so which caution applies to your shipment depends on which end of the state it is going to.