Open Carrier Transport

Your vehicle travels strapped to a multi-car deck alongside seven to ten others, sharing the trip and sharing the cost. This is how the overwhelming majority of vehicles move in Australia, and for the overwhelming majority of vehicles it is the right answer.

The honest version of “exposed to weather”

An open carrier is open. Your car sees sun, rain and road spray for the length of the journey.

Which is worth putting in perspective: that is the same exposure it gets sitting in your driveway, and considerably less than it gets being driven the same distance. A car driven Sydney to Perth collects four thousand kilometres of stone chips, insects and windscreen risk. The same car on an open carrier collects none of that, because it is not moving under its own wheels through anything.

What open transport genuinely does not protect against is road grit thrown up on a wet highway, and long exposure to salt air on coastal runs. For a daily driver, neither matters. For fresh paint on a restoration, it does, and that is what enclosed transport is for.

How the vehicle is secured

• Loaded by an operator, not driven on by you
• Secured with rated straps over the wheels, so the load path runs through the tyres and suspension rather than the chassis
• Handbrake on, gearbox in park or in gear, and chocked where needed
• Checked at every driver break, which is also a fatigue-management requirement, not just good practice

What to do before we collect

• Leave roughly a quarter tank of fuel: enough to load and unload, not enough to add unnecessary mass
• Remove or retract anything that could work loose: aerials, loose trim, bike racks, magnetic signage
• Fold the mirrors
• Disable or provide the code for any aftermarket alarm
• Take out personal belongings. They are not covered, and they add mass we are legally accountable for