very few shipping companies have their own fleet. those that do, charge more. typically the shipping game is played by having shipments bid out. Uship has stepped in and become a marketplace for getting things shipped.
With a car shipment, most the time it'll be on an open car carrier so for the most part, they'll all be comparable. If you use u-ship, start an auction for the shipment. read the reviews of the shippers. don't always accept the lowest bid from the new guy trying to get his start. I did this on my boat and it was super stressful and all sorts of chaos. Be clear that they're willing to deal with "uship payments" as a COD/escrow arrangement. Shippers are required by uship to accept uship payments, but it isn't always practical, as you have to release ALL or none of the payment. I got into a situation where I needed to get a deposit to my shipper and u-ship payments didn't facilitate that.
u-ship takes hefty fees from both you and the shipper. $50 from you and I think about $250 from the shipper. Just so you know. they are making big money just being the marketplace.
Uship tracking is cool as it gives a SOMEWHAT real time location of your shipment as it crosses the country.
I've also used Red Carpet Auto transport as my broker before the days of u-ship.
Remember, anyone that's quoting you a fixed price is really just picking a price that they think they'll get a bid accepted for. so if one fixed price shipper says $2000 and another says $1500, it's because the first one knows they can get a quick bid acceptance of $2000, whereas the other one is banking on the fact that they'll be able to get SOMEONE to eventually accept that $1500 price within a reasonable amount of time.
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