[NoahVail]

After reading thru lots and lots of experience-driven advice, I've settled on enclosed transport (bc the soft top is shredded & bc it's a soft top) and am talking directly to a couple of reputable transporters. Hopefully we'll be in route this weekend.

It took me a while to settle on a direct transporter (vs broker). The value was never in doubt. Frankly the price of auto shipping is very reasonable all around. It's just that before I could choose, I had to get educated.

I figured out that I could find local brokers and shippers by googling the safer.fmcsa.dot.gov site. They also have lic/ins reports. (I'm anal about research. Don't judge me.)
To get the skinny on a particular company I read their uShip feedback (especially cancellations) which was mostly chatter between brokers and shippers. I learned a lot from that.

tl;dr: I'll vouch there's lots of shade over the broker industry.

Even so, my personal take is that brokers have their place and I believe that reputable brokers exist. The challenge is that there's so much insider crap in the industry it's all but impossible for non-insiders to find good brokers.

Heck, it's not even straight forward to find reputable transporters.

Now I'm wondering if reviving the the transporter thread might be a good idea.
I saw the earlier one here (not that I could find it a 2nd time).
I think that idea could be improved on but I'm not sure how.


So anyway, I found a shipper.
and
I appreciate the valuable feedback you've all passed onto me.