Car Shipping from Florida to New Jersey

Shipping a car from Florida to New Jersey costs $650 to $1,000 on an open carrier, and most vehicles are delivered in 3 to 5 days once a truck picks up. That is the short answer. The longer answer is that Florida (FL) to New Jersey (NJ) prices differently depending on which month you ship, because it is the return half of the largest seasonal vehicle migration in the country.

What actually moves your FL to NJ quote

That range assumes a running sedan, open transport, door to door, across roughly 1,100 miles. Five things decide where inside it you land:

• Size and weight. A Civic books near the bottom. A three-row SUV, a crew-cab pickup or anything lifted takes more deck space and weight allowance, which pushes to the top and sometimes past it.
• Running or non-running. A car that starts, steers and brakes goes up the ramps in two minutes. One that does not needs a winch and twenty minutes of a driver's day, and that surcharge is real.
• Open or enclosed. Enclosed is a meaningful step up here, because far fewer enclosed trailers run this lane and each carries fewer cars.
• The calendar. April and May northbound are the most expensive weeks of the year on this route. Late summer is the cheapest.
• Distance from the corridor. A pickup in Boca Raton, two minutes off I-95, prices better than one in Marco Island or a delivery in rural Sussex County. Every mile off the interstate earns the driver nothing.

The only way to know your number is to have a dispatcher price your vehicle, addresses and dates. A free quote for your Florida to New Jersey shipment takes a couple of minutes.

Northbound in spring is the tight half of the year

Most routes have a mild seasonal curve. This one has a cliff. From March through May, seasonal residents leave Florida for the Northeast by the hundreds of thousands, and a large share ship a car rather than drive it. Northbound trailers fill in days and rates climb with them. The mirror image runs October through December, when traffic flows NJ to FL and northbound becomes the light direction.

So: if you must move in April or May, book two to three weeks out and offer a two or three day pickup window. If you can wait for June through August — after the spring rush clears, before the fall southbound wave starts — that is consistently the cheapest window on this lane. If the trip is part of your seasonal cycle, our snowbird auto transport service is built around these dates.

The road your car actually travels

Nearly every FL to NJ shipment runs the I-95 East Coast corridor, but the first leg depends on where in Florida the car starts:

1. South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach) gets straight onto I-95 and stays there.
2. Gulf Coast (Naples, Fort Myers, Sarasota, Tampa) runs I-75 north to Lake City, cuts east on I-10 to Jacksonville and joins I-95 there.
3. Central Florida (Orlando, The Villages, Kissimmee) takes I-4 east to Daytona Beach and meets I-95 at the coast.
4. The long middle is I-95 through Savannah, past Florence in South Carolina, past Fayetteville and Rocky Mount in North Carolina, then Richmond and Fredericksburg.
5. The Washington-Baltimore squeeze is the real chokepoint. Drivers grind through it or swing around on I-495, and this is where a schedule usually slips half a day.
6. Into New Jersey. In Delaware, trucks bound for New Jersey leave I-95 for I-295, cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge into Deepwater and run north on the New Jersey Turnpike.

One detail that surprises people: your car will not arrive via the Garden State Parkway. The Parkway restricts commercial trucks and has clearances a loaded hauler cannot use, so carriers stay on the Turnpike and exit nearest you — 13 or 14 for Elizabeth and Newark, 11 for Woodbridge, 7A for Monmouth and Ocean County.

Winter matters in the middle of this run, not at the ends. Florida is never the problem. The trouble spots are ice through Virginia and Maryland, a storm that closes I-95 in the Carolinas, and snow in North Jersey the week your car is due.

Both ends of the lane

Carriers build northbound loads out of the tri-county area first — Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach — because a truck can fill there in an afternoon. Jacksonville, Orlando, The Villages, Tampa, Sarasota and Naples get regular service, though a Gulf Coast pickup may sit an extra day while a driver rounds out a load. The Keys and the Panhandle cost more, because of the detour.

In New Jersey, Newark and Jersey City are the anchors, with steady volume through Bergen, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties. South Jersey — Cherry Hill, Camden, Mount Laurel — often delivers half a day sooner than North Jersey, because the truck reaches it right after the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Shore towns like Toms River and Brick see heavy spring arrivals for obvious reasons. Our New Jersey car shipping page covers the destination end in more detail.

Dense neighborhoods are the one genuine delivery constraint. A loaded hauler is 75 to 80 feet long and cannot turn into a Hoboken side street or a gated community with a low entry arch. Door-to-door service means the driver gets as close as the truck can legally and safely go; there, you meet at a nearby lot or wide cross street, minutes from the address.

What "3 to 5 days" actually covers

Those days are transit time — the clock starts when your car is loaded, not when you book. At 1,100 miles a driver working under federal hours-of-service limits covers the distance in two to three days of pure driving. The rest is the other cars on the trailer: a northbound truck carries seven to nine vehicles and makes several Florida pickups and several Mid-Atlantic drops before yours. Add a pickup window on top — one to three days after booking in a normal month, longer in the April-May crush.

Open or enclosed for 1,100 miles of I-95

Open transport carries the vast majority of cars on this lane and is right for a daily driver, a lease return, or a second car going north for the season. The exposure is ordinary highway exposure: road grime, rain, and whatever the truck ahead throws up. Enclosed makes sense when the car's value or finish makes that unacceptable — a classic, an exotic, fresh paint, or clearance too low for open ramps. Our enclosed auto transport service explains the trailer types and how loading differs. Either way cargo insurance is included, every carrier is licensed and bonded, and we have been arranging moves like this for over 15 years.

Prepping a car that has been sitting in Florida

• Wash it before pickup. You cannot document existing damage through salt haze or love bug residue, and Florida cars have both. A clean car makes the pickup inspection accurate, which is what protects you at delivery.
• Bag or pull the SunPass transponder. Your car passes toll gantries on Florida's Turnpike and again on the New Jersey Turnpike, and an active transponder riding on a trailer can get read.
• Check the battery and tires. A car that sat through a Florida summer often has a weak battery and soft tires, and it has to roll on and off the ramps under its own power to avoid a non-running fee.
• Quarter tank, then empty it out. Fuel is weight, and personal items are not covered by cargo insurance. Time-stamped photos of all four corners settle any question at the other end.

Common questions on the Florida to New Jersey route

How much does it cost to ship a car from Florida to New Jersey?

Plan on $650 to $1,000 for a running sedan on open transport, door to door. Larger vehicles, non-running cars, enclosed trailers and April-May pickups push the number higher; a summer booking on a compact sits near the bottom.

How long does the trip take?

3 to 5 days in transit across 1,100 miles, plus a pickup window of one to three days in a normal month. South Jersey deliveries often land half a day earlier than North Jersey, since the truck reaches them first after the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

When is the cheapest time to ship a car north from Florida?

Mid-June through August. The spring return wave has cleared, the fall southbound wave has not started, and northbound trailers have space to fill. April and May are the most expensive weeks on this route by a wide margin.

Can the truck deliver to my street in Jersey City or Hoboken?

Usually not to the door itself. A full-size hauler cannot safely enter narrow, densely parked streets, so the driver calls ahead and arranges a nearby lot. In suburban North and Central Jersey and in most shore towns, true door delivery is normally no problem.

Do you ship cars that will not start?

Yes, as long as the vehicle rolls, steers and brakes. Say so at the quote stage so the shipment goes to a carrier with a winch, and expect a non-running surcharge. A dead battery is worth fixing first — it is cheaper than the fee.

Booking the run

Give us the year, make and model, both ZIP codes, whether the car runs, and the earliest date you can release it. That is enough to price the lane. Our full list of auto transport routes shows distance, transit time and price range for every state pair we cover, including NJ to FL for the trip back south.