I thought the $400 deposit for a broker was a scam until I counted my buddy's 11 cars

Matthew Robinson · 2026-09-29T21:45:05.307244+00:00

My buddy Dave ships cars from auction lots in Phoenix up to Portland and I always gave him a hard time about paying a deposit upfront to a broker instead of just calling a carrier direct. He told me to shut up and watch his books one weekend, so I did. In 11 shipments over about 5 months, he only had 2 get delayed past the quoted window, and every single one of those ran through the same small broker he's been using for 3 years. Meanwhile I called carriers myself on 4 cars and 2 of them ghosted me after pickup, left me chasing dispatch for days. The deposit felt like a fee for nothing until I saw that it basically pays for someone else to eat that headache when a truck breaks down in Nebraska. I still think some brokers are straight up crooks, but the one Dave uses got my last car from Tucson to Denver in 3 days flat. Has anyone here actually gotten burned by a deposit, or is it mostly the no-deposit guys who flake on you?

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I thought the $400 deposit for a broker was a scam until I counted my buddy's 11 cars | Auto Shipping - The Community Guide