Ski

For anyone considering transporting a car; Stay far, far away from Autobahn Transport. Autobahn, as it turns out is just an agent for Schilling Transporters. The guys at Autobahn, in particular "Sam", as Jed Clampett would say, "Are lower than a snake belly in a wagon rutt". The car, 86 951, was to be picked up two weeks ago. It was picked up 4 days ago, to be delivered today in Corpus Christi TX to the new owner, a friend of mine. Well, as of today, the driver and truck are in Texarkana AR, where the driver lives, but who cannot be raised on the phone, home or cell. The only way they know that the truck is in Texarkana is by satellite link. Is the car there? The new owner is getting a trailer ready to go get the car tonight with a representative of Schilling, if they cannot raise the driver today.
Anyway, just thought I would let anyone who is interested in future transport know, that this company is not up to par and look elsewhere for transport if needed.

James86-951

I hope they will not charge you for their services.

Robert D

I hope the car is still there! Did you write down or document the number of miles on it beforehand? Does the Rat have the keys or did you mail them?

Ski

Well, the keys are in the car, in the trailer - which supposedly has padlock and keypad combination lock on the trailer. Also in the trailer are: 1987 turbo look Carrera, 1971 Olds Hurst 442, some Ferrari, and an older collectible.

The new owner(not me)will probably register on rennlist today and tell us the whole saga. They now say that they(transport company and Autobahn) will have to get a relief driver into Texarkana, get the truck, then deliver the cars. The cars go to El Dorado AR, Dallas TX, San Antonio TX, then to Corpus Christi TX - which is where the 951 should have been last week.

I'm sure there are owners here who have shipped a car just fine but this one is turning into a nightmare for my friend Jim. He has a trailer waiting if they find the truck and will let him come pick up the car.....

jim968

Wow! Sounds like a real whodunnit... by all means, keep us informed. Hope it all turns out well.

Jim, "There are three kinds of people... those who can count, and those who can't."

Eric

Sounds a bit crazy, but not unheard-of. We had an entire trailer-full of industrial fans(about 60K worth) left on the side of the road in rural KY. Apparently, the trucking co. advanced the driver some $$$, he hauled the load for about 150 miles from the depot, pulled over, unhooked the trailer and skedaddled. There are flakes and losers in every profession.

924Superwagen

I really hope there's no inside job going on and everybody gets their cars back...

Ski

Update: The truck is moving again. It seems the driver took a little home time without telling anyone. After four very angry people called Autobahn, they and Schilling sent someone to his home and put him back on the road. The car is promised Friday afternoon; after two drops in Dallas today, then to San Antonio, then Corpus Christi - keep you advised.

BartW

Good drivers are hard to find, this is why I no longer run my own transport company, I had to do too much myself. Btw about one month after I fired one of my drivers, he went to work for a guy that I know and in his first two weeks had two mishaps, first one was when he unloaded one car he did not put the rest of the cars back down low enough and hit a Lincoln Navigator into an overpass, second time he pulled into the wrong drive of a dealership and there was a high tension wire there that ran between the streetlights that was a little low (you can imagine what happenned) just glad it was not my truck anymore.

Ski

Update: Truck has arrived in San Antonio, dropping 1 car then heading to Corpus to arrive around noon tomorrow after driver gets some sleep.
Will let everyone know how the car arrives when it gets off the trailer, maybe Jim will email me some pictures, I'll post them.