Shipping From an Auction: Deadlines, Storage Fees, and Gate Passes

Auction lots run on a clock. Miss it and storage charges start, so here is the sequence that gets your car out on time.

Auction shipments fail for a different reason than ordinary ones. The transport is rarely the hard part. The clock is.

The clock starts the moment you win

Most auction facilities allow a short free storage period after the sale, commonly a few days, and then begin charging daily. Those fees accumulate quickly and are entirely avoidable. Book transport the same day you win, not the day you finish the paperwork.

The car cannot leave until the lot says it can

A driver cannot simply arrive and collect. The facility needs payment cleared in full and a gate pass or release authorization issued in the buyer's name, and it needs the carrier listed as authorized to collect that lot number. If any of that is missing, the driver is turned away, you are charged a dry run, and the storage clock keeps running.

• Pay in full and confirm the funds have cleared, not just been sent.
• Request the gate pass or release and forward it to us before the pickup window.
• Give the exact lot number and the facility's yard location, since large sites have several.
• Check the facility's collection hours. Many close early and none of them care that your driver is nearby.

Assume it does not run

Auction vehicles are frequently sold as non-running, and listings are optimistic. If the car does not start, steer, and roll, it needs a carrier with a winch, and that is a different truck. Booking a standard carrier for a vehicle that turns out to be inoperable is the most common cause of a wasted pickup on these shipments.

Tell us up front if there is any doubt. Quoting it as inoperable and being pleasantly surprised costs you nothing. The reverse costs you a dry run fee and several more days of storage.

Condition reports are your baseline

Auction cars often arrive with existing damage, which is precisely why the pickup condition report matters more here than anywhere else. Ask the driver to be thorough, and keep the auction's own condition report alongside it. Those two documents together are what separate damage the car arrived with from damage it acquired on the truck.