Specialist UK Vehicle Transport — From £99

Two questions settle how a vehicle moves and what it costs. The first is whether it runs and steers. A vehicle that starts and can be driven onto a trailer under its own power is straightforward. One that does not start, has no brakes, or cannot be steered needs winching, and that is a different job with different equipment.

The second is what happens if it is exposed to weather and road dirt for the length of the journey. For most vehicles the answer is nothing, and open transport is the sensible choice. For a freshly restored classic, a show car or anything with paintwork that has just been finished, enclosed transport exists for exactly that reason.

Motorcycles sit in their own category, because the securing method matters more than the vehicle type: wheel chocks and soft straps over the frame rather than ratchet straps pulled across bodywork.

A few minutes of preparation prevents most of the problems that come up on a vehicle move. Leave a small amount of fuel in the tank, enough to load and unload but not a full tank, since a full tank is weight that adds nothing. Take personal belongings out.

Cover is for the vehicle, not for what is inside it, and loose items move around during transit. Fold mirrors, remove or lower any aerial, and take off anything that is not permanently attached, including roof boxes, bike racks and loose trim.

Photograph the vehicle from every corner before it is collected, in daylight, including the wheels and any existing damage. Have one key available for the crew and keep the spare.

Finally, make sure someone can be present at both ends, or agree in advance who is signing for the vehicle, because a condition report needs two people to be worth anything.

Vehicle transport does not work like a removal, where a van is committed to one job for a day. A transporter is efficient because it carries several vehicles on one route, so the collection date and the delivery date are usually a window rather than a fixed hour.

That is worth knowing if the vehicle is being collected from an auction house or a storage yard with limited opening times, because those sites often charge storage per day once a sale ends. Tell us the deadline when you book rather than after the vehicle has been collected.

Longer routes take longer than the mileage suggests for the same reason, since the run may include collections either side of yours. If a vehicle has to arrive on a specific day, say so at the point of booking, because a dedicated run is a different arrangement from a shared one.

A vehicle move has an administrative side that a furniture move does not, and it is the part that delays collections most often.

Whoever is releasing the vehicle needs to be entitled to release it, so a collection from a dealer, an auction house or a storage yard usually needs a release note or an invoice in the buyer's name, and the site will not hand a vehicle over without it. Keep the V5C with you rather than in the car.

It is the registration document, it is not needed for the journey, and a lost one is a fortnight of forms. Insurance is worth checking rather than assuming. Transit cover applies to the vehicle while it is being carried; it is not the same thing as your own motor policy, and it does not cover items left inside.

A condition report is the record that protects both sides, so it needs photographs at collection and again at delivery, taken by whoever is present at each end. If nobody can be there, agree in advance who is authorised to sign, because an unsigned delivery is a dispute waiting to happen.

A vehicle that does not start can still be straightforward, but three things decide whether it is. It has to roll, which means the wheels turn and the handbrake and any locks are off. It has to steer, because a winch pulls in a straight line and a seized steering rack turns a ten-minute load into a recovery job.

And the tyres have to hold enough air to take the weight across a ramp. If any of those are missing, say so before the date rather than on the day, since the equipment needed is different and so is the time. A vehicle with no key is workable if it rolls and steers.

A vehicle sitting on flat tyres in soft ground at the back of a garden is a different job again, and it is better priced honestly at the start than discovered by a driver who cannot complete it.