an old thread comes back to life, but here is my one and only experience...
years back I got my suburban via an ebay auction from Kalispell MT (thats in the GNP...) it was winter so this mint 90 sub goes for almost nothing - $3000. this was circa 2015 I think, long before they started selling for 10x that. so now, to get it back here. having watched 'shipping wars' and THAT cast of idiots, I thot, well how bad can it be if you get someone smart enough to avoid being on reality tv.
So I place the order for service aka auction...but no one was bidding down. Turns out MOST (like 75%) of the 'providers' on Uship are not actual truck/van owners but brokers. It is terribly easy to get your DOT plaque to be an ICC (old)/ STB (new) approved freight broker. You dont even have to own a truck. OR actually know anyone who does. so what they do is bid the job and if you accept, they put it on the 'boards', a service that lists loads from/to found at local truck stops and an online service - indy truckers needing a load from LTL to full scan them to keep the dollar flowing, indy truckers have to pay into a service that finds loads for them which is often as much a hassle as working for a company with a dispatcher that convinced you to go indy in the first place.
so my sub sat, and sat and sat. The broker kept promising a date 4 days out, but it moved every 2. then each week he would ask if I could add more money. so my initial hyper low bid of $750 is now at $1500. The problem was not the load, while the bus takes a good bite out of any actual car hauler, its not THAT heavy being only 2wd, but up there in Kalispell, to my place requires use of I80 and except in PA, I80 is heavily tolled AND given it was the winter, chain laws were in effect all the way into Iowa. Real truckers just dont go up there in the winter - thats what Canadian national and BNSF are for.... since the tolls would be in effect hundreds of dollars, brokers were telling me that time of year $2500 might be needed.
Well My trucker brother had just left the slave wages of one job and had a month to start his next...so I have a sister that married a delta employee...free flight into kalispell and he drove it back. after paying him for driving and fuel and car based tolls, it was 1500 and I had it in 2 days. so aside from half assed tv shows, when dealing with cars at the least, you are not technically dealing with pros. you are talking to a broker who sucks 10-15% off the top for typing into a computer and prolly works a real job somewhere else and your actual driver is who knows. sure, they have a STB registration but that is ALSO easy to do. If you want a dedicated car hauler, you are gonna pay such that self-drive becomes an option. and no, I would NEVER use a driveaway. check out reliable from MN, they used to be a large allied agent who got their own hauling rights, including the right to keep the allied paint colors and deal with LTL-full freight and a dedicated car fleet. and it aint cheap. But the guy who shows up cut his teeth or at least was trained by an actual humper.
check out forward air. IF they are still around. when I was restoring bikes and the like, a lot of stuff came and went via forward...from engines to completed machines.