Erynn and I moved from Dubuque, Iowa to Cary, North Carolina. My company paid to have our belongings moved along with two of our cars. Below is a nice photo montage showing how the movers packed the car. More photos from our time in Dubuque can be found HERE.
The movers from ACE Worldwide packed our stuff into boxes on day 1 then put everything into the trailer on day 2. Our stuff only filled the section above the truck's rear axle (to about the "e" on the side of the trailer), which left plenty of room for both of our cars plus another household's worth of stuff. After us, the guys drove to Florida to pack up another person's belongings and stashed their stuff above and around our cars. Above right you can see all of our household belongings in the truck. You'll see later that the Elise fits under the shelf.
The movers called in a flatbed truck in order to lift the cars into the back of the trailer. I put the hard top on the car for shipping.
They put a moving blanket on the road to prevent the front clam fascia from scraping. The guy backing the car onto the platform was sweating bullets. I kept telling them that it was okay to damage the car. It was okay as long as they totalled it! The Elise is an '06 and I thought I could have their insurance buy me an '07.
Once secured to the flatbed they began to align the car to the back of the moving trailer.
Easy does it!
Then they just drove it on the trailer.
They blocked the car in with the aluminum support brace. You can't tie down the car via the suspension so they used a ton of moving blankets to keep it from sliding back and forth. To finish off the job I put my car cover on to protect from dust or vibration. The movers did tie down the front with the Lotus-supplied tie-down hook, but it got slightly bent during transit. Not a big deal since it's only a steel ring welded to a bolt. Unfortunately the car arrived safe and I didn't get a free '07.
Then it was Bessie's turn.
finito
As a side note... the movers packed the Subaru with all of our pictures. All they did was wrap them in moving blankets and shove them in the car. A number of picture frames were scratched and/or slightly damaged. The damage was just minor enough to be too much of a hassle to try and get compensation but just major enough to be really annoying. Don't let movers pack your car with your stuff. It saves them time and energy, but that's not your problem.
© 2007 Doug Rathburn