Car Shipping from New York to Pennsylvania: Updated Auto Transport Costs 2025

Labor shortages: for quite a few years, there’s been a scarcity of qualified professional drivers in the trucking and logistics business. The situation is even tougher for SGT Auto Transport, because we insist on working with the best and most qualified drivers we can find. We carefully vet and screen our drivers not only for their service attitude and professionalism, but for the correct licensing, certifications, DOT permits for interstate work, vehicle standards and insurance coverage. To retain drivers who can meet those standards, SGT offers premium pay, and labor costs are reflected in rates. 

Regulatory compliance: the logistics and trucking business has to navigate a lot of regulations and laws. That could include DOT permits, emissions standards, vehicle safety, driver safety, equipment and much more. To make things more complicated, they also can vary quite a bit from state to state, and drivers have to pay attention to state regs as well.  These standards are all controlled by the appropriate authorities, and drivers have to be sure that they’re legal and compliant on all of them. 

Inflation: this is one of the most obvious ones; ever since the Covid lockdowns, prices have continued to rise on all kinds of things. If logistics brokers and owner-operators have to pay more for tires, motor oil and everything else needed to keep a commercial truck on the road, that cost has to be recouped somehow. 

Calendar period: every New York car shipping company knows that the pattern of business in this industry is cyclical. Around the holidays, back-to-school time and a couple of other times a year, there’s usually a noticeable uptick in the number of people who need our services. When those surges in shipping traffic are going on, that means more demand for drivers, and the supply/demand curve kicks in with a spike in shipping rates.

Supply chain problems: there’s a lot of uncertainty in the current global trade environment (as well as persistent problems in the post-Covid realm). Those issues can mean choke points in the supply chain for things that logistics companies need at the operational level. If it’s harder to get parts and take care of maintenance for commercial trucks, that has an impact on shipping rates.

Fuel prices: nobody likes paying more at the pump, but we’re all at the mercy of fuel prices. If drivers have to pay more for diesel, that’s going to raise the prices of everything that’s transported by truck. 

Vehicle year/make/model: the Quote Calculator feature on our website needs to know this information, since curb weight and vehicle dimensions have a direct impact on shipping costs. A 2500 lb Mini Cooper is always going to be a lot cheaper to ship than a 6000 lb Cadillac Escalade.

Cost/mile: this is one of the most key aspects of shipping cost calculations, and it’s where all the rest of the bullet points listed above come into play. The good news is that for very long runs of several hundred miles, cost/mile with SGT Auto Transport actually starts to come down, making cross country shipping a great value. 

Let’s narrow this down a little more and talk about vehicle delivery from New York City to Pittsburgh.

This is a run of a little under 400 miles, and a general rule of thumb at SGT Auto Transport is that a 200 mile delivery should be done in a single day’s time.

At the other extreme, a run of 2000 miles can take as much as an 8 to 9 day turnaround, so you can figure on a 400 mile run being done in 2 to 3 days.

There is a caveat, though. It’s important to keep in mind that it’s hard to guarantee delivery time and date due to the number of factors beyond a driver’s control that can skew scheduling. 

Weather, road conditions, detours, construction, unusually heavy traffic can all push up a desired ETA.

 If that happens and your delivery is delayed, the customer support team at SGT will always let you know and keep you updated of the new ETA.

Using the Quote Calculator, get a reliable quote for the job you need done, then book the transport job

Driver shows up at your location and loads up your vehicle on a transport trailer

Driver arrives at the destination to hand off your vehicle to you 

Trustworthiness and dependability

Punctuality

Professionalism and a service-first mentality

Network of 26,000 professional transport drivers dispersed around the country

Several different transport options available 

Please remove any external parts like light bars, bike racks, rooftop cargo carriers, antennas

Please remove any toll transponders or tags, and disable any alarms 

Please be sure all four tires are completely inflated, your car’s battery is charged up, and the car’s headlights and taillights work 

Remember that the driver will need a copy of your car’s ignition key 

We prefer to  ship vehicles with a quarter tank of fuel or less. Fuel weighs about 6 lb per gallon, and less fuel means less curb weight and lower shipping costs. 

Please check carefully for any motor oil, coolant, transmission, brake or power steering fluid leaks – a transport driver might refuse to load a vehicle with fluid leaks.