Alternative to Stewart Transportion

[pjdavis]

As much fun as dreaming about building the car is - obviously it is a thrill when you place your order! I have read a lot about the problems with Stewart. I can imagine the frustration when you are waiting for the dream to come next Wednesday - it passes you call - and maybe they even answer the telephone - then you find out they have not even arrived at FFR yet!

This is an option - saves lots of money and of course it is one more adventure to the whole process. 2 things are required - a vehicle to tow - truck or large SUV or a step van sized truck.

How far do you want to drive?

I would guess that 20-30% of the country is within a twelve hour drive from FFR.

My story:

I ordered my car at the factory on 7/14/2011. I had schedule for it to be ready in the 3rd week of November (needed time to raise the money). When I flew home that night - I was thinking the end of August I was going to turn 55 - what nice gift to myself. So I arranged for the kit to be ready in the 3 rd week of August. I live in Maryland. That week I was taking my last son to Syracuse University to start the 4 best years of his life. I checked the map and figure it was a 6 hour drive from Syracuse to Wareham MA. I looked up U-Haul and checked out their car haulers. THEY HAVE A LOCATION 1/4 OF A MILE FROM FFR! I arranged for a one way trailer - to MD - for 3 days the total cost was $141.00. I went to the nearest U-Haul location and measure the trailer. I built 2 dollies with casters to cross the open space of the trailer.

My older son wanted to go to Syracuse when we dropped his brother off - as he graduated from there last May.

The trip began - we left Syracuse and drove to Framingham to pick up the rear end from Mike Forte (great guy!). Checked into a hotel - Mike is 1 hour north of FFR. The next morning we picked up the trailer went to FFR loaded the kit. I have a Tahoe - with the seats down - I could load 60% of the boxes. 2 or 3 went inside the Cobra and the other 4 Mounted on the roof.

We made an adventure out of it! Left FFR at 11:00 - back home by 7:00 PM.

With the dollies - he and I just rolled the car of the trailer and into the reptile house (garage). Total cost - $100.00 for the hotel, junk food on the highway, 2 tanks of gas (1 way) and $141.00 for the trailer!

A whole lot less than Stewart - and I could control what happened - getting the car when you want it.

As I was writing - I was thinking - if you do not have the room for all the boxes but can tow the trailer - I would imagine it cannot cost that much to have the shipped to your location via UPS of Fedex.

I met another person who is building FFR MKIV - who lives close to me. He had a friend who has a Box truck - 18 to 20 ft interior length - so they just drove that up to FFR.

You can also rent them from Budget, U-Haul, Penske, etc. You can do it one-way. Flights into Providence, RI are cheap via Southwest. FFR is 1 hour from the airport. So you find the truck in Providence and drive to FFR.

Make it and adventure - it is part of the build process!

PJ

[WIS89]

PJ-

Awesome for you. I was/am hoping to do the same/similar thing with one or both of my boys. Only I am going to use an enclosed trailer ffor the extra boxes and car.

Make it a guys trip. Exxtra fun, save a few pennies, but the adventure part for the men of the house is all part of the project!


Now, if I can just convince the wife, and save enough pennies...

Steve

[pjdavis]

Thanks Steve!

On the FFR forum I was reprimanded by 6 people for sharing my story!

[Richard Oben]

To quote you:

I have read a lot about the problems with Stewart.

End quote.

If that is not a bash what is? It is at least inflamatory and biased, if not more.

Well that is simply not the case. We received kits with Stewart way early on and they have been great from day one, they are better at it than everyone else combined.

Small rant to follow:

A couple of people (not a lot) have misunderstood the process. FFR gives you an estimated completion date and Stewart gives you a delivery time based on that date. It is never reported when they are on time only when they are late. Some have assumed and even taken vacation based on a date that is months out. Their dream is set back by a week and they have a cow for no real reason.

We tell everyone not to schedule anything based on that date, there are just too many variables. Not a full load, FFR not done, weather, Traffic issues, delivery issues with the people ahead on the truck. Then there is the distance factor, Stewart picks up the kit and the person expects it to take the time it takes to go across country, say 3 days. The problem with that is there are 8 other people ahead of you and they all have schedules also.

My other question to you is what would you have done had the kit come off of the trailer? Was it insured? What if it came off and killed someone when your dollie failed? Stewart covers all of this and puts it in your garage. Now take the opportunity cost, a couple of days off work, a lot of time with the logistics, truck gas, room, food, miles and anything else all have to be figured in to the equation.

Sure it is an adventure and great for some of the people here but for the vast majority Stewart is the best and really only alternative. JMHO, all of our cars come Stewart now.

As a side note, in 1998 we started getting kits from FFR. The old carrier (consolidated freightways I think) screwed up every invoice. We set up an account to make it easy for them, every kit was in an identical crate, we had a quote in hand before the crates were picked up, every time they tried to re-rate the kit. A lot of people who wanted the car so bad paid the rediculous mark up from CF. We stuck to our guns and never paid more than the original quote. In short it was a complete nightmare and a damn expensive one. The crate was several hundred and the shipping close to a grand in 99. Now it gets worse, the crate is at the terminal, so you need a flat bed tow truck to get the crate and slide it off in you drive, you then have to figure out what to do with the rest of the crate that was not used for the buck.

All of that went away when Collin and his dad stepped in and solved all of them.

HTH, Richard.

[Richard Oben]

To be clear it would have been much better for your title to say. 'I had a great time picking up my kit'.

I am happy for you and your dream but the title and the opening line are just plain bad form. In short you got justly blasted on the other forum and then do the same thing here. What gives with that? Richard.

[Jeff Collins]

We have had good experience with Stewart every time we have used them. There are some cool points to be scored by going to the factory if logistics make it practical, but if that doesn't work for you Stewart is hard to beat IMHO. It sounds like you guys had a great road trip, can't wait to hear more about your build.

[Brian Z]

PJ,

We are happy you had a great expirence coming to FFR to pick up your kit! This should be a friendly community and speaking honestly should be respected. Stewart is a great service, but they have had some issues lately. They are doing the best to correct their issues. They have been a little behind and have gone through a few driver changes but we still support them.

I am glad to see you were able to turn a negative experience into a positive one. I don't think you should be criticised for saying you had a negative experience. It looked to me like your post focuses more on your positive expirience picking up the kit than your negative experience with Stewart.

Anyway, we are glad to have you as part of the FFR community! I hope you have a blast building your own dream car! If you need anything please feel free to call us at FFR.

Kind regards,

[skullandbones]

The point about not having an alternative was well made. I'm in AZ and pulling a full trailer across the U.S. is not only imparactical but dangerous. I may have come off as critical about Stuart but it wasn't meant that way. (Got mine at 10:30 at night on another thread). I believe mine was an extreme case being in the middle of nowhere, so to speak. It probably was a very out of the ordinary delivery. I made it clear how far the driver when out of his way to help in stressful conditions.

I think Stuart may be struggling to find the kind of drivers that will commit to their hight standards. Getting the kit to you is just part of the experience. I think 85-90% of the customers would say the delivery was a positive experience based on how they were treated during the whole event. Also, remember that this is a logistical feat. It is the biggest package you will probably ever get delivered to your door. The scheduling and efficient logistics is how the company makes their profit margin. If you were paying for special delivery, it would be too expensive. So the "alternative to Stuart" or "alternative to shipping" is limited to the distance that most people are willing to haul their dream car and still consider it a "guy trip". Thanks, WEK.

[VD2021]

To central Florida????? Not I.

I've nothing but great things to say about Stewart and I actually used them.

[streetrodpainter]

we have used stewart exlusively for every car we ship. an estimated date is just that...just as Richard said...don't bet on it til you receive the call that they are on their way to your door. I have always received great service from them and their drivers. :)

[NICK C]

When I decided to buy a Factory Five roadster I had visions of getting my trailor, taking some time off work and going with my father-in-law and having a good adventure. As I got closer to the time to actually buy the car , I started to crunch numbers and realized that with the prise of gas, hotel rooms, food, weather considerations and time to make the trip, I couldn't compete with Stewart in either time or money. Oklahoma to FFR is a substantial trip and I couldn't be happier with the results of using Stewart. Now I can take a day or two off to work on the car and not have the stress of hauling with my little, non-bonded, limited safety trailor. I plan on using Stewart again for the next project. ( coupe ?)

[Russ Thompson]

Guys, I have to step in here and say lets take a deep breath and relax. PJ is new to the forums and lets give hm a break. PJ the guys that have posted and defended Stewart Trucking have all delt with them a lot and have loyalty to our vendors with a good record.
You will not find two better vendors then Richard, Jeff and Streetrod Painter so PJ take their posts as a way to learn how it works here on this and the other forum. They are trying to help and please keep that in mind. PJ hang in there and you will find everyone here can be a great help. We are like any family,, ahhh need I say more! :-)

[sheephearder]

The only alternative to Stewart Transportation is stupidity in my opinion! I'll bet you can always get a factory tour if you show up there.

[David]

There are few finer people than Collin Stewart. No business is perfect, but I know Collin is committed to doing the best they can in a challenging field.

David

[Bob Barnett]

I don't think anybody has earned the right to criticize by "reading" a post(s) about a vendor. If you don't have a personal experience to relate, than what you say is just hearsay. We can all read the same posts and form our own opinions. There is no need for hearsay!

Now, I am glad you had a great experience picking up your kit and enjoy the build!