The distinction that matters most, up front:
For an OCONUS move, meaning outside the continental United States and including Alaska and Hawaii, eligible service members are generally authorized shipment of one privately owned vehicle at government expense, handled through the official vehicle processing system.
For a CONUS move, between locations within the continental United States, vehicle shipment is generally not covered. The standard expectation is that you drive, with a mileage allowance for authorized travel rather than a shipped vehicle.
Entitlements vary by orders, service branch, destination, dependent status, and individual circumstances, and they change. Your transportation office and the current Joint Travel Regulations are the authority on what you are entitled to. This article does not attempt to answer that, and no transport company should. What it can help with is the part you arrange yourself, which for most PCS moves is the larger part.
Where private transport actually comes in
Three common situations, all self-funded:
A CONUS move where driving is not realistic. A cross-country PCS with a short report window, or one where the drive would consume most of your leave. Some circumstances allow exceptions with specific approval on your orders, and that is a transportation office question. Absent that, you are arranging it privately.
The second vehicle. The government covers one POV on an eligible OCONUS move. Two-car households are extremely common, and the second vehicle is always yours to handle. It gets sold, left with family, or shipped privately.
Getting a vehicle to or from a port. If your covered POV ships from a vehicle processing center that is a long way from your current duty station, moving the car to the port is often a private shipment.
Whichever applies, the shipment itself works like any other. What differs is the timing pressure and the fact that you may not be there when the vehicle moves.
Timing against your orders
PCS moves have a fixed report date, and the whole logistics chain runs backward from it. That makes lead time more important than it is for a civilian move.
Book as soon as your orders are in hand. Not once everything else is arranged. Booking early does not make trucks faster, but it widens the pool of carriers whose routes can absorb your shipment. That matters most on lanes to and from installations away from major corridors.
Build in buffer on the arrival side. Plan for the vehicle to arrive after you do, not the day you land. Waiting a few days for a car is inconvenient. Needing it on a day it has not arrived is a real problem.
Watch the summer. PCS season concentrates enormous volume between roughly May and August, and it overlaps with the busiest period for civilian relocation. Every lane is tighter. Add lead time.
Do not book before your dates are firm. Changing dates on a listed shipment means re-listing it, which restarts the dispatch process. If orders may shift, wait until they settle.
For lanes between major installations, carrier density is usually good. A shipment on a heavily traveled corridor like Illinois to California moves quickly. A shipment to an installation two hours off the interstate needs more lead time regardless of distance.
When you cannot be there
This is the practical problem that separates military moves from most civilian ones. You may already have reported, be in transit, or be deployed when the vehicle needs to be released or received.
Designate a representative in advance. Any adult you trust: a spouse, a family member, a neighbor, a colleague. Give your coordinator their name and phone number when you book, not the morning of pickup.
Brief them properly. Whoever is there will inspect the vehicle with the driver and sign the condition report, which is the document that governs any later damage claim. If they sign a clean form without looking, a later claim becomes very difficult. Send them your pre-pickup photographs and tell them explicitly to compare, and to write down anything that does not match before signing.
The same applies at delivery, and delivery is the higher-risk end. New damage found and noted at delivery can be claimed. New damage discovered after an unqualified signature usually cannot.
Handle both ends separately. The person releasing the vehicle and the person receiving it are often different people in different states. Both need briefing.
Base and installation access
Full-size car haulers run roughly 75 to 80 feet long and around 13 feet 6 inches tall. Installation gates and interior roads frequently cannot accommodate that, and commercial vehicle access often requires clearance the driver does not have.
The practical arrangement is usually a meeting point off-installation: a commercial lot near the gate with room to maneuver and clear overhead space. Raise this when you book rather than discovering it when the driver reaches the gate.
If you live in on-base housing, the same constraint applies to the housing area itself. Plan for the nearest accessible commercial lot.
Preparing the vehicle
Standard preparation applies: wash it so existing damage is visible, reduce fuel to about a quarter tank, remove personal belongings, take out your toll transponder, disable the alarm or write down the disarm procedure, and photograph every panel before pickup.
Two things specific to this situation:
Confirm insurance stays active. Do not let a policy lapse mid-move. A gap while the vehicle is in transit is a bad place to be, particularly if the vehicle is financed and your lender requires continuous coverage.
If the vehicle is financed or leased, check the paperwork. For domestic shipments within the contiguous United States this is usually nothing. Port-based shipments to Hawaii, Alaska, or overseas commonly require written lienholder authorization, sometimes notarized, and that takes time to obtain. Start it early.
If your covered POV is going through the official process, follow the vehicle processing center's requirements rather than a general checklist. Their standards on cleaning, fuel level, and personal items are stricter and are enforced at turn-in.
If the timing is genuinely tight
Report dates are not negotiable and orders sometimes arrive late.
Short-notice shipping is often achievable, particularly on dense corridors. Expedited transport prioritizes dispatch, which is where most of the delay sits, rather than the drive itself. On a busy lane that can be most of the timeline.
Widening your pickup window helps more than almost anything else. A five-day window fits far more trailers than a single specified day.
Lanes to and from installations vary a lot in how quickly carriers pick them up, so a route-specific estimate is more useful than a general timeline. Get an estimate for your route and dates, or look at nationwide lane coverage to see how your corridor is served before your dates lock in. ---