American Auto Move Pushes Industry into the 21st Century

DAVIE, Fla., Jan. 22, 2013 -- American Auto Move has just released a new Auto Transport Rate Calculator that allows customers to directly compare auto transport rates between companies. This first-of-its-kind technology may have the impact of changing the auto transport sales landscape for the better by providing prospective customers the ability to match prices they've received with an accurate, objective rate.

"What most people do when shopping for auto transport quotes is look around at different websites, or click ads for auto transport in search engines, fill out a quote form, and get a quote. That's a model that has been in use for years, but the problem is that one doesn't really get any context when they shop that way," claims Leo Stanley , head web developer for American Auto Move." Our innovation is that we allow the user to compare quotes with other auto transport providers. This creates a situation where real competition between providers of auto transport can flourish."

The Rate Comparison Tool allows the customers to compare and evaluate auto transport quotes. The customer simply enters their move information into the form, and the back end does the rest. The operation is quite simple: First, the rate is calculated using American Auto Move's RateFinder algorithm. After the optimal rate for the client's move is discovered, the Comparison Tool uses another algorithm to rank the competing companies and their own rates. The Comparison Tool then outputs the rating for each competitor's price, and if the user selects the option to get an auto transport quote from American Auto Move, that price is displayed as well.

According to Mr. Stanley, the Rate Comparison tool was born out of need to fix a problem rampant in the auto transport industry: low-ball pricing. "One of the problems that we've noticed over the years is that auto transport consumers have a tendency to go for the lowest possible prices....What winds up happening is that the lowest price received is often too low to get the work done, which gives a bad name to the industry because if leaves a bad taste in the mouths of customers. So what the Comparison Tool does is allow the user to validate the prices that they've received."

He goes on to explain how the Rate Comparison Tool might actually work for a customer: "There are some auto transport companies out there that either don't know what they're doing, or simply don't care about the customer, that will give someone an impossible quote. If a user gets a quote for that wouldn't be able to move a car, say for example a quote for $300 to move a car from LA to New York City, and adds that price into our Tool, it will be able to say 'Hey, this price isn't a reasonable price, as it's less than $.32 per mile. Be aware that this price might be a scam.'"

Transparency in the operation of the Rate Comparison Tool is seen as essential in the success of the Rate Comparison Tool, and Mr. Stanley is not coy about how the calculator works: "The RateFinder algorithm is actually quite simple: we take the total distance between the pick up and destination locations, use a multiplier on the distance to get a baseline rate, add or subtract from the baseline depending on certain modifiers that are either entered in by the user or coded in, and then compares that number to the number provided by the user. The result is that we have calculated an extremely accurate baseline rate for our user so that they can make an informed decision about which company they use based on an objective, standard rate."

American Auto Move has plans to integrate the Rate Comparison Tool with another trusted name in the industry, Transport Reviews. "Our plan is to make use of the Transport Reviews datasets once they become available. The idea is that we want to be able to help the user make a better decision about who to use based on value. Transport Reviews collects customer reviews and ratings companies, and what we would like to do is have the user enter the companies that they've received quotes from into the comparison tool and find the ratings for those companies all in one place. This way, the user would see the price, validate that price, and discover what other people have to think about each company's performance. This makes it possible to choose a company in seconds."

The ambitions for the this project are high, but not hastily constructed. "I think we have the potential for a groundbreaking technology. I wouldn't say that it's perfect right now, but I think it will be in the future."