What does it cost to move a boat from Connecticut to Florida?

More lines than most people expect, and the driver is only one of them.

A road move on the owner’s own rig has to cover the driver’s days, flights out and home, lodging and meals on the road, fuel at towing mileage rather than highway mileage, tolls, permits in every state, escorts where the beam requires them, and haul-out and launch at either end.

A professional transporter with their own truck and trailer prices differently, because the equipment, the authority and the insurance are all theirs. Comparing the two on headline price alone is misleading, they are different products.

The number that decides everything

Whatever the total, the figure that determines whether the move actually happens is what the driver earns per day. A fall run is four days of their week including the flight home. If that does not clear a sensible day rate, the trip does not get taken, however the rest of the maths looks.

Rather than publish a number that will be wrong for your boat, the trip planner lets you enter real quotes and see the total, and what it works out to per day for whoever is driving.

Every cost in a Connecticut to Florida move

Connecticut to the Florida east coast is roughly 1,200 to 1,400 road miles depending on where she starts and where she is going. Here is what sits on the invoice, and which way each line moves.

The two lines owners forget are the yard at each end and the escorts. A haul-out slot in October is not a formality, it is booked weeks ahead in the yards’ busiest month, and if the beam needs escorts through several states the escort line can rival the driver’s.

A 34 foot boat leaving Mystic in November

Say she is 11 feet on the beam, on the owner’s own trailer behind the owner’s own truck, going to Stuart. That is over width, so she is permitted in every state and moving in daylight only. Three days on the road, which means a driver’s four days once the flight home is counted.

The driver’s days are the biggest single line, the flight is small, and fuel lands wherever your truck’s real towing consumption puts it over 1,300 miles. Then permits in six or seven states, escorts where the beam calls for them, tolls at oversize rates, and a lift at each end. Add them up and the total is a real number rather than a guessed one, which is the entire point of doing it this way round.

Change one thing, the month, and watch it move. The same boat in May often needs one fewer day on the road, because there is more legal daylight to use, and one fewer day is one fewer day of everything. That single fact is why when you go is a cost question and not only a convenience one.

What this state adds

• The yards cluster, and so does the calendar. Mystic, Noank, Essex, Old Saybrook, Branford, Norwalk and Stamford all haul out inside the same few weeks. That is good for you if you are looking for somebody already working the coast that week, and bad for you if you leave the yard slot until October.
• Getting out of the state is the fiddly leg. I-95 through the shoreline towns is not a wide load’s favourite road, and the route on your permit may take her inland before it takes her south. That is the permit’s decision rather than the driver’s.
• A shared window is a real saving. Because so many boats leave the same water in the same fortnight, a driver already making the run for one owner may take yours in the same week for less than a trip made specially. Asking costs nothing.
• Rhode Island and the Sound are the same market. The people who work Connecticut work Narragansett Bay and the north shore of Long Island too, so widen the search past the state line if the calendar is tight.

The rest of it

• Is it cheaper to hire a driver or a transport company? For an owner who already has a truck and a trailer that fits her, hiring a driver is usually cheaper, because you are buying days rather than equipment. If you own no trailer, buying or renting one for a single move rarely beats a carrier who already owns one. They are different products and the honest comparison is against the same list of lines, not headline against headline. The hired driver arrangement is set out here.
• How far ahead should I book? August for a fall run. Drivers and captains who work this corridor commit their windows by the end of August, and after that you are hoping for a cancellation rather than choosing between people. The yard slots go at about the same time.
• Does the month change the price? Yes, and by more than owners expect. A November run is normally three days on the road where a May run is often two, because a permitted load only travels in daylight and there is less of it in November. One fewer day is one fewer day of the driver, the lodging and the fuel stop.
• What if the boat is over 12 feet wide? Then permits and escorts stop being a formality and start being a real line, and in several states at once. Past a certain beam a road move stops being the cheaper option at all, which is when owners start pricing a captain instead. What the permits actually govern.