October is arrival month, April is departure month. What 250 Sarasota-area car shipments show about who comes, when they leave, and what shipping costs.

Every October the same question comes up at dinner tables from Long Island to Lake Forest. We are heading to Sarasota for the winter. Do we drive, or do we ship the car?

At SAKAEM Logistics we arrange vehicle transport for people who choose the second option. Since 2022 we have handled more than 3,400 shipments into and out of Florida, and about 250 of them started or ended in the Sarasota and Bradenton area, from Longboat Key down to Venice and North Port. Those order records say more about who Sarasota's seasonal residents are, where they come from, and how they move than any survey we have seen.

October is arrival month

Statewide, cars come into Florida at a steady pace all year. Miami, Orlando, and Jacksonville are relocation and job-transfer markets, and they do not care what month it is.

Sarasota is different. In our records, October is the busiest month of the year for vehicles arriving in the Sarasota area, with roughly one in six of all inbound shipments. December is second, January third. The winter-resident pattern is plainly visible here in a way it is not in the bigger metros. The one exception is a bump in May, which is when families relocating for good tend to move, once the school year is done.

Where the cars come from

New York sends more cars to Sarasota than any other state, sharing the top spot with California. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey follow, and together the Northeast accounts for about a third of all vehicles arriving here. The Midwest block of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Minnesota adds roughly another sixth.

The California traffic is not seasonal. Those are people trading one coast for the other for good, and they arrive in every month. The Northeast traffic is the snowbird corridor, and it has a rhythm. Shipments from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut into Florida peak in October at more than three times their February low.

April is departure month, and nobody leaves in November

 

The return leg is even more concentrated. April alone accounts for nearly a quarter of all vehicles leaving the Sarasota area, with March close behind. September and November are almost empty. In four and a half years of records, we moved exactly two cars out of the area in each of those months.

That matters if you are planning the trip north. Statewide, outbound shipments in March and April run more than double the November volume, and the trucks heading from Florida toward the Northeast and the upper Midwest fill up fast. In our records the spring return leg costs about 10 to 15 percent more than the same lane southbound in the fall, and the gap is widest on the long hauls to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

The practical advice is simple. If you plan to ship the car home in April, book it in February or early March. That gives a broker time to find a truck at a normal rate rather than paying a premium for a last-minute slot in the busiest month of the year.

What it costs to get a car to Sarasota

 

Distance sets the price. For a standard sedan on an open trailer, our recent orders from the Northeast into the Sarasota area have run $950 to $1,200. From Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, or Minnesota, expect $875 to $1,050. An enclosed trailer, the right choice for a collector car or a new luxury vehicle, adds 50 to 60 percent.

The New York corridor is the busiest one we run into Florida, and that works in the customer's favor. Trucks make the Interstate 95 run every day of the week, so car shipping between New York and Florida is usually picked up within one to three business days and takes three to five days on the road. A driver leaving Westchester on a Monday is typically in Sarasota by the weekend.

Fall arrivals get the best of it. Trucks are coming into Florida with space in October and November, and inbound pricing then is some of the most predictable of the year.

Three things Sarasota winter residents should know

 

First, a 75-foot transport truck cannot get into most gated communities, and it will not fit down the streets on Siesta Key or Longboat Key. The handoff usually happens at the community entrance, a nearby shopping center, or a wide street near the bridge. Tell the broker up front and they will plan for it.

Second, the fall shipping season overlaps with hurricane season, which runs through the end of November. A named storm anywhere along Interstate 95 can hold a truck for a day or two. Build a few days of slack into the plan and do not book the car to arrive the same day you do.

Third, the car does not have to travel empty. Most carriers allow up to about 100 pounds of belongings in the trunk at no charge, which covers golf clubs and a couple of suitcases. Beyond that the driver will charge extra or ask you to remove it, because a fully loaded car puts the truck over its weight limit.

SAKAEM Logistics is a licensed auto transport broker based in the Atlanta area. We do not own the trucks. We match each shipment with a vetted carrier from a nationwide pool, verify the insurance, handle the paperwork, and stay on the phone until the car is in the driveway. We have been doing it since 2017, and the Northeast-to-Sarasota run every October is one of the most reliable weeks on our calendar.