Disclaimer. None of these scores are calculated live. We’re using data acquired at the time of performing the research
The formula
We take google reviews scores at their face value. Number of reviews for every company is statistically significant enough not to assign any weights to businesses individually. In formula, it’s marked as “GR”. Then we add the “pricing score” (PS). In it, there are considerations of price and price related complaints to the Better Business Bureau. Considerations such as underquoting (final cost being higher than quote) and making some kind of payment but not receiving it. This score having both price and public feedback, in our opinion, is the most significant. So, we add a weight of 1.5 to it. Last element of our grading formula is a “complaints ratio score” (CRS) percentage ratio of the last 12 months of Better Business Bureau complaints to the total number of BBB reviews on each respective company’s profile. We have added a lot of weight to some of the most common complaints in the pricing score. So, we added a weight of -0.5 to complaints. Made that weight negative to deduct the score from the sum of the first 2.
Final formula is following:
Final Score = GR+PS*1.5-CRS*0.5
To assign a grade, we gave the top company a grade of 10, and calculated the rest of the scores as percentage of that top company’s score and translated it to grade, by calculating the percentage of that top company’s grade 10.
Google reviews
| Company | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sherpa Auto Transport | 4.8 | 1,718 |
| Montway Auto Transport | 4.7 | 15,232 |
| AmeriFreight Car Transport | 4.7 | 3,471 |
| Easy Auto Ship | 4.6 | 3,890 |
| American Auto Shipping | 4.6 | 896 |
Pricing Score
We requested quotes for a large SUV shipping about 1,200 miles. All the companies are providing services in covered and uncovered trailers. Covered trailer quotes came in within the $1,489- 1,707 range. In the grand scheme of things, It’s not such a huge difference. Uncovered trailer transportation is the most popular option out there. Also, it had the largest range in pricing quotes. For these reasons, we’ve excluded covered trailer option quotes from our pricing score.
2 additional criteria we used in calculation are:
- Ratio of underquoting to total number of Better Business Bureau complaints available for reading on their website.
- Ratio of complaints mentioning some sort of payment and never receiving a service to the total number of Better Business Bureau complaints available for reading on their website.
Company with the lowest quote for online payment (OP) received a score of 10. Then, we calculated the percentage increase for each company and subtracted it from that score of 10. Here are quotes and scores derived from that data alone.
| Company | Quote | Score |
|---|---|---|
| AmeriFreight Car Transport | $849 | 10 |
| American Auto Shipping | $909 | 9.3 |
| Sherpa Auto Transport | $1,050 | 8 |
| Montway Auto Transport | $1,149 | 8.8 |
| Easy Auto Ship | $1,241 | 8.3 |
As mentioned before, just a low quote doesn’t mean that this would be the amount you pay. So, we took a look at complaints. For every underquoting complaint ratio (UQ) above 5%, we subtracted 3 points. For every ratio of payment made but services not rendered (NS) above 20%, we subtracted 3 points. And for every ratio of payment made but services not rendered above 10% and below 20% we subtracted 1.5 points. Here are these ratios for each company. We’re using numbers acquired at the date of the research. Number of reviews is under the “RN” column.
| Company | UQ | NS | RN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sherpa Auto Transport | 0% | 0% | 469 |
| Montway Auto Transport | 1.28% | 13.33% | 2269 |
| American Auto Shipping | 0% | 75% | 377 |
| Easy Auto Ship | 5.26% | 5.26 | 703 |
| AmeriFreight Car Transport | 17.65% | 60% | 502 |
Final Pricing Score
| Company | Score |
|---|---|
| Sherpa Auto Transport | 8 |
| American Auto Shipping | 6.3 |
| Montway Auto Transport | 5.8 |
| AmeriFreight Car Transport | 4.0 |
| Easy Auto Ship | 3.8 |
Better Business Bureau complaint ratio
As mentioned before, we took each company’s ratio of last 12 months’ Better Business Bureau complaints to the number of their reviews and added a weight of 0.5.
| Company | Score | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sherpa Auto Transport | 1 | 0.21% | -0.105 |
| Easy Auto Ship | 12 | 1.71% | -0.855 |
| AmeriFreight Car Transport | 12 | 2.39% | -1.195 |
| American Auto Shipping | 12 | 3.18 | -1.59 |
| Montway Auto Transport | 75 | 3.31% | -1.655 |
Final Calculations
Individual Scores:
- Google Reviews (GR)
- Pricing Score (PS)
- Better Business Bureau Score (BBB)
| Company | GR | PS | BBB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sherpa Auto Transport | 4.8 | 8 | -0.105 |
| American Auto Shipping | 4.6 | 6.3 | -1.59 |
| Montway Auto Transport | 4.7 | 5.8 | -1.655 |
| AmeriFreight Car Transport | 4.7 | 4.0 | -1.195 |
| Easy Auto Ship | 4.6 | 3.8 | -0.855 |
Final Grade
| Company | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Sherpa Auto Transport | 12.70 | 10 |
| American Auto Shipping | 9.31 | 7.3 |
| Montway Auto Transport | 8.85 | 7.0 |
| Easy Auto Ship | 7.55 | 5.9 |
| AmeriFreight Car Transport | 7.51 | 5.9 |