In the auto transport industry, there are two types of companies: auto transporters and auto brokerages. Auto transporters are the companies who have the trucks that actually move your vehicle. Auto brokerages are the companies who compile all the paperwork and handle most of the money during transport. Brokerages, when it comes to auto transporters, are incredibly useful as they are able to utilize the brokerages to find customers on the routes that they run. Conversely, brokerages can utilize their relationships that they build with auto transporters to find carriers on routes that are not often traveled by customers.

Auto transporters and brokerages utilize a program called Central Dispatch to organize and find loads. Brokerages can go ahead and essentially post loads on a load board that auto transporters can then search through and find the ones that they want to take. In the auto transport industry, vehicles moving depends mainly on the auto transporters – brokerages can't move vehicles. Known colloquially as trucker economics, it keeps the balance of power between the brokerages and the auto transporters fairly even, as auto transporters, while not able to actively set the prices, have to follow what the customers are willing to pay for transport as compared to their overhead.

Most auto transporters work year around, but there are many that only work during the summer months. This is because during the summer months customers are moving in larger numbers during the winter months, especially when it comes to moving across the country. During the winter months, routes are generally less traveled as less people are actually moving. Routes from New England down to Florida are relatively common during the winter, as people tend to travel down to Florida to escape from the New England winters. People who routinely do this are called snow birds, an homage to the birds who fly south for the winter.

Auto transporters are mandated by the federal government through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to carry a minimum of $750,000 worth of insurance on their loads. This is to protect both the customer and the carrier in case of damage, as the carrier's insurance can easily figure out when damage has occurred and also to gauge how much it would cost to fix and all that good stuff. Many auto transporters insure their trucks for $1 million or more in case of a complete catastrophe such as a rollover or a tornado. If you have questions as to insurance and the like, be sure to ask your auto transport brokerage how much insurance the auto transporters they use have and how the process of getting their damages fixed by the auto transporters insurance works.