Auto Transport

What it is

Auto Transport is an add-on for companies that arrange vehicle shipping. It adds two working tools and two setup pages to your account:

You reach all four from More›Auto Transport in the left menu. On a phone, open More and pick Auto Transport Estimates or Auto Transport Calculator.

When to use it

• A caller asks what it costs to ship a car from one place to another.
• You want the price, the vehicle details, and the route on one customer-facing page.
• You need the customer to sign a transport agreement and pay a deposit before you book a carrier.
• You want quotes that went quiet to be chased automatically by email or text.
• You want to see how many quotes turned into paid deposits, and which source they came from.

If the job is not a vehicle move, use the regular Estimates page instead.

Before you start

• The add-on has to be switched on for your company. If it is not, Auto Transport will not appear under More in the left menu. Ask your Joby contact to enable it.
• The person using it needs permission. Go to Settings›Team Roles, open the role, and turn on Auto Transport under Industry Modules.
• Add your lead sources first. Go to Settings›Ad Sources. Those names fill the Estimate source dropdown on the calculator and on every estimate, and they drive the source filter on the estimates list.
• Decide your statuses. Go to Settings›Estimate Settings›Statuses. Any status whose Applies to column includes Auto Transport Estimate shows up as a tab and as a status choice on your estimates.
• You need a customer email address to send an estimate. The send button emails the estimate. Without an email address on the estimate, it will not go out.

Step-by-step

1. Price the move

1. Go to More›Auto Transport›Transport Calculator.
2. Under Customer & Source, fill in Customer Phone and pick an Estimate Source. If you are on a live call, the phone number and matching source fill in on their own and you will see an Auto-detected from call badge.
3. Under Pickup Location, choose ZIP Code or City & State and enter it. Do the same under Dropoff Location.
4. Under Vehicle Information, pick the Year, then start typing the Make and Model and choose from the suggestions. Vehicle Type fills itself in from the model; you can change it to Sedan, SUV, Truck, or Van.
5. Answer Is Vehicle Inoperable? — No (Runs & Drives) or Yes (Does Not Run).
6. Click Calculate Price.

Pricing Results then shows Total Price, Deposit, Balance Due on Delivery, Distance, Price/Mile, a confidence note when one is returned, and the two addresses it matched. A route map appears underneath.

2. Turn the price into an estimate

1. Click Create Estimate from Results. The vehicle, both locations, the prices, the distance, the phone number, and the source carry over.
2. Fill in Customer Information: First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone.
3. Check Vehicle Information. Use Add Vehicle if the customer is shipping more than one. Each vehicle has a Year, Make, Model, and Type (Sedan, SUV, Truck, Van, Motorcycle), plus a Vehicle Condition switch that reads Run & Drive or Not Running. Switch it to Not Running and a Reason Not Running list appears — Doesn't Roll, Doesn't Steer, Flat Tire(s), Frame Damage, No Keys, No Tires, or Other.
4. Under Pickup Location and Dropoff Location, finish the address, City, State, and Zip Code, and set Type — Business, Dealer, Private, or Auction. Both Types are required.
5. Set the Pickup Date and Delivery Date under Shipping Dates. Delivery starts five days after pickup; change it to suit the route.
6. Check Pricing. Deposit Amount fills in at half the Total Price if you leave it blank, so always look at it before sending. Distance (miles) fills itself in once both Zip Codes and a vehicle year are in.
7. Optional: add Carrier Information (company name, MC number, DOT number, driver details). The customer sees this on their page once you fill it in. Use Internal Notes for anything the customer should not see.
8. Optional: pick tags and an Estimate source from the row above Customer Information.
9. Click Save & Send to save and email it, or Save as Draft to hold it back.

3. Send it

On Auto Transport Estimates, the paper-plane button on the row sends the estimate by email. It reads Send Estimate on a draft and Resend Estimate after that, and you can press it as often as you need. On a phone the same button is labelled Send or Resend.

The email carries a link to the customer's own estimate page. It can also carry a PDF copy of the estimate when the template you use has Include Estimate PDF turned on.

4. The customer signs and pays

The customer opens the link, reads the estimate, ticks the terms box, signs on the screen, and clicks Approve & Sign Estimate. A pay button then appears for the deposit (or the full amount, if the deposit equals the total) and takes them to a secure card payment page. See What the customer sees.

5. Book the carrier and close it out

1. Once the estimate reaches Paid, a truck button appears on the row. Click it, pick a Shipping Date in the Book Shipping box, and click Book Shipping. The estimate moves to Booked Shipping.
2. Open the estimate and add the assigned carrier under Carrier Information so the customer can see who is collecting the vehicle. Edits save on their own — you will see Saving... next to the title.
3. When the vehicle arrives, click the tick button on the row (Mark as Delivered). The estimate moves to Delivered.

How to check it worked

1. The price calculated. The Pricing Results card fills in and the route map draws. If nothing appears, the year, make, and model are all required.
2. The estimate saved. You land back on Auto Transport Estimates and the new row is at the top with an estimate number.
3. The email went out. A message reads Estimate sent and the status becomes Sent. If it says the email failed, check the customer email address.
4. The customer opened it. The Viewed column fills in with a date and time, and the status changes to Viewed on its own.
5. They signed. The Signed column fills in.
6. They paid. The Paid column fills in, the status becomes Paid, and the payment appears on the Payments page.
7. Check it end to end yourself. Click the open-link button on the row to view the customer's page exactly as they see it.
8. Automations are firing. On More›Auto Transport›Email Automations, the Times Triggered number goes up.

Common mistakes

• No email address on the estimate. The send button emails the customer. Without an email address nothing goes out, no matter how many times you press it.
• Expecting the send button to text. It does not. Set up an automation with Also Send as SMS if you want text messages.
• Not checking the deposit. If you leave Deposit Amount blank it is set to half the total. Always look at it before sending.
• Leaving the pickup or dropoff Type blank. Business, Dealer, Private, or Auction is required on both ends.
• Leaving an estimate as a draft. Save as Draft does not email anyone. Use Save & Send, or send it from the list afterwards.
• Looking for the truck button too early. Book Shipping only appears once the estimate is Paid, and Mark as Delivered only once it is Booked Shipping.
• Moving an estimate to Paid to tidy the list. Paid, Booked Shipping, and Delivered all record the estimate as paid, which throws off your totals.
• Hitting save while editing. An open estimate saves itself as you type — you will see Saving... next to the title. Do not close the tab in the middle of typing a long note.
• Automations with no send limit. Always set Maximum Send Count, and turn on Stop When Status Changes, or a customer who has already booked will keep being chased.
• Too many statuses. Keep one status per real stage of your process and use tags and sub-statuses for the detail. Long status lists make the tabs and the reports hard to trust.
• Filters left on. If estimates look missing, clear the source filter, the date range, and the status tab before assuming something was deleted.