A dealer trade is the one vehicle movement that never gets priced. The unit is already yours, the customer is already sitting in the showroom, and there are two people on the lot who can go and get it. So they go and get it. Nobody writes the trip down anywhere.
We measured ten realistic regional dealer trades — actual driving distances and actual driving times, not map estimates. The short version: on six of the ten, driving the car yourself costs more than a full eight-hour day of staff time, and that is before anyone hits traffic.
Why does the cost of a dealer trade stay invisible?
Because it never lands on the deal. The truck you don't hire is a line item; the two employees you send are already on payroll, so the trip shows up as a slow afternoon rather than a cost. The vehicle picks up mileage that nobody logs against the unit, and the risk sits with whoever is holding the keys.
None of that makes a drive-away wrong. It makes it unmeasured, which is a different problem — you cannot compare an option you have never costed. So here is the arithmetic.
What does a drive-away actually cost in staff hours?
The usual arrangement is two employees in a chase car: both drive out, one brings the traded unit back, the other brings the chase car back. That is two people making a round trip, so the labour is four times the one-way driving time, not one times it.
Below are ten dealer trades between neighbouring markets. Road miles and driving hours are measured driving routes between the two markets — the same routing data behind every distance on this site — not straight lines across a map.
| Trade lane | Road miles | One-way drive | Staff hours if you drive it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas → Fort Worth, TX | 32 mi | 0.7 hr | 2.7 hr |
| Los Angeles → Riverside, CA | 55 mi | 1.1 hr | 4.6 hr |
| Denver → Colorado Springs, CO | 69 mi | 1.3 hr | 5.4 hr |
| Chicago → Milwaukee, WI | 89 mi | 1.9 hr | 7.5 hr |
| Philadelphia → Baltimore, MD | 97 mi | 2.2 hr | 8.7 hr |
| Phoenix → Tucson, AZ | 113 mi | 2.0 hr | 8.2 hr |
| Atlanta → Chattanooga, TN | 118 mi | 2.2 hr | 8.9 hr |
| Charlotte → Raleigh, NC | 164 mi | 3.3 hr | 13.1 hr |
| Houston → San Antonio, TX | 195 mi | 3.5 hr | 14.0 hr |
| Miami → Orlando, FL | 234 mi | 4.4 hr | 17.6 hr |
The median trade in that set is 105 road miles and just over two hours of driving each way — which cashes out at about eight and a half staff hours. A Miami-to-Orlando trade costs 17.6 staff hours: two people, most of a day each, for one car.
Two things that table does not include, both of which push the real number up. The driving times are free-flow — no rush hour, no fuel stop, no twenty minutes at each rooftop finding the keys and signing for the unit. And the odometer cost is separate: the traded vehicle covers the return leg, so it arrives with exactly the road-miles column added to it, permanently.
Why is the map estimate always optimistic?
Because dealers estimate trades off the map, and the road is never the map. We hold 166,225 measured driving routes connecting the 545 auction locations on this site to 305 US markets, which is a large enough sample to say something firm about how road distance behaves at different lengths:
| Route length | Median effective speed | Road miles per map mile |
|---|---|---|
| Under 25 miles | 36.7 mph | 1.27× |
| 25–250 miles (trade range) | 49.3 mph | 1.18× |
| Over 700 miles | 55.7 mph | 1.17× |
Short runs are the inefficient ones. Under 25 miles the median route runs at 36.7 mph and the road is 27% longer than the straight line — surface streets, lights, no highway to get onto. The intuition that a cross-town trade is quick because it is close is the wrong way round: it is the least efficient mile-for-mile driving your staff will do all week.
The map error compounds on the longer trades. Charlotte to Raleigh looks like 130 miles on a map and is 164 miles of road — 34 miles and roughly forty minutes that were never in anyone's estimate, each way.
What are the three costs that never reach the trade sheet?
Staff hours. Covered above, and it is the big one. Six of these ten trades cost more than a working day of somebody's time, and dealer trades happen because a customer is waiting — which means the people you send are usually the people who were selling.
Odometer miles. Permanent, and the customer sees them at delivery. On a new unit this is the cost dealers regret most: the car is delivered with a few hundred miles on it, and the conversation about why is one you have to have standing next to the vehicle. How added miles affect in-service date and warranty start varies by manufacturer, so check your own franchise terms rather than a rule of thumb.
Road risk. Every mile driven is exposure — stone chips, glass, weather, and the possibility of a collision on your own plate. A unit that travels on a carrier is being transported rather than driven, and it moves under that carrier's cargo insurance. A unit your salesperson drives back through 164 miles of interstate does not.
When is driving it yourself still the right call?
Often. This is not an argument that every trade belongs on a truck:
- Genuinely short hops. Under about 30 miles, a drive-away is two or three staff hours and a handful of odometer miles. Dallas to Fort Worth is 32 miles and 2.7 staff hours — that is a reasonable trade to drive.
- Used inventory where miles are noise. Adding 60 miles to a car that already shows 48,000 changes nothing about how it retails.
- You have the people standing idle. A slow Tuesday with spare staff is a genuinely different calculation from a Saturday with a full floor.
- The trade is reciprocal and same-day. If two units are swapping in both directions, one trip moves both cars and the arithmetic halves.
When should a dealer trade go on a truck?
- Over about 100 miles. That is where the staff cost crosses a full day and stops being absorbable.
- New inventory, or anything already reconditioned to show condition. The miles and the road risk both land directly on what the customer is about to look at.
- More than one unit. A "trade" that is really three or four cars is a load, not an errand, and it moves in one trip.
- Across state lines. Philadelphia to Baltimore or Atlanta to Chattanooga adds plate and permit questions to a trip that was already a full day.
- When the floor is busy. The whole point of a trade is that somebody is buying today. Sending two of your sellers away for eight hours to service one deal is a strange way to protect it.
How does dealer trade transport actually work?
It is a single-unit or small-lot move between two known addresses, which is the easiest kind of job to run well and the easiest to run repeatedly. The vehicle is operable, so it loads on a standard open carrier in minutes. Both ends are dealerships with staff on site, paperwork already in order, and predictable receiving hours — a very different problem from collecting a unit from an auction yard against a gate release, which we covered in Manheim to dealership transport.
What matters on your side is short: both addresses with their receiving hours, the VIN and stock number, who signs at each end, and whether anything is going back the other way. Give us the return leg if there is one — a reciprocal trade priced as two separate moves is money thrown away.
On cost, we deliberately do not print a number here that would be stale in a month. Regional moves price on a per-mile rate applied to the real driving distance, which is the same arithmetic we broke down in how much it costs to ship a car from an auction, and the current market ranges are published every week in the Dealer Lane Report. Compare whatever that comes to against the staff-hours column above, not against zero — the drive-away was never free, it was just never counted.
We run dealer moves nationwide and the arrangements we set up most often are on our dealer transport page.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to ship a dealer trade or drive it?
It depends almost entirely on distance, because a drive-away costs four times the one-way driving time in staff hours — two people, each making a round trip. Across ten measured regional trades, the median came to about eight and a half staff hours, and six of the ten exceeded a full eight-hour day. Under roughly 30 miles, driving it is usually the sensible call; past about 100 miles the labour cost alone is normally the larger number, before the added odometer miles and road risk are counted at all.
How many miles does a dealer trade add to the vehicle?
Exactly the one-way road distance, because the traded unit only covers the return leg. That is measured road miles, not map miles — a Charlotte-to-Raleigh trade that looks like 130 miles on a map is 164 miles of actual road. On a new vehicle those miles are permanent and visible to the customer at delivery, and the effect on in-service date and warranty start varies by manufacturer, so check your franchise terms.
How long does dealer trade transport take?
Most regional trades are a next-day or two-day move once a truck is assigned, since both ends are dealerships with normal business hours rather than yards with gate releases. The binding constraint is usually scheduling rather than driving time — the routes in this post are all under five hours behind the wheel. Tell us your receiving hours at both ends when you book and the move is planned around them.
Can you move more than one vehicle in a dealer trade?
Yes, and it is where the economics improve sharpest. Two dealerships trading several units, or a group rebalancing inventory between rooftops, is a single load with one trip and one set of paperwork rather than several errands. If units are moving in both directions, say so — a reciprocal trade should be priced as one job, not two.
Do you need the title to move a dealer trade vehicle?
No. Transport moves against the vehicle and the paperwork releasing it, not against the title, so a trade can ship while the title work is still in progress between the two stores. What the carrier needs is the VIN, both addresses, and an authorised person to sign at each end. Your own ability to retail the unit does depend on the title, so it is worth confirming where it stands while the move is being arranged rather than a week later.
Got a trade to move this week? Get a free AutoMove quote in about two minutes. Give us both rooftops and we'll price the exact lane — then put it next to the staff hours and decide with a real number on both sides.