TELL MEL

Tell Mel: Auto transport damaged car, who pays?

Melanie Payne
mapayne@gannett.com

Moves are stressful. So the last thing David Chu needed when he moved from New York to Cape Coral last fall was the mess he found himself in with an auto transport company, and two auto haulers who were supposed to transport his 2002 Dodge Ram and 2013 Nissan Altima from West Babylon, New York, to Cape Coral.

The Dodge Ram damaged in shipping.

Chu contracted with Suncoast Auto Transport Inc. the vehicle transport broker. Suncoast doesn’t haul the cars; it makes the deals to haul the cars, listing on a "national board" the jobs that are available. When Suncoast listed Chu’s vehicles, Gina and D. Car Carrier in New York got the job for $1,200. And Suncoast got its cut for brokering the deal.

Soon after Gina and D. picked up the vehicles, Chu got a call saying the delivery would be delayed. The truck had broken down. Suncoast went back to the national board and hired Steve Geyer’s Transportation in Germantown, Maryland, to pick up the vehicles from Gina and D. at a highway rest stop and carry them the rest of the way.

When the cars arrived in Cape Coral they were damaged. The Nissan’s rear bumper had been banged in and there was a deep scratch on the roof. The Ram had a similar scrape along the roof.

Chu complained to Suncoast. The owner, Jonathan Genereux, told him to file a claim with Gina & D.’s insurance carrier. The adjuster estimated the repairs to be $2,277, less than the company's $2,500 deductible. So Chu was told to collect from Gina and D., the initial hauler. Gina and D.'s owner, Daniel Robergeau, refused to pay. The cars were fine when he gave them to the second company, Geyer's Transportation, he said. So Geyer's insurance should pay the claim.

The Altima damaged in shipping

Geyer's and Gina & D. are both insured by Progressive. It denied the claim against Geyer's saying Gina and D. was at fault.

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I talked to the three company owners and they all agree Mr. Chu shouldn’t have to pay for the repair. But all say that their companies shouldn't either.

Steve Geyer thinks Suncoast should pay. “The broker has a contract. It’s their customer,” Geyer said. He feels sorry for Chu, but his insurance company told him not to pay because it will appear he’s admitting liability.

Robergeau, owner of Gina and D., also said Suncoast should pay. “They should make Mr. Chu whole,” he said. He has offered to pay half of the cost of the repair, but it should go to Suncoast to give to Chu, he said.

Suncoast’s owner Genereux has advised Chu to sue the two haulers in small claims court. When the vehicles were exchanged between the two companies, Geyer’s driver should have filled out a condition report and both haulers should have signed the inspection sheet. If that had been done, there would have been no question when the car was damaged and who was at fault.

Why didn't that happen? Gina  and D.'s Robergeau said he was so distraught over the engine blowing up on his carrier that he forgot about the damage report. Geyer said his drivers saw the vehicles were damaged when they were loading them on the carrier. But when they tried to find Robergeau to sign the report, he wasn’t around and wouldn't answer his phone.

Obviously, one of these haulers is not telling the truth. Someone knows how these vehicles were damaged and under whose watch it happened.

But I have to agree with the haulers on one point. Suncoast should pay for the damage done to Mr. Chu’s car. Then Suncoast’s owner should get reimbursed from one or both of the hauling companies.

On the website for Suncoast, under “Inspections and Insurance,” it reads: “Suncoast Auto Transport is your dependable auto transporter and to help assure we are, we include inspections & insurance when Shipping a Car. … Our driver will thoroughly inspect your vehicle with you at this time to record and maintain the condition of the vehicle. ... All of our drivers have full primary insurance coverage, as it is against the law to transport any vehicle otherwise.”

To me that sounds like Suncoast has its own drivers covered by Suncoast’s insurance. Mr. Chu hired Suncoast to get his cars transported. There’s no reason he should have to duke it out in court with the companies Suncoast procured to do the job.

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