Big Apple Car Shipping arranges car shipping from Brooklyn out of an office at 1517 Voorhies Ave #1990 in Sheepshead Bay, a block from the Emmons Ave waterfront and a short walk from the Sheepshead Bay station on the B and Q. We are an FMCSA-licensed broker, so we book your vehicle onto a vetted open or enclosed carrier and manage the pickup, the transit and the delivery, door to door, anywhere in the lower 48.
Brooklyn auto transport has its own rules. A carrier cannot use the Belt Parkway, Ocean Parkway or the Prospect Expressway, the BQE is under permanent repair, and most of the borough has no driveways. That changes where a truck can stop and how a pickup gets planned, and it is the reason a local dispatcher matters more here than almost anywhere else we work. Below is how we actually move cars out of Kings County, from Brighton Beach to Greenpoint.
Pickups across South Brooklyn, from Sheepshead Bay to Bay Ridge
Most of our Brooklyn volume comes from the south end of the borough: Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, Homecrest, Midwood, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, Canarsie, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge. These neighborhoods sit closer to legal truck roads than the rest of Brooklyn, and many blocks here have driveways or at least a curb a nine-car hauler can reach without blocking a bus stop.
Where a 75-foot rig cannot get down your street, we set a meeting point a few minutes away. The ones our drivers use most:
- The Kings Plaza lot at Flatbush Ave and Avenue U, the easiest handoff for Marine Park, Mill Basin and Bergen Beach.
- Ceasar's Bay shopping center on Bay Parkway at the Belt, serving Bensonhurst, Gravesend and Bath Beach.
- The Coney Island lots off Surf Ave, nearly empty from October through April.
- The Gateway Center at Spring Creek for Canarsie, East New York and Starrett City.
- The edge of Floyd Bennett Field along Flatbush Ave before the Marine Parkway Bridge.
- Our own stretch of Voorhies Ave and Emmons Ave in Sheepshead Bay, where you can hand over keys a block from the office.
Home Depot lots in Mill Basin and on Hamilton Ave also work when the driver is already routing that way.
How a car carrier actually gets in and out of Kings County
Brooklyn's parkways were built for cars only. The Belt Parkway, Ocean Parkway and the Prospect Expressway all ban commercial trucks, and the Belt has overpasses low enough to peel the roof off a hauler that tries. So a carrier coming for your car is almost always on the BQE, I-278, which is narrow, pitted and under lane restrictions along the cantilever in Brooklyn Heights, or on the Gowanus Expressway stretch toward the Verrazzano. From there drivers work the surface arterials that can legally take a truck: Flatbush Ave, Kings Highway, Linden Blvd, Atlantic Ave, Coney Island Ave and Ocean Ave.
Trucks arriving from New Jersey or Staten Island cross the Verrazzano and pay a steep multi-axle toll, which is baked into every Brooklyn quote. The Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges all carry weight or height limits, so a loaded hauler does not come in from Manhattan. In practice this means a Brooklyn pickup is usually scheduled as the first or last stop on a run up I-95, and the driver wants a meeting point within a few turns of the BQE or Flatbush Ave rather than deep inside a residential grid. Give us a flexible two-day pickup window and the truck lines up far faster.
Brownstone Brooklyn: why we meet at a lot instead of your stoop
Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights are beautiful for walking and brutal for a tractor-trailer. Blocks are one lane each way, lined with double-parked cars, protected bike lanes and alternate-side signs that put the truck in a ticket zone the moment it stops. Private driveways are rare, and a hauler cannot pull onto a sidewalk apron to load.
For these neighborhoods we almost never attempt a curbside pickup. Instead the driver meets you at the Brooklyn Army Terminal or Industry City on the Sunset Park waterfront, both minutes off the Gowanus with wide loading lanes, or at the Home Depot lot on Hamilton Ave by the Gowanus Canal. For Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick we use big-box lots along the Kent Ave and McGuinness Blvd corridors, or push the handoff to a Queens-side spot just over the Pulaski Bridge. If your car lives in a paid garage, tell us the address and attendant hours; most Brooklyn garages will release to a carrier with a signed authorization, and some will let the driver stage in their lane if the manager is warned ahead.
Who ships a car from Brooklyn, and where it goes
Brooklyn has a handful of shipping corridors that we see every week.
- Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay to South Florida. The Russian-speaking and Central Asian community has a well-worn path to Sunny Isles, Hallandale and Aventura, and we move a steady stream of sedans and SUVs down that route for retirees and families splitting the year.
- Borough Park and Midwood to Lakewood, Deal and Miami. Orthodox families moving between communities or heading south for the winter, often with a second car nobody wants to drive down the Turnpike.
- Fort Hamilton PCS moves. The post in Bay Ridge is the only active Army installation in New York City, and soldiers rotating out get scheduling built around their report date and the paperwork their transportation office asks for.
- Students and staff at Brooklyn College, Kingsborough Community College on the Manhattan Beach peninsula, NYU Tandon in Downtown Brooklyn, Pratt in Clinton Hill, and the hospital campuses at SUNY Downstate, Maimonides and NYU Langone Brooklyn in Sunset Park.
- Used-car buyers on the Coney Island Ave dealer row and importers around Red Hook and Sunset Park who need vehicles moved to customers out of state.
- Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents relocating to Los Angeles, often with a car that has lived in a garage and deserves an enclosed trailer.
Open or enclosed for Brooklyn auto transport
Open carriers handle most Brooklyn auto transport and are the right call for a daily-driver Camry, CR-V or Odyssey going to Florida or Texas. The car rides exposed, the same as it would on the BQE, and arrives dusty but fine.
Enclosed makes sense here more often than in the suburbs because so many Brooklyn cars are garage-kept and have never seen a winter on the street. If you have a Porsche in a Williamsburg garage, a restored Mercedes in Dyker Heights or anything you bought new and babied, the enclosed surcharge of roughly 40 to 60 percent buys a hard-sided trailer, a liftgate for low ground clearance and a driver who moves four to six cars instead of nine. Enclosed trucks are also shorter, which matters on Brooklyn's streets and sometimes lets us get closer to your door.
Sending a car overseas from Brooklyn: the port leg
A lot of Brooklyn residents ship cars abroad, to Russia and Central Asia from Brighton Beach, to Israel from Borough Park, to the Caribbean and West Africa from Flatbush and Canarsie, and to Poland from Greenpoint. We handle the domestic leg only: picking up your car anywhere in the borough and delivering it to the Red Hook container terminal off Van Brunt St or, far more often, to Port Newark across the harbor, where most roll-on roll-off and container loads out of New York actually sail.
Your international forwarder handles the booking, customs and the ocean leg. We coordinate the delivery window with them so the car is not sitting at the terminal accruing storage. Call (929) 209-2194 with your forwarder's drop instructions and we will quote the port run.
Where we pick up around Brooklyn
Door-to-door service covers these communities from the Brooklyn office, along with the rest of Kings County. If you do not see your town, the quote tool prices any ZIP code.
Popular routes from Brooklyn
Typical prices for a running mid-size sedan on an open carrier, booked about a week ahead. Enclosed trailers, oversized vehicles and peak-season dates run higher; the quote tool gives you the exact number.
| Route | Transit | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn to Miami, FL | 3–4 days | from$649 |
| Brooklyn to Orlando, FL | 3–4 days | from$629 |
| Brooklyn to Los Angeles, CA | 7–10 days | from$1,399 |
| Brooklyn to Houston, TX | 5–7 days | from$999 |
| Brooklyn to Charlotte, NC | 2–3 days | from$549 |
| Brooklyn to Atlanta, GA | 3–4 days | from$649 |
| Brooklyn to Chicago, IL | 3–5 days | from$699 |
| Brooklyn to Phoenix, AZ | 7–9 days | from$1,249 |
Questions from Brooklyn customers
Can a car carrier pick up on my block in Park Slope or Carroll Gardens?
Usually not at the curb. Brownstone blocks are too narrow for a 75-foot hauler and the driver risks a ticket the moment he stops in a bike lane or alternate-side zone. We set a meeting point a short drive away, typically Industry City, the Brooklyn Army Terminal or the Hamilton Ave Home Depot, and you hand over the keys there. It adds ten minutes and saves a day of rescheduling.
Why is a Brooklyn quote a bit higher than one from New Jersey?
The truck has to cross the Verrazzano and pay the multi-axle toll, then burn an hour or two on the BQE to reach you, because the Belt and Ocean Parkway are off limits to commercial vehicles. Carriers price that time into Brooklyn loads. The difference is usually modest on a Florida or Texas run, and a flexible pickup window narrows it further.
How long does it take to ship a car from Brighton Beach to Sunny Isles or Hallandale?
Three to four days on the truck once it is loaded, straight down I-95. Add one to three days for the carrier to reach Brooklyn after you book. Most of our Brighton Beach customers meet the driver at Ceasar's Bay or the Coney Island lots rather than on Brighton Beach Ave, which is far too congested for a hauler. Deliveries in Sunny Isles go to a lot near the building.
My car is in a paid garage near Kings Highway. How does the pickup work?
Give us the garage address, the attendant hours and a contact name. We send the garage a signed release and the driver's name, and the attendant brings the car out when the truck arrives. The hauler stages on Kings Highway or a side street, loads, and leaves. You do not need to be there if the garage has your authorization and the paperwork is settled in advance.
I am PCSing out of Fort Hamilton. What do you need from me?
Your report date, your destination installation and whether you are shipping one car or two. Fort Hamilton sits in Bay Ridge a few blocks off the Gowanus, so pickup is simple: the driver meets you near the Fourth Ave side of the post or at Industry City. We provide a bill of lading and a receipt in the format most transportation offices accept for reimbursement.