Shipping a motorcycle means booking a transporter or a freight carrier to move it strapped or crated on a trailer, because a whole bike sits far outside what UPS, FedEx or USPS carry as a package. The steps below are the ones that actually change the outcome: which transport type, whether the bike runs, how it is prepped, and what happens at each end of the trip.
Most bikes travel on an open or enclosed trailer rather than inside a crate, which is what separates this from an ordinary parcel booking.
Our own motorcycle cost guide put a crated 650cc bike through the checkout on a real lane and got back zero parcel rates, because the crate broke both the weight ceiling and the girth limit UPS publishes for a package. That result holds for any complete motorcycle: the machine has to move as freight, priced by a transporter against the specific trip rather than pulled off a parcel rate table. Everything that follows is about getting that freight booking right.
Distance sets the price, but not in a straight line. A1 Auto Transport's page, read 2026-08-26, puts short-haul pricing around 0.35 to 0.70 USD a mile and long-distance pricing around 0.25 to 0.50 USD a mile, which is why a coast-to-coast move costs far more in total but far less per mile than a trip across one state line.
Per-mile pricing is at its worst here, since a truck still has to come to your driveway and a second leg still has to reach the far end. Our cost guide puts the point where a transporter starts clearly winning at somewhere near 300 miles.
The pickup and delivery legs cost about the same whether the middle is 200 miles or 2,000, so this band carries them across the fewest miles. Even so, a transporter usually comes out ahead of renting a truck and a ramp once fuel, tolls and a day of your own time go into the column.
The per-mile rate drops, but the total is the highest on the table and the delivery window stretches to days rather than hours. Book early enough that a tight moving date is not riding on one truck's schedule.
A bike crated and moved as LTL freight instead of on a dedicated bike trailer is priced differently again, by density and class rather than a flat per-mile figure — our cost guide walks through what that looked like on a real quote attempt.
A truck cannot drive there. The bike travels on an ocean carrier as a vehicle booking, with its own dimension limits and prep rules — our motorcycle to Hawaii guide covers what changes.
The border adds an import step before a carrier ever matters. Our motorcycle to Canada guide covers the clearance requirements read from Canada's own customs memorandum.
Air cargo exists for a motorcycle, but it is a specialist, expensive booking mostly used for international moves rather than a domestic state-to-state trip, and pricing on it is not something a transporter's public rate page states. Send the details through freight review if a truck genuinely will not do it.
Not everything about the move is freight. A boxed part, a helmet, or riding gear drops back under a parcel carrier's limits the moment it is off the bike.
What individual components cost as parcels, from a shock absorber to a fairing.
A helmet packs and prices very differently from the bike underneath it.
Turn a crate's dimensions and weight into a class band if it is going LTL.
Send the bike details for a freight review Price a part or accessory
Transporters revise their published rates without notice, and every quote on this page belongs to one company on the date shown. Get a current number from whoever is actually booking the move.
No. A crated or strapped motorcycle is a freight movement, priced by a transporter or a freight carrier rather than bought off a parcel rate table. Weight alone rules out UPS, FedEx and USPS parcel service, which cap out well under what a bike and its crate weigh.
Open transport carries the bike exposed on a trailer alongside other vehicles and costs less. Enclosed transport puts it inside a covered trailer, shielded from weather and road debris, at a real premium. A1 Auto Transport, updated May 6, 2026, lists open transport running roughly 400 to 900 USD against 700 to 1,400 USD for enclosed on the same move.
Yes, a modest amount. A bike that cannot be rolled up a ramp gets loaded with a lift gate, winch or pallet instead, and that extra labor and equipment shows up as a small surcharge, per A1 Auto Transport's motorcycle shipping page, read 2026-08-26.
Mostly by distance, with the rate per mile falling as the trip gets longer. Montway's motorcycle shipping page, read 2026-08-26, names distance, the bike's type, whether pickup or drop-off is residential, and how fast you need it as what moves the number, alongside flat additions like a sidecar surcharge it puts at roughly 200 to 300 USD.
Bring the tank down to no more than a quarter full, which is what A1 Auto Transport's page asks for, take off loose accessories, empty the saddlebags, and tell the transporter plainly whether the bike rolls. Photograph it from all four corners before it leaves your hands, and do the same at delivery before you sign anything.