2,100-2,500
MILES, DEPENDING ON ENDPOINTS
5-8
DAYS IN TRANSIT, TYPICAL
$1,100-$1,500
OPEN TRANSPORT, BY SEASON
Key Takeaways
Typical cost: $1,100-$1,500 for open transport on a standard sedan, either direction. Enclosed typically adds 40-60 percent. Oversized SUVs and trucks price toward the top of the range.
Transit time: 5-8 days door to door across 2,200-2,400 miles, depending on endpoints.
A southern lane, not a mountain lane: I-40 to I-20, or I-10 to I-20 from Northern California, stays below the snow line the whole way. Transit times hold steadier year-round here than on the northern transcontinental routes, and there are no pass closures to plan around.
Atlanta is the Southeast carrier hub: terminals ring I-285 and move freight in every direction daily, which is why metro pickup and delivery windows run 1-3 days and an Atlanta endpoint usually beats Savannah or Augusta by a day.
Westbound is the value direction: Georgia takes in more West Coast freight than it sends back, so carriers discount westbound loads rather than deadhead to California. Film and television production traffic between the Atlanta soundstages and Los Angeles keeps that capacity turning over year-round.
Process: A dedicated coordinator assigns a vetted, insured carrier; you pay nothing until a driver is assigned, and GPS tracking covers the whole run.
The Southern Corridor: I-40 to I-20
California to Georgia runs almost entirely below the snow line, and that is the defining feature of the lane. Carriers pick up I-40 out of Barstow, cross Arizona, New Mexico, and the Texas panhandle, then drop through Arkansas onto I-20 at Birmingham for the last leg into Atlanta. Loads originating in the Bay Area and Sacramento often take I-10 through Phoenix and El Paso instead, joining I-20 in Texas, which adds roughly 200 miles.
Because neither routing climbs a pass that closes, transit times on this corridor stay steadier through the winter than they do on the northern transcontinental lanes. Delays here come from Gulf systems and spring storm lines across the Deep South, and they are usually measured in hours rather than days.
Both directions of this lane behave differently, and we price them differently.
Shipping East: California to Georgia
Eastbound runs $1,200-$1,500 for open transport on a standard sedan through most of the year, easing toward $1,100-$1,300 in mid-winter when relocation volume thins. Atlanta absorbs most of the freight: it is the largest carrier hub in the Southeast, with terminals ringing I-285 and daily capacity in every direction. That density is why an Atlanta delivery usually beats a Savannah or Augusta delivery by a day or more. Los Angeles, San Diego, and Bay Area pickups dispatch within 1-3 days. Summer is the peak, driven by corporate relocations into the metro and by production crews moving vehicles between the Los Angeles and Atlanta studio markets.
Shipping West: Georgia to California
Westbound is the value direction on this corridor. Georgia sits at the receiving end of a heavy eastbound flow from the West Coast, which leaves carriers hunting for westbound loads rather than deadheading back to California. That imbalance holds westbound pricing at $1,100-$1,400 for most of the year. Georgia’s film and television industry contributes steadily here as well: vehicles shuttle between the Atlanta soundstages and the Los Angeles market on production schedules rather than on the moving calendar, so westbound capacity turns over year-round instead of clustering in summer. Pickups outside the Atlanta metro, from Savannah, Augusta, Columbus, or Macon, add a day to the window.
Popular City Pairs on This Lane
- Los Angeles to Atlanta - 2,175 miles, 5-7 days
- San Diego to Atlanta - 2,130 miles, 5-7 days
- San Francisco to Atlanta - 2,470 miles, 6-8 days
- Sacramento to Atlanta - 2,440 miles, 6-8 days
- Los Angeles to Savannah - 2,420 miles, 6-8 days
