3,100-3,300
MILES, DEPENDING ON ENDPOINTS
8-11
DAYS IN TRANSIT, TYPICAL
$1,400-$2,000
OPEN TRANSPORT, BY SEASON
Key Takeaways
Typical cost: $1,400-$2,000 for open transport on a standard sedan, either direction. Enclosed typically adds 40-60 percent, about $560-$1,200 on this lane. This is the longest corridor we run between Florida and the West Coast, and price tracks distance more than season.
Transit time: 8-11 days door to door across 3,100-3,300 miles. Coast-to-coast loads are usually multi-stop, so the truck picks up and drops other vehicles along the way.
Seasonality is a moving-season story, not a snowbird one: June through August is the peak, when relocations into the Puget Sound metro and summer household moves compete for the same trucks. Peak pricing runs $1,700-$2,000, off-peak $1,400-$1,700.
Savings tip: Ship September through November or February through April and you are booking into the softest part of the year on this lane. Puget Sound metro endpoints beat eastern Washington by $100-$200 because carrier density on I-5 is far higher.
Process: A dedicated coordinator assigns a vetted, insured carrier, you pay nothing until a driver is assigned, and GPS tracking covers the whole run. Puget Sound pickups usually dispatch within 1-3 days.
Two Ways Across the Country, and Winter Picks One
There is no single interstate between Florida and Washington, so carriers pick between two routings. The northern option leaves Puget Sound on I-90 through Snoqualmie Pass, Spokane, Montana, and the Dakotas to Chicago, then turns south on I-65 and I-75. The southern option runs down I-5 into California and east on I-10 through Phoenix, El Paso, San Antonio, and the Gulf Coast before joining I-75 in Florida. The southern route is longer in miles but open year round.
From roughly December through February, mountain weather takes the northern option off the table for days at a time. Snoqualmie Pass closes or restricts to chains, and the I-90 and I-84 stretches through Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming can shut in a storm. Carriers reroute south, and winter transit lands at the top of the 8-11 day band rather than the bottom.
Both directions of this lane behave differently, and we price them differently.
Shipping West: Florida to Washington
Westbound demand is driven by relocations into the Puget Sound tech and aerospace corridor and by military orders to Joint Base Lewis-McChord. It peaks June through August alongside the national moving season, when open transport runs $1,700-$2,000 and lead times stretch. September through November and February through April are the value windows, with the same move at $1,400-$1,700. Popular drops: Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Everett, Olympia, and Vancouver WA. Spokane and the Tri-Cities add 1-2 days and about $100-$200 because carriers have to come off I-5 density.
Shipping East: Washington to Florida
Eastbound is the quieter half of the lane. The Pacific Northwest sends far fewer snowbirds to Florida than the Midwest or Northeast does, so there is no autumn surge to price around, and rates hold near $1,400-$1,700 for most of the year. Summer is the exception, when the same relocation season that fills westbound trucks also fills eastbound ones, and pricing moves to $1,700-$2,000. Because carriers want a paying load to get back east, an eastbound booking with flexible dates is often the best value on the entire corridor. Popular drops: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Naples, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville.
Popular City Pairs on This Lane
- Seattle to Miami - 3,300 miles, 9-11 days
- Seattle to Orlando - 3,105 miles, 8-10 days
- Tacoma to Tampa - 3,120 miles, 8-11 days
- Bellevue to Fort Lauderdale - 3,270 miles, 9-11 days
- Everett to Jacksonville - 3,135 miles, 8-10 days
