Florida is one of the busiest RV transport markets in the country. Every year, thousands of motorhomes, fifth wheels, and travel trailers move into the state during the fall and back out during the spring. That seasonal demand affects truck availability, scheduling, and pricing far more than most first-time RV owners expect.
Why Florida Is Its Own Problem
Most states have RV traffic. Florida has RV weather. Between the snowbird migration, a dealer network that moves inventory in and out constantly, and hurricane season pushing coaches off the coast on short notice, the demand for RV haulers here swings harder than almost anywhere in the country. A truck that costs one price in August costs a different price in November for the identical route, and nothing about the coach changed. Only the direction everyone else is going changed.
The size of that swing is hard to overstate. Florida's official population estimates don't count snowbirds at all. The state's own demographers exclude seasonal residents by design, and they note that peak populations in many Florida communities run larger than the resident populations they publish. The people whose job is counting Florida have decided the winter number is a different number entirely. Every one of those arrivals needed a way to get here, and a good share of them came on a truck. If you've never done this before, the step-by-step guide to shipping an RV walks the whole sequence in order.
The Snowbird Calendar, and What It Costs You
This is the single most useful thing on this page. Southbound demand builds through fall and peaks around the holidays. Northbound demand peaks in spring. If your move can flex by three weeks in either direction, you can frequently sidestep the peak entirely.
The reason this works is deadhead. When everyone ships south in November, the trucks coming back north are empty, and a carrier would rather take your coach at a soft rate than roll home with nothing. The full mechanics of how per-mile pricing gets built sit in our 2026 RV transport cost guide.
Florida's Legal Size Limits
Before anyone quotes your move, these are the numbers that decide which trucks can legally take it. Florida writes them into statute, and there's one carve-out in there that most RV owners have never heard of.
Height limit
Including the load. That's the coach plus whatever deck sits under it, which is why brochure height is never the number that matters.
Width limit
8 feet 6 inches. Most RVs are built right at this line, which is not a coincidence.
The RV carve-out
Florida allows a noncommercial travel trailer, camper, or motor home to exceed 102 inches if the extra width comes only from appurtenances that don't stick out past the mirrors.
Single-unit length
For a single-unit vehicle. Combinations run on their own limits, and that's the carrier's problem to solve, not yours.
The height number is the one that ends shipments. A 13-foot coach on a 3-foot deck is 16 feet, and 16 feet does not legally move on a Florida highway without specialized equipment. That math and the rest of what goes wrong is in our breakdown of 5th wheel transport mistakes.
What Florida RV Transport Costs
All-in customer price, no carrier rate hiding underneath it. Season moves you inside these bands more in Florida than anywhere else in the country.
| Distance | Per mile, all-in |
|---|---|
| Under 300 miles | $2.50 – $3.60 |
| 700 – 1,100 miles | $2.70 – $3.20 |
| 1,200+ miles | $1.90 – $2.40 |
For your actual route instead of a range, the quote calculator takes about a minute.
A Real Florida Shipment
| Coach | From | To | Delivered |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 Airstream Atlas | Naples, FL | Jackson Center, OH | Apr 2026 |
An Airstream Atlas and a 40-foot 5th wheel out of the same Naples driveway are two completely different jobs, with different trucks and different prices, which is why we keep 5th wheel transport on its own page. Everything we handle across motorhomes, travel trailers, and towables sits on our main RV shipping page.
How We Vet the Truck
The truck that shows up is the entire product. Being local doesn't change that, and it doesn't earn us your trust either. This is what we clear before any carrier touches an RV we dispatch, and if you're comparing us against somebody else, run the same eight questions on them.
- Did they verify the carrier's insurance certificate is active and adequate for the load?
- Did they review the carrier's DOT authority and history?
- Did they review FMCSA safety records and out-of-service rates?
- Did they verify the equipment can actually haul this specific RV?
- Did they obtain truck and trailer photos before dispatch?
- Is the company name visible on the truck that shows up?
- Did they confirm the driver communicates clearly, in English, before pickup?
- Does communication continue after dispatch, through delivery?
Florida draws more than its share of operations that exist to take deposits from people in a hurry, and snowbird season is exactly when they feed. What that looks like up close is in our breakdown of RV shipping scams.
Booking a Florida Move
Two to three weeks of lead time is the difference between picking your truck and taking whatever is left. In peak season, stretch that to four. Have your height, length, weight, and pickup window ready on the first call, and any honest company can price you in minutes. We answer our own phone in Fort Lauderdale, and if your move is better in March than in November, we will tell you that even though it means waiting on your money.