I type this sitting at gate C29, Toronto airport. What happened to driving across Canada? Well, you know when your ‘too good to be true’ alarm goes off? I had that exactly a week ago when I received a telephone call from the man at hittheroad.ca to ask me if I’d like to drive a convertible from Toronto to Vancouver.
Here’s the deal… you get to drive the 2700 mile journey across the second largest country in the world for free! Yes, for free! All you have to do I suppose is contribute a little towards the petrol costs, in this case around $150 (??100).
The story began a few weeks prior when I first discovered the companies who operate ‘drive-away’ schemes. I contacted torontodriveaway.ca who told me that they had a vehicle to deliver to British Columbia but it needed to leave immediately. Unfortunately, we were embarking on our trip around the Eastern provinces (see below for detail) so were unable to take the opportunity. The company had been recommended not only by the Lonely Planet guide, but also by a friend who had done a similar journey a couple of decades ago. They were obviously a professional outfit, they had an office, photos of their staff online and when I called them they were pragmatic about the chances of delivering a vehicle.
I then found canadadriveaway.com, also based out of Toronto. The business had an informative website, oddly linked to hittheroad.ca, and a twitter stream advertising a plethora of vehicles which needed transporting in our direction. Perfect. I filled out the details and emailed them over.
Immediately I received a response asking if we could take a car. A convertible Chrysler Seabring no less. Amazing, but it needed delivering before we had finished our trip out East. I negotiated a little but every reply to my email was a one line answer. I may be alone, but when you type and email with, say 3 or 4 questions on it, and you get a one line response which answers one of the queries, it is a tad frustrating.
Many emails followed about prospective cars, the website brandished numerous vehicles going to BC, the twitter stream constantly advertised numerous opportunities to take a car, it all seemed like it was going to be no problem.
As our trip East drew to a close, it came time to finalise details and actually make it happen. I emailed… no response. After a while it became apparent that we were out of luck and had missed the boat. But there were still a bunch of cars, on the website and twitter stream, which needed to go. Eventually we booked flights, not only because they were cheap but because we needed to get back to Vancouver for potential job interviews. I emailed Canadadriveaway and got an immediate response to tell me that it was our lucky day. There was a vehicle to go. I telephoned the airline and they told me we had 24 hours to cancel our flight without penalty… perfect!
There’s always a ‘but’…
I was told the final details needed to be sorted and that I would be called back in 5 minutes. Anyway, six hours and two voicemails later I did get a return call to say it was all happening, I just needed to lay down a $500 deposit from my credit card. I asked for some details about the car. Namely, where it was located and where it was required to be delivered. ‘I can’t tell you that’ was the response. Now, I don’t think I would be the only person in the world to get alarm bells at this point. I just didn’t feel comfortable paying for something which may not have existed, despite the seemingly genuine nature of the business. My other feeling is that you can always tell a scam when the perpetrator gets agitated when confronted. Sure enough, I got a bit of an earful when I tried to express my unease with laying down a hefty deposit when he couldn’t even tell me where I would be picking up and delivering the car. When pressed about a rough location, I got an ‘Umm’ an ‘Err’ and then two rather odd locations, one being Port Dover, a small fishing village about an hour out of Toronto, and Cowichan, which was described as a ‘suburb of Vancouver’. It’s actually a small town on Vancouver Island.
So I bailed out and now am about to fly instead. Perhaps we’ll try again in the Autumn.
DAVE CHEESEMAN 
Hi there. This is David from HitTheRoad.ca. I hear what you are saying. You make some good points. I might argue some of the details…. To be clear however, we do not provide specific delivery information until AFTER the deposit has been paid. We DO provide pick up and drop off location in terms of the city. ( I’m not sure that it went down exactly as you described. ) We always have cars on the go that are available to be driven. We also have numerous people inquiring about them. Time constraints mean that was cannot spend a lot of time calming the jittery nerves of every backpacker that calls us. As it states in our FAQ section, if you want to take our time with scam allegations, then please just don’t bother us. It really get boring fast. I recall that we had no trouble finding someone to actually pick it up and take that free road trip across Canada. Please note that we are a US Customs recognized and Better Business Bureau accredited. We are serious about delivering cars. Please do try again next time! It might make for a more interesting blog piece 😉 I look forward to working with you. David
CanadaDriveAway and HitTheRoad is a shity business. Arnaque check this out
And this guy manages to make himself sound even sketchier than previously described. Good work, David!
David, you mention the BBB as does your website but you know that is totally misleading as the drivers cannot possibly engage the BBB if they’ve been cheated by you. They are utterly powerless and you know it and take full advantage of it as evidenced by a myriad of experiences by people from a variety of backgrounds. People have little reason to lie online except to protect their business and income, as you are trying to do here. Good luck! Its a little late.
Your reputation has deteriorated online because you’re not being honest with people.
People can see right through you because you can’t hide your lousy business practices through creative writing. You say you “might argue some of the details”….Of course you would. Dishonest people always do. You may be serious about delivering cars but you sure don’t seem to be serious about treating your drivers with honesty and respect.
It seems I’m not the only person to have had trouble… http://redhunttravel.com/2012/02/travel-articles/road-trips/warning-about-hittheroad-ca/
I had considered doing this…guess I’m doing business with a rental company!
I was thinking about doing this.. with this company, or others.. While I’m thinking it may work for some, I’m more of the thought that I don’t want or need any of the potential headaches.. thanks for the review.. I also read the one on redhunttravel.com referenced above..