The Problem With ‘the Old Way’
Running used car operations across 20 dealerships in four different states means vehicle transportation isn't a minor logistics detail, it's a large daily operation. Lee Brown, Pre-Owned Operations Manager at Baxter Auto Group, oversees everything from acquisitions and merchandising to coaching store-level teams across Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, and Wisconsin.
For years, Lee was navigating the same frustrations dealer groups everywhere know very well: broker markups with no visibility into what was actually being paid to the carrier, inconsistent pickup times, and a communication gap between the dealership and the carrier who was actually moving the vehicle.
Each of Baxter's 20 stores operated independently when it came to transport, finding their own carrier or broker relationships. The result was a fragmented, costly operation where the dealership was often the last to know the status of their own loads. The cost was real, the transparency was limited, leaving Baxter exposed to potential fraud and bad actors.
"The challenges we faced came down to three things: timing, cost, and transparency. Getting cars picked up on time, knowing where your loads were at, and having real communication back and forth, those were the ongoing issues, and I found them to be pretty common across not only Baxter, but the entire industry” says Lee Brown.
Although common across the industry, these were not challenges Baxter was willing to keep accepting as their normal.
Finding Auto Hauler Exchange: The Conversation That Turned Everything Around
In November 2025 at a conference, Lee connected with the Auto Hauler Exchange team, and the conversation that started at the event quickly turned into action. While working closely with the Auto Hauler team, Baxter Auto Group began onboarding stores, one location at a time, letting results build the case internally.
The premise of AHX was straightforward: eliminate the broker entirely and connect each dealership directly with vetted, secure carriers. No hidden margins. No middleman taking an undisclosed cut on every load. Just a flat fee and full visibility into what was being paid and who was moving the vehicle.
For a group that had been running on broker relationships for years, that kind of direct access was a different way of thinking about transport. So Baxter did what any data-driven dealer group would do — they compared.
The Numbers: $55,000 Saved and Counting
The comparison didn't take long to produce results. In the first couple of months on the platform, Baxter's stores were running Auto Hauler Exchange quotes side-by-side against their previous broker rates and the savings were consistent and immediate.
On average, they were saving nearly $200 per unit on every transport. On longer hauls, the gap was even more dramatic: one load from the Northwest to Kansas City came in over $400 less than what a broker would have charged for the same move.
When Lee added it up, the number was striking: more than $55,000 in transport savings in the first 4 months on AHX and that's just from the stores currently on the platform. As more locations continue to adopt AHX, that number will continue to grow.
"We were saving almost $200 a unit right out of the gate. I can point to one load from the Northwest to Kansas City where we saved over $400 compared to what we would have paid a broker. Add it all up since December, and we're sitting at about $55,000 in savings — and that's just group one” shared Lee Brown.
For a pre-owned operation running at Baxter's volume, that's not a rounding error. Unlike broker savings that are hard to quantify because the margin is never disclosed, every dollar saved on Auto Hauler Exchange is visible, documented, and directly attributable to cutting out the intermediary.
What Else Changed: Visibility, Communication, and Carrier Access
The cost savings are the headline, but the operational shift runs deeper than the invoice. When Baxter's stores moved away from using brokers and started using Auto Hauler Exchange, they didn't just save money, they gained something brokers had never given them: direct access to trusted carriers and real-time visibility into where their vehicles actually were.
For a dealership shipping a vehicle to a consumer who purchased remotely, or waiting on a unit they need on the lot, true visibility and communication matters. With a broker in the middle, status updates were vague at best. The experience was an estimate at booking, and then silence until the car showed up.
With Auto Hauler Exchange, Baxter's teams can see the load's status in real-time, communicate directly with the carrier, and give customers a clear, accurate picture of when to expect delivery. Not only saving money on each load, but increasing customer satisfaction and building trust.
"When there's a consumer on the other end of the transaction, being able to give them a real answer about when their vehicle is going to be picked up or delivered makes all the difference. Seeing everything in real time means we can communicate better and give our guests the information they actually need." — Lee Brown
The shift from opaque broker communication to direct carrier access, has improved the customer experience at the store level in ways that go beyond logistics. When a salesperson can give a customer a real answer about their vehicle instead of a vague estimate passed through a third party, it builds the Baxter name to be a reliable dealership group.
Store by Store: How Adoption Spread Across the Group
Perhaps the most telling part of Baxter's story isn't the savings figure, it's how the platform spread through the group organically, driven by results rather than mandates.
One of Baxter's Kansas City stores was managed by someone who had worked with the same personal carrier contact for more than 15 years. That kind of relationship is built with reliability and routine, the kind that's hard to displace. He was nonetheless the first store in the group to join Auto Hauler Exchange, and the results were immediate enough that his experience became the internal case study that moved the rest of the group.
"He had his own carrier guy for 15-plus years, just calling the same person every single time. He said it was night and day difference. He had to do what was best for the business and hasn't looked back. He's by far the biggest user, and he's kind of been the bellcow, a lot of the other stores have followed suit behind him” shared Lee.
Today, more than half of Baxter's 20 stores are on the platform, with every location that moves vehicles at high frequency now actively using Auto Hauler. The $55,000 in savings is a number from a partial rollout. The full-group story is still being written.
The Case for Switching: Zero Risk, Real Returns
When asked what he'd tell another dealer group considering making the move, Lee's answer was direct: there is no meaningful downside to trying it. No monthly fees, no long-term commitments. Just a flat per-load fee, a platform built to put dealers in direct contact with vetted carriers, and the ability to compare in real-time against whatever you're paying today.
"Honestly, there's no downside. There's no monthly fee, just a flat fee per load. Compare it against what you're paying today and let the numbers speak for themselves. Worst case, you sign up and don't end up using it. That certainly wasn't our experience." — Lee Brown
For Baxter Auto Group, that comparison did exactly what it was supposed to do. It exposed the true cost of the broker layer and made the decision to eliminate it an easy one. More than $55,000 saved, a cleaner and more transparent transport operation, and a platform expanding across one of the Midwest's largest dealer groups.
The broker isn't in that story anymore. And for Baxter, that's exactly the point.
Ready to see what your specific lane costs right now? Post your first shipment on AHX in under 3 minutes — direct access to 5,500+ vetted carriers, live market pricing, and a support team behind every load. Sign up free at autohaulerexchange.com/sign-up
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