Leave the driving to them

As long as you have to take the spouse and kids on your family vacation, why not bring along the Ferrari or Lamborghini?

Because there usually isn’t enough room to hold the luggage much less the family, you typically have had to leave the exotic car at home.

Not anymore. With the FedEx Passport Transport service, the family and luggage can fly to their destination while FedEx transports the car. The car is picked up at your house, shipped in an enclosed 53-foot-long moving van and driven to the front door of your retreat, said Jim Snider, executive vice president and chief operating officer of FedEx Custom Critical, which operates Passport Transport.

Aimed at an untapped market -- exotic- or collectible-car owners -- the new service transports the vehicles to vacation destinations such as Hyannis Port, Mass., so the owner who has little time to play with the toy during business hours can enjoy it on vacation.

“We [Custom Critical] primarily transport expensive commodities, such as high-end electronics and works of art, and wanted to expand our market to high-end cars as well,” Snider said.

Snider said FedEx noticed that those who wear silk ties during the week, but headbands on weekends when playing with their Harley-Davidsons, would fly to the annual Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, S.D., each year and ship their bikes.

One-way prices are higher than renting a vacation car: about $1,000 to ship a car from New York to Miami, $1,900 from New York to Phoenix and about $1,500 Chicago to San Francisco, for owners willing to wait up to six days after pickup for delivery. Fees for special service, such as specific pickup and delivery dates, can add up to $3,800 from New York to Miami, $7,300 from New York to Phoenix and $6,400 from Chicago to San Francisco.

FedEx provides the same service for a Taurus sedan to go to Orlando, for example, to save the family from renting a car there. But whereas the collectible goes in an enclosed moving van, the Taurus travels in an open truck. The price, however, is about 60% of what it costs to transport a collectible.