[Jim Fischer]

If you can "compress" the colony into a single
chamber for purposes of moving, you should.
All the bees and all the brood goes into one
box, and the "stores" combs and empty combs
are moved to the other (now beeless) box
for transport as "luggage". But you don't
obviously don't want to do this if the bees
are still in a winter cluster.

Using a passenger car poses a certain level
of "risk" to the whole moving operation:

a) If the trunk lid won't close with a hive
in the trunk, you end up with a whole
different version of airflow around the
car, and may end up with turbulence that
could suck large amounts of exhaust into
the trunk, and hence, into the hives.
(Volvo 240s wagons have the same problem.
If the back cargo bay door is open, one
can smell exhaust as one drives the car.
Volvo 740/760 wagons have less problem.)

b) But with the trunk closed, even though it
is cold, will the bees have adequate airflow?

c) You can ratchet-strap around the entire hive
side-to-side, and back-to-back to keep the
assembly together, but how do you secure the
hive against bouncing around in a car trunk?

So, if you could find a station wagon, and figure
out how to secure the hives, you might not need
a truck. (My basic tool for moving anything less
than half a dozen colonies are Volvo wagons, which
have nicely-positioned hook points for attaching
ratchet straps, nice big cargo bays, fold-down
rear seats, and high rooflines.)

But I would not move hives in a passenger car.
A station wagon, yes. An SUV, yes. A mini-van,
sure. An El Camino, of course.

You gotta know someone with a vehicle listed
above. Put a disposable painting tarp down
to protect their upholstery.