The price is weight, distance, and how hard the door is
Local moves are usually billed by the hour with a crew size, and long-distance moves by the weight or the cubic feet of what goes on the truck plus the mileage. Under both models the same three things move the number: how much stuff there is, how far it goes, and how much labor sits between the truck and your front door.
That last one is what people forget to mention when they call for a price. A long carry — the truck cannot get within a hundred feet of the door — is a line item, and so are stairs, sometimes per flight. A shuttle, where a full-size trailer cannot reach the street and the goods transfer to a smaller truck, is an expensive line item that appears late if nobody looked at the address in advance.
The lever you actually control is the first one. Every box that does not go on the truck is weight you are not paying to haul, and a garage full of things you have not opened since the last move is the most expensive storage arrangement available. Selling, donating and dumping in the four weeks before a move routinely saves more than switching carriers does. If you want the volume in numbers before you call anyone, the moving box calculator and the moving truck size calculator convert a room list into cubic feet, and moving cost estimate turns that into a range you can sanity-check a quote against.
Binding, non-binding, and the number that is not a quote
| Type | What it commits | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Phone or web estimate with no survey | Nothing. It is a sales number generated from a room count you gave over the phone. | This is the classic lowball. The truck arrives, the inventory is bigger than described, and the price is rewritten on the spot while your furniture is on the sidewalk. |
| Non-binding estimate | The carrier's good-faith guess. The final charge is based on actual weight or actual hours. | Fine with an honest carrier and a complete inventory. Dangerous when the inventory was casual, because every underestimate is yours to pay. |
| Binding estimate | A fixed price for the inventory and services listed on it | The words for the inventory listed do the work. Add a shed full of tools on moving day and the binding price is void or amended. |
| Binding not-to-exceed | You pay the lesser of the estimate or the actual charges | The best structure for a customer, and not every carrier offers it. Ask by name. |
What separates a real quote from a sales number is the survey. An in-home walkthrough or a live video survey where you open every closet, the garage, the basement and the attic is twenty minutes that fixes the inventory. Refuse to do it and no estimate you get means anything. A carrier that will not do one is telling you something too.
Get three written estimates on the same inventory, and read what each includes: packing materials, disassembly and reassembly, appliance disconnection, stair and long-carry charges, fuel surcharge, and storage-in-transit if the dates do not line up. Two quotes nine hundred dollars apart often include different work. Ask too how travel time is billed on an hourly local move, since some carriers count it door-to-door from their own yard.
Eight weeks out to the truck
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| 8 weeks | Decide DIY versus movers. Start getting surveys — good crews book out, and the last week of the month plus any summer weekend is the peak. Begin the purge, one room at a time. |
| 6 weeks | Written estimates in hand. Check the carrier is properly licensed and insured for the kind of move you are making, and read complaint history rather than star ratings. Book the elevator or loading dock at both ends if a building requires reservations, because those calendars fill. |
| 4 weeks | Start packing what you do not use daily: books, off-season clothes, decor, the second set of dishes. Photograph anything valuable before it goes in a box. Order supplies. Schedule utilities — see setting up utilities. |
| 2 weeks | Confirm the date in writing with the carrier. Arrange time off. Deal with medical records, prescriptions transferred to a pharmacy near the new place, school records, and the vet. Start running down the freezer and pantry. |
| 1 week | Pack the rest except the open-first box. Drain and dry anything with water in it — the mower, the coffee machine, the aquarium. Confirm parking for the truck. Get cash for tips if you tip. |
| Day before | Charge everything, assemble the essentials bag, empty and defrost the refrigerator, and take meter photos at the old place |
| Moving day | Be present. Walk the inventory sheet with the crew before you sign it, and read the exception codes they write next to your furniture, because those codes are the carrier's record of pre-existing damage. |
| Arrival | Check items off as they come in, and note damage on the delivery paperwork before the crew leaves |
One box, marked clearly, travels with you and not on the truck: medication, chargers, a toolkit with a screwdriver and a box cutter, toilet paper, hand soap, a shower curtain, bedding, a change of clothes, the coffee apparatus, and any document you would not want on a stranger's truck. Passports, birth certificates, the deed or lease, titles, and jewelry go in the car.
What they will not load
Carriers refuse hazardous materials as a rule, and the list is longer than people expect: propane tanks, gasoline and the fuel in a mower or generator, charcoal lighter, paint and solvents, aerosols, pool chemicals, ammunition, fire extinguishers, batteries in bulk, nail polish remover, and open liquids generally. Plants often will not travel on a long-distance move, and some states restrict bringing soil across a line. Perishable food is refused on anything but a short local move.
This is not the crew being difficult: a leaking solvent can ruin an entire trailer of other people's belongings. Work through the garage two weeks out, so a can of half-used deck stain is not a problem discovered on moving morning.
Coverage, which is not insurance
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Released value | The default on an interstate move and the cheapest option, because it is included at no charge. It pays by weight — a small number of cents per pound per article. A forty-pound television that cost twelve hundred dollars is settled as forty pounds. |
| Full value protection | The carrier repairs, replaces, or pays the current market value of a damaged item, subject to the declared value of the shipment and usually a deductible. It costs real money and it is the option most people assume they already have. |
| Third-party moving insurance | An actual insurance policy from an insurer rather than a liability level from a carrier. Worth pricing for a high-value shipment. |
| Your homeowner or renter policy | Some policies extend to goods in transit, many do not, and the exclusions vary. Call your agent and get the answer before you need it, not after. |
| Items of extraordinary value | Art, collections, instruments and jewelry usually have to be listed by name on a high-value inventory form to be covered at all. An item nobody declared is an item nobody insured. |
Whichever you choose, the claim you can actually win is built before the truck loads. Photograph valuable and fragile pieces from several angles with the date in the file, including the existing scratches, because a carrier will argue that the gouge on the dresser was there already and a photograph settles it. Keep the inventory sheet. Note damage on the delivery receipt in the moment, not the next morning — an item signed for clean is harder to claim later — and get the claim filed inside the window on your paperwork rather than trusting a verbal assurance from a driver.
Moving yourself
A truck rental plus fuel, pads, a dolly, and pizza for four friends is genuinely cheaper on a small local move, and it is genuinely a bad trade on a long one. The break point is usually distance and stairs. Driving a loaded twenty-six-foot truck eight hundred miles is two days of fatigue, fuel at truck economy, a night in a hotel, and the risk that a torn ligament costs more than the crew would have. A studio moving four miles is a Saturday.
If you do it yourself: rent one size up, because a second trip costs more than the extra ten feet; load heavy items over the axle and against the front wall; and take the doors off before you force the sofa through, not after. Measure the tight turn in the stairwell in advance — the furniture fit checker handles the diagonals that decide whether a piece goes through a doorway. If things have to sit somewhere, storage unit size converts the pile into a unit before you rent one too small.
Costs that do not appear on the estimate
The largest is overlap — two rents, or a rent and a mortgage payment, in the same month — and it is the one most often planned around badly. After that: utility deposits and connection fees at the new address, often several hundred dollars up front and higher without an established payment history; cleaning at the old place, either your weekend or a cleaner, which interacts with your security deposit; replacing what does not fit, starting with curtains and rugs, so measure the new windows before you throw the old rods away; a week of eating out at each end, because nobody cooks in a kitchen packed in boxes; cash for tips; and boarding for a pet, since an open front door and a stressed animal is how pets get lost on moving day. Run it as one budget — move-in cost checklist and the big purchase checklist keep the total honest.
If you take one thing from this page, take the lever with the most travel in it: the truck is priced by what is on it. Six hours spent getting rid of things in the month before the move is worth more than six hours spent comparing carriers, and it is the only part of the price that is entirely yours to decide.
Questions people ask
How far ahead should I book movers?
Six to eight weeks for a normal move, and longer if the date falls in summer, on a weekend, or at the end of a month, because those are the slots that fill first and they fill months out in busy metro areas. Booking early does not only get you a crew; it gets you time to have surveys done properly and to compare three written estimates on the same inventory instead of taking whoever answers the phone in the last week.
What is the difference between a binding and a non-binding estimate?
A binding estimate fixes the price for the inventory and services written on it, so the number does not move unless you change what is being moved. A non-binding estimate is the carrier's good-faith guess and the final bill is based on actual weight or actual hours, which means every item missed at survey time is yours to pay for. There is also a binding not-to-exceed structure, where you pay the lesser of the estimate and the actual charges, and it is the most customer-favorable of the three. Ask which one you are being given, in those words, and get it in writing.
Are my belongings insured when movers carry them?
Usually not in the way people assume. The default liability level on an interstate move is released value, which is free and pays a small number of cents per pound per article — enough to make a damaged television a matter of its weight rather than its price. Full value protection costs extra and obligates the carrier to repair, replace, or pay market value, subject to limits and often a deductible. Separately, some homeowner and renter policies extend to goods in transit and many do not. Check all three before the truck loads, and declare high-value items by name on the form the carrier provides.
What will movers refuse to take?
Anything hazardous, which is a longer list than most people expect: propane, gasoline including the fuel left in a mower or generator, paint and solvents, aerosols, pool chemicals, charcoal lighter, ammunition, fire extinguishers, and open liquids. Perishable food is refused on anything but a short local move, and live plants frequently will not go on a long-distance one. Deal with the garage two weeks out so a can of deck stain is not a problem discovered at seven in the morning on moving day.
How do I make a damage claim stick?
Build the record before anything moves. Photograph valuable and fragile pieces from several angles, including the scratches they already have, so nobody can argue a new gouge was pre-existing. Keep the inventory sheet the crew fills out and read the condition codes they write beside your furniture. At delivery, check items off as they come in and write any damage on the delivery paperwork before the crew leaves rather than calling the next day, because a shipment signed for clean is much harder to dispute. Then file inside the window printed on your paperwork.