The parts nobody explains until it is already too late

The federal record tells you whether a company is licensed. It does not tell you what a binding estimate is, what your belongings are covered for, or what to do when a truck is outside and the price has changed.

A moving truck parked on a wet suburban street, a second truck small and out of focus further down the road

Start here

Broker vs carrier — how to tell

A carrier moves your belongings with its own trucks and crew. A broker arranges the move and sells the job to a carrier you have not met. Both are legal and both are licensed, but only the carrier is responsible for your belongings once they are on the truck.

Read it

Before you book

4 guides

The checks worth making while you still have every option open.

The blank driver's door of a white commercial box truck in overcast daylight

How to check a mover is licensed

5 min

Every interstate mover has a federal record showing authority and insurance. What to look up, and what each field actually means.

An empty suburban driveway on an overcast morning with faint tyre tracks leading away

Moving deposits — what is normal

4 min

Deposits are normal. Large cash-only deposits are not. What is typical, how to pay, and who is actually holding the money.

Looking up a narrow apartment stairwell with a single cardboard box on a middle step

What drives moving costs

6 min

Weight and distance set the base. Access, specialty items and your date do most of the damage. Why no honest quote arrives without questions.

A tree-lined residential street in summer with moving trucks at either end of the block

When to book a mover

4 min

How far ahead to book, why summer and month-end cost more, and why an interstate delivery date is usually a spread rather than a day.

The paperwork

3 guides

Four documents decide what you pay and what you can recover. Most people sign all four without reading any.

A single worn cardboard box alone on the bare floor of an empty room, lit by a window

Released value vs full value protection

6 min

The free coverage on every interstate move pays 60 cents per pound per item — about $18 for a broken 30-pound television. What the alternative costs.

A clipboard of blank paperwork and a pen resting on the open tailgate of a moving truck

Binding vs non-binding estimates

6 min

Three different contracts with three different outcomes on delivery day, including the federal rule that caps what a non-binding estimate can cost you.

A stack of blank documents, a clip and a pen on a scuffed wooden table

Reading the bill of lading

5 min

The bill of lading is the contract and the receipt. The inventory is what a damage claim is proved with. What to check before signing either.

When something goes wrong

2 guides

Both of these have hard federal deadlines attached, running in both directions.

The closed roller shutter of a moving truck at dusk, secured with a padlock

Mover holding your belongings

7 min

Refusing to unload until you pay more than the paperwork allows is illegal. The order to work through, and the numbers to call.

A cardboard box with a crushed corner beside a wooden chair with a split leg

Filing a damage claim

6 min

You get at least nine months to file. The carrier gets thirty days to acknowledge and a hundred and twenty to resolve. What to do in each window.

Every rule cited here is a federal requirement for interstate moves. Moves entirely within one state are regulated by that state, and several states do not license movers at all.

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