A local moving primer.
A local move is a move that is done within the city or city to city and within a 100-mile radius from your location. In Texas, the moving industry is regulated by Texas DMV and the Department of Transportation (DOT). A legal local moving company will have these 2 licenses to operate and to be able to provide local moving services inside Texas. Entrust Movers is a locally owned and operated moving company providing moving, packing and delivery services to local Houston areas.
How is a local move calculated?
The moving industry or relocation as some would call it is historically based on hourly rates. You book a move and most local moving companies will charge a per hour basis for providing the moving service. Some moving company will use a moving calculator to estimate how much stuff you have and formulate a moving rate but it really all boils down to how long it takes the movers to come to your house, start the process of moving, load, drive to your destination, unload your belongings and close out the move. This is all based on the time it takes to do all that is needed to completely move your items from point a to point b. Some charge for extra heavy items, some charge for the number of stairs and other time limiting situations that will prolong the move or make it harder for the movers to do their job efficiently, but still most will charge per hour.
There are certain days like weekends and holidays that will make your move cost more than normal. Weekends are one of those time when it cost more that regular weekdays because that is the time everyone can move, only because most working people prefer to move on the weekends, this in turn; causes all the local moving companies to move on the weekends too and the pool of available moving companies and their time slot decreases which will cost more because in most cases every moving company is busy on the weekends. This has to do with availability on the schedule and the availability of the amount of moving labor available for each moving company. This is the reason why most moving companies will have 2 rates, one for regular weekdays and another for weekends.
This is also true with the end of the month moving. At the end of each month is when most people choose to move because of their leases or when rent is due or just easier for folks to target a move date. There will be times when moving on a weekday is more expensive. When someone has an emergency or last minute moving request, often a lot of moving companies will usually be booked a couple days in advanced and finding a moving company to move you the same day or next day can be difficult and will usually cost more than normal.
Is there more to the moving price?
The rate movers charge you normally include the use of the truck, the moving crew, the padding, wrapping and other minimal labor that encompasses the moving service. There are however differences in pricing between the number of movers you need for your move, the more people you need, the more it costs, but the moving time is reduced because of how many people are doing the moving labor. Most moving companies will have different pricing between 2,3 or 4 men moving crews, you can choose how many you want to do the move. You just have to pay for it.
Be careful of cheap movers
If you plan on hiring a local moving company to plan your move, you should consider that the lower the cost the less value you might be getting. Most legal moving companies have internal costs that prevent them from competing with unlicensed movers. There is insurance to pay, licensing keep updated, taxes on sales, taxes on employment, maintenance on the moving trucks and other cost related to keeping up with a business let alone a moving company. So the next time you are choosing a moving company on pricing, consider the fact that only the unlicensed and illegal moving companies will be able to do a move at a super low cost that may seem too good to be true. They will not have to pay for fees, taxes and other moving company related costs but they will have little if any incentive to provide excellent service. They might even break, scratch or damage your belongings without the means to compensate you for the damages if you can even file a claim.
Should I use a website that offer multiple quotes?
There are plenty of websites that will advertise they are giving you moving quotes from multiple moving companies. Although this might be a good idea to get multiple quotes in order to choose the best one mainly pricing, you are really not being told everything. These lead generation companies are selling your information to a number of moving companies for a fee. Your quote request might go to 10, 20 or even 30 moving companies in your area once you submit that request. You’ll get a ton of calls, emails or contacts but this doesn’t get you any closer to choosing the best moving company for your move. The best solution is usually the harder and longer route to search and find the movers with the best reputation, call around or ask friends and family for referrals. But once you use a good local moving company once, you should use them again in the future if you move on a frequent basis. This would probably save you time and money in the long run.