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This tool holds no prices. What a mover charges depends on the city, the season and the week, and a table of 2026 rates baked into a web page would be wrong for most people reading it. Every rate below comes off your own quote, your own carrier’s tariff or the rental company’s booking page — the arithmetic and the checklist of things people forget are what this adds.
How local moves are usually quoted: a rate per hour for a crew of a stated size.
As quoted, for the whole crew rather than per mover.
Many local movers bill an hour of drive time on top.
Released-value protection is not insurance.
$1,510.00
$1,140.00 of it is the move itself
Estimates are not prices. In the United States a non-binding estimate can legally be exceeded, a binding one cannot, and a binding not-to-exceed protects you if the shipment weighs less than quoted — which one you have is written on the paperwork and is worth reading before the truck arrives. Get the weight, the surcharge and every accessorial in writing, and re-run this with those numbers.
Not counted: the deposit you may forfeit, a second truck if the first will not hold everything, disconnecting and reconnecting appliances, pet or vehicle transport, mail redirection, and the overlap where you are paying rent or a mortgage in two places at once. That last one is usually the largest number on this page.
That is a design decision, not an omission. What a removal firm charges depends on the city, the month and how busy the crew already is; a rate typed into a web page is wrong somewhere the day it is published and wrong almost everywhere a year later. Every rate here comes off your own quote or the rental company’s booking screen. What the tool adds is the arithmetic, and a checklist of the lines left off the front page of an estimate.
Still outside the total: deposits you might forfeit, a second truck when the first will not hold everything, transporting pets or a car, and rent paid in two places at once during the overlap — frequently larger than the removal bill itself. A local move is usually an hourly rate for a crew, plus billed travel time and a callout fee. A long-distance move is priced against the weight of the shipment, plus a percentage fuel surcharge and accessorials for stairs, long carries and shuttles. Doing it yourself is a daily truck hire, a distance charge over the included allowance, fuel, and whatever the counter adds at pickup. Add them up the same way and the three become comparable; leave the surcharges out of one and the comparison is worthless.
One trap is worth naming. American interstate tariffs are written per hundredweight — per 100 lb — and reading a cwt rate as a per-pound rate multiplies the answer by a hundred: a 5,000 lb shipment at $58 per cwt is $2,900, but taken as $58 a pound it is $290,000. The rate basis is a separate control for that reason.
Local, hourly: a crew at $150 an hour for six hours is $900, an hour of billed travel adds $150, and a $90 truck fee brings the move itself to $1,140. Boxes at $120, valuation cover at $150 and $100 in tips take it to $1,510 — the extras are a quarter of what you pay.
Long distance, by weight: 5,000 lb at $58 per cwt is $2,900, a 9% fuel surcharge adds $261 and $250 of accessorials makes $3,411, or $3,781 with the same extras.
Driven yourself: a truck at $89 a day for three days is $267, 850 miles at $0.89 a mile is $756.50, fuel at 10 mpg and $3.45 a gallon is $293.25, and equipment, tolls and two nights on the road add $325 — $1,641.75, or $2,011.75 with the extras, which is $2.37 a mile. An unlimited-mileage rental removes the $756.50 and lands at $1,255.25, the largest swing on this page.
Almost none are on the headline number. Fuel surcharges are a percentage of the line haul and move with diesel. Accessorials are charged when the truck cannot park close, when there is no lift, or when a shuttle is needed. Valuation cover is not insurance: released-value protection pays by weight rather than by what the thing was worth. A rental booked for two days becomes three when loading runs long.
In the United States it also matters which kind of estimate you hold. A non-binding estimate can legally be exceeded; a binding one cannot; a binding not-to-exceed protects you if the shipment turns out lighter than quoted. Which one you have is on the paperwork, worth reading before the truck arrives rather than on the day it is unloaded.
From the mover, not from a rule of thumb. A surveyor produces the figure during the estimate and a binding estimate states it; interstate carriers must also give you the certified scale weights. Guessing it is the biggest single error you can make in this calculation.
No. A cheaper three-person crew that takes eight hours costs more than a better one that takes five, and slow crews are common where the rate looks unusually good. Ask how many movers, how many hours they estimate, and whether travel time is billed.
Because per-mile charges dominate everything else once the distance is large. In the example above, 850 miles at 89 cents is $756.50 against a truck hire of only $267, so removing that one line cuts the total by more than a third.
Most people do, and it appears on no estimate, so it belongs in the extras field rather than as a surprise on the day. Treat it as part of the cost of the crew when comparing a full-service quote against doing the work yourself.