7 Questions to Ask When Selecting a Moving Company
Guest Blog Post by my husband, Dr. Darrell Stillwell
One of the roles I took on in both of our cross-country moves was to find the best moving company that fit our needs, budget, and concerns. While moving across the country twice in one year does not advance us to expert level (yet), we sure learned a lot in our process for selecting a moving company for New York and again for South Carolina. As you begin your process for selecting a moving company for your cross-country move, take a moment to jot down some important questions to ask and some key considerations unique to your move. Today, I want to share with you some of the important questions and areas that mattered to us for both of our moves.
First are basic logistic questions to best meet your budget and timeline.
How much does it cost?
The first question you will want to know is how much it costs to move your stuff. As you prepare for your conversation with companies, sit down and decide on your budget. As mentioned in the previous moving blog post, there are a lot of expenses to consider when moving across the country beyond just the moving truck. For us, we set out to understand that the total cost to move across the country would be around $8,000 with $2-3k of that for the moving company alone (yikes, right?) for our first move. The second move totaled closer to $10,000 when it was all said and done. I share these numbers to inform you because it may be better to do-it-yourself in your particular moving situation but from experience, it is worth every penny when considering the unique factors involved with moving in-and-out of the country’s largest city (population).
How is the cost calculated?
At first you might think, why does this matter? As your move process continues you will quickly learn you have more stuff than you realize. For our first move, the pile seemed to continue to grow and actually grew beyond our limit of the size we were allotted. In our second move, we continued to call the company back to change our inventory list. Common ways we found the cost is calculated is by volume of inventory, weight of inventory, and cubic feet. Knowing how the company calculated our moving costs helped us better decide what will be moved, what will be transported by us, and what is not worth the cost of moving.
Is the company available for the entire timeline when you need to move?
Again, at first glance this seems like a basic question. However, if you are like us you will go the more cost-efficient route, meaning your stuff will go on a truck or semi with multiple other families who are also moving at the same time. As a result, this goes beyond are they available for the day in which you would like to move but extends to the how long until the company transports your items to your new home. In our first move, they picked up our stuff on a Wednesday and delivered it that Friday! In our second move, they picked up our stuff on a Thursday and delivered it the following Wednesday. It is important to note though, that both companies told us it could be up to two weeks before we see our stuff again. This was an important consideration we had to keep in mind when selecting the company. We were willing to take the chance and packed accordingly just in case.
How is the company moving your stuff?
This question is one that we definitely didn’t consider and we discuss it further in our list of things we would do differently next time (that post coming soon!) Going into this process, we thought it would be a no brainer – the company comes to get our stuff and drops it off a few days later. Boy we were wrong! Some considerations you should have and discuss with your moving company beyond just “how are you moving my stuff” include: Will my stuff be delivered on the same truck as it was picked up? Will your company be the one to deliver it or will it be outsourced? In our first move, the company outsourced our “job” and a completely different company showed up than who we originally paid. In our second move, our stuff was loaded on a box truck but showed up on a semi.
The second area of questions are deeper discussions to do your homework and research to cover yourself and your belongings. It’s scary to hand over all of your possessions and you want to ensure you can feel confident and trust the individuals and company. Here are some questions that we asked to help ease our fears and concerns.
If my stuff is going on a truck with multiple other families, how does it not get mixed up?
After we learned that our stuff would go on the truck with multiple other families (still shocking, right?) we wanted to ensure our stuff didn’t end up with another family or we end up with something that wasn’t ours. As you could guess, they have a system in place! For both moves, the company used a sticker labeling system. Each box and item was labeled with a sticker. The first company it had a box number, identifying number, and was color coded to us. The second company had the same system but the stickers also had our name on them. As the boxes were labeled, the moving team then filled out an inventory sheet that listed each box and item number and what it was. We saved our copy of the sheet for unloading day to check off the inventory as it arrived to make sure nothing was lost or an item wasn’t ours.
Who will show up to my house? Are they background checked?
One of the items we learned in both moves is that the random employees who are assigned your move will be at both of your residences for a great deal of time. In both moves, the packing process took around 3 hours and the unloading process took around 2 hours. With that, we wanted to ensure that the individuals we were allowing into our home and with our stuff were trustworthy! Both companies provided us with the names of the individuals in advance, wore company uniforms, and had completed a background and drivers record check (I asked!)
Do you need to take things apart or will the company? How is that handled? Will the movers assemble items at destination? If so, are there any items excluded?
These random employees will have their hands on every single box and item in your home. With that, it is important to know how certain items will be handled on both the packing and unloading day. We learned from both moving companies that they will take apart everything that can be (beds, desks, lamps). With that, we had to have a plan in place for how we will safely keep and remember which screws went to which product, how we will transport the lightbulbs for the lamps, or where we will keep the legs to the bed for quick access when they arrive. Again, thinking through these items beforehand really saved us a lot of headache on both days!
While this list does not cover every question we asked, these are the top highlights of our question reel. I like to ensure I have all the information and details to best plan for such a big journey! Moving can be a very stressful time and doing your homework and being prepared with these questions (and more) will save you a lot of time, money, and headache! While we hope to not have to move across the country again (sorry mom!), there are definitely items we would still consider or do differently. Stay tuned for that blog post coming soon!