The FMCSA motor carrier census lists 62 household goods registrants whose physical address is in Modesto, CA, and 11 of those are classified by FMCSA as interstate operations. BestMovers.info holds no Modesto price measurement, only the California range on the California page. Moves that stay inside California are licensed by the Bureau of Household Goods and Services.
We do not yet hold a company profile documented as based in Modesto. The companies below are headquartered elsewhere in California, shown separately from movers that publish nationwide service.
Common service neighborhoods: Downtown, College Area, La Loma, Stanford Crossing.
Researched and written by Grant Holloway · Reviewed by Brittany Evans · Last reviewed August 2026
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The only moving cost range BestMovers.info holds for Modesto is the California statewide range, and it is published in full on the California page.
Get a personalized estimate before any sales call. Editorial estimate based on broader national moving-cost data; BestMovers.info does not maintain a separate Modesto transaction-price dataset.
IRS county migration data for filing years 2022 to 2023 records 9,857 returns moving out of Stanislaus County, the county Modesto sits in, and 8,869 moving in. A return approximates a household rather than a person. Those filings cover 17,476 individuals leaving and 16,350 arriving.
The counties receiving the most households from Stanislaus County were San Joaquin County (1,560 returns), Merced County (972 returns) and Alameda County (495 returns).
Arrivals came mainly from San Joaquin County (1,879 returns), Merced County (1,110 returns) and Santa Clara County (792 returns).
These figures come from federal tax return data and cover all household moves, not only those using professional movers.
IRS SOI county outflow fileIRS SOI county inflow fileData as of tax filing years 2022 to 2023
The FMCSA motor carrier census lists 62 registrants carrying household goods whose physical address is in Modesto, and 11 of those are classified by FMCSA as interstate operations. That figure counts companies whose federal registration lists an address in Modesto. It is not the number of companies that will serve a move there: a mover registered in a neighbouring city can take the job, and a company registered in Modesto may not.
FMCSA motor carrier census, Company Census FileData as of 2026-08-10
Moving crews quoting Modesto work Downtown, College Area, La Loma, Stanford Crossing and the surrounding areas.
Movers working inside Modesto are licensed by the Bureau of Household Goods and Services, whose licence, lookup route and complaint channel are set out on the California page.
These companies are headquartered elsewhere in California. Their inclusion here does not by itself confirm a local office in Modesto.
Atlas agent and one of the largest West Coast interstate operators. Strong corporate-relocation track record with Fortune 500 clients.
Ace Relocation Systems is headquartered elsewhere in CA. That does not by itself confirm an office in Modesto, and no service claim is made here.
South Bay mover with steady operations across Silicon Valley and the Peninsula. Tech-relocation experience.
Bay Area Movers is headquartered elsewhere in CA. That does not by itself confirm an office in Modesto, and no service claim is made here.
These companies publish broad nationwide moving service and are shown separately from locally or state-based companies.
Budd Van Lines Inc is an independent nationwide carrier rather than an agent of a national van line, which is rare at this size: the federal census records 124 power units and 102 drivers filed from Somerset, New Jersey. Because the company holds its own active common and contract authority with household goods on the licensing record and no broker authority, the entity you contract with is the entity that hauls the shipment. The company's own history pages date the business to 1975.
Budd Van Lines publishes broad nationwide moving service on its own site. It is shown separately from companies based in this area and its presence here is not evidence of a local office.
Colonial Van Lines Inc files from 1441 SW 29th Avenue in Pompano Beach, Florida, active on the federal census with 25 power units, 25 drivers and an MCS-150 filed 21 March 2025. The licensing record carries motor carrier of household goods authority granted 31 March 2010 and motor carrier of property authority recorded as reinstated on 27 June 2025, both active at the time of reading; no broker authority is carried on this registration. The federal file records a Satisfactory safety rating dated 28 June 2021 alongside a compliance review dated 3 October 2012. A safety rating is a dated federal snapshot of the review that produced it, not a current assessment of the company. The company publishes this USDOT number and MC docket in its own website footer, which is how the registration and the brand were joined. Two further registrations filing from the same address, one under the identical legal name and one under a Texas corporate name, are disclosed separately as related registrations rather than merged into this record. The company states it was founded in 2003.
Colonial Van Lines publishes broad nationwide moving service on its own site. It is shown separately from companies based in this area and its presence here is not evidence of a local office.
4 companies with a Modesto address on their federal registration hold a granted household goods authority from the FMCSA, and 2 of those identify as a moving business in their legal or trade name. The 2 listed below are the ones registered with the agency longest, ordered by the federal registration date, earliest first. Registration age is the agency's own record. It is not a ranking, it is not a quality judgement and it is not a recommendation.
78 active registrants in Modesto tick household goods among their cargo types on the census form, and 32 of those carry any authority row at all. The cargo tick box is filled in by the registrant, so this list uses the agency grant instead, then sets aside general freight, trucking, logistics and courier registrants that hold the authority without presenting themselves as household movers. It is not every mover serving Modesto: a company based elsewhere may serve the city, and a registered address is not a service area.
BREWER MOVING LLC
USDOT 3329727 · 1837 HARBOR COVE, MODESTO, CA 95355
It filed 2 power units, registered with the FMCSA on September 2, 2019, and holds granted federal household goods authority under docket MC1348052, active as common carrier.
JC FULLER VENTURES LLC, trading as BIG ISLAND MOVERS
USDOT 4168585 · 122 JAMES ST, MODESTO, CA 95354-2615
It filed 2 power units, registered with the FMCSA on December 14, 2023, and holds granted federal household goods authority under docket MC1662627.
Data as of 2026-08-15 from the FMCSA company census, with authority status as of 2026-08-16. The query behind this list. Information provided by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
No. Federal registration and California authorisation are separate. The list above shows the federal record only, and we have not verified whether any company listed holds a California licence or permit.
A mover operating inside California needs the Household Movers (HHM) permit, commonly called a Cal-T number from the Bureau of Household Goods and Services. Its rates sit in maximum Rate Tariff 4.
California publishes a licence lookup: Bureau of Household Goods and Services licence search.
Source: Bureau of Household Goods and Services, read 2026-08-09.
Peak demand across California runs May–September. Dates outside that window, and dates away from the last and first few days of any month, are where carriers have spare capacity — and spare capacity is what makes a crew negotiable on price.
We do not publish a percentage saving for moving off-peak in Modesto. We hold no month-by-month booking price data for this city, and a discount figure taken from a national average would not describe this market. What we can say is structural, and it holds in every market:
The only reliable way to price a specific date is to put the same date in front of several licensed carriers and compare written estimates. Ask each one what the same move costs two weeks earlier or later — the gap between those two numbers is your real off-peak saving in Modesto, measured on your move rather than on an average.
A tip is never part of a written estimate and never part of a binding price. It is discretionary, it is paid per mover rather than per crew, and it is handed to each mover directly at the end of the job rather than to the foreman to divide. Our working guideline scales with hours rather than with the value of the shipment, because that is how moving labour is actually priced:
These are a BestMovers.info editorial guideline, not a survey result. We hold no tipping survey for Modesto and no federal record covers gratuities, so nothing here is a local figure. Read the full tipping guide for stairs, long carries, storage and interstate deliveries, where the crew that loads is not the crew that unloads.
Free boxes come from businesses that receive stock in cartons and throw the cartons away, and from households that finished moving last week. The sources are the same in every city, including Modesto:
Ask in the morning, when the overnight delivery has just been unpacked and the cartons have not yet been flattened. Skip anything damp, greasy or previously used for produce that leaked. The free boxes guide covers how many you need by home size — those counts are BestMovers.info planning estimates rather than measured figures — and which boxes are worth buying rather than scavenging.
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Researched and written by Grant Holloway · Reviewed by Brittany Evans · Last reviewed August 2026
How we evaluate Modesto movers: we verify federal registration and operating authority against FMCSA records, record carrier or broker classification, and note state licensing where the state regulator publishes it. The list above is not ranked and carries no numeric score. Read the full methodology