The FMCSA motor carrier census lists 28 household goods registrants whose physical address is in New Orleans, LA, and 6 of those are classified by FMCSA as interstate operations. BestMovers.info holds no New Orleans price measurement, only the Louisiana range on the Louisiana page. Moves that stay inside Louisiana are licensed by the Louisiana Public Service Commission, Transportation Division. Mardi Gras (February) and Jazz Fest (April, May) close streets and tighten lodging; hurricane season tightens August, October.
Key facts
Local rate, two movers
$85 to $135 per hour
2-bedroom interstate
$2,600 to $6,100
Intrastate regulator
Louisiana Public Service Commission, Transportation Division
Interstate licensing
FMCSA USDOT and MC authority
Company profiles shown
4
Pricing data as of
May 2026
Quick answer
We do not yet hold a company profile documented as based in New Orleans or elsewhere in Louisiana. This page shows movers that publish nationwide service, alongside pricing, licensing and federal filing data.
Common service neighborhoods: French Quarter, Garden District, Marigny, Bywater, Uptown.
How far is New Orleans from the places people move to most?
New Orleans to Houston, TX is 350 driving miles, about 5 hours behind the wheel, with a typical transit of 2 to 4 days.
Driving distances and transit windows from the routes dataset; transit days are carrier delivery spreads, not guarantees.
Estimate your New Orleans moving cost
Get a personalized estimate before any sales call. Editorial estimate based on broader national moving-cost data; BestMovers.info does not maintain a separate New Orleans transaction-price dataset.
IRS county migration data for filing years 2022 to 2023 records 12,210 returns moving out of Orleans Parish, the county New Orleans sits in, and 10,107 moving in. A return approximates a household rather than a person. Those filings cover 20,410 individuals leaving and 15,965 arriving.
The counties receiving the most households from Orleans Parish were Jefferson Parish (3,125 returns), St. Tammany Parish (971 returns) and Harris County, TX (631 returns).
Arrivals came mainly from Jefferson Parish (2,619 returns), St. Tammany Parish (509 returns) and Harris County, TX (385 returns).
These figures come from federal tax return data and cover all household moves, not only those using professional movers.
How many licensed moving companies are registered in New Orleans?
The FMCSA motor carrier census lists 28 registrants carrying household goods whose physical address is in New Orleans, and 6 of those are classified by FMCSA as interstate operations. That figure counts companies whose federal registration lists an address in New Orleans. 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 New Orleans may not.
Moving crews quoting New Orleans work French Quarter, Garden District, Marigny, Bywater, Uptown and the surrounding areas.
Who licenses movers operating in New Orleans
Movers working inside New Orleans are licensed by the Louisiana Public Service Commission, Transportation Division, whose licence, lookup route and complaint channel are set out on the Louisiana page.
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.
Why is this company shown here?
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.
USDOT 1434373Pompano Beach, FL2BR est. $2,200–$6,500
International Van Lines services overseas destinations in addition to US interstate work. What it is licensed to do federally is set out in the federal record on this page rather than described here.
Why is this company shown here?
International 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.
USDOT 2293832Coral Springs, FL2BR est. $2,700–$6,400
Mayflower Transit is the second large UniGroup brand alongside United Van Lines and runs full-service interstate moves through an agent network under its own federal registration.
Why is this company shown here?
Mayflower Transit 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.
North American Van Lines is part of SIRVA and moves interstate household goods through an agent-affiliate network. The federal registration shown here belongs to the van line, not to the local agent that loads the truck.
Why is this company shown here?
North American 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.
Which movers are federally registered in New Orleans?
The FMCSA census returns no active registrant with a physical address in New Orleans that both holds a granted household goods authority and identifies as a moving business in its legal or trade name, so this section lists no company for New Orleans.
Does a federal registration mean a Louisiana licence?
No. Federal registration and Louisiana authorisation are separate. The list above shows the federal record only, and we have not verified whether any company listed holds a Louisiana licence or permit.
A mover operating inside Louisiana needs the Common carrier certificate for household goods from the Louisiana Public Service Commission, Transportation Division. Its rates sit in tariff on file with the Commission, changed only by an Application for Tariff/Rate Change under the Transportation Tariff Rules at General Order R-32437.
Peak demand across Louisiana runs October–April. 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 New Orleans. 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:
Mid-month beats month-end. Leases and closings cluster at the turn of the month, so that is when crews are fully booked and least flexible.
Mid-week beats the weekend. Saturday is the single most requested moving day; a Tuesday or Wednesday competes with far fewer households for the same trucks.
Off-peak beats October–April. Outside the peak window, carriers are trying to keep crews working rather than turning jobs away.
Flexibility is the lever, not the calendar alone. On an interstate move, giving the carrier a pickup window of several days rather than one fixed date is usually worth more than any single date choice, because it lets them combine your shipment with another on the same lane.
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 New Orleans, 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:
$10 to $20 per mover for a job of two hours or less.
$20 to $40 per mover for a local move under four hours.
$40 to $60 per mover for a full day, meaning six hours or longer.
These are a BestMovers.info editorial guideline, not a survey result. We hold no tipping survey for New Orleans 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.
Where can you get free moving boxes in New Orleans?
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 New Orleans:
Liquor stores, which have the sturdiest small boxes with dividers
Bookshops, for small boxes rated for weight
Grocery stores, for produce boxes
Offices, for paper boxes with lids
Appliance and furniture retailers, for large flat cartons
Buy Nothing groups and Facebook Marketplace
Craigslist free listings
The U-Haul box exchange
Anyone in your building who has moved in recently
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.
There is no separate cost dataset for New Orleans. Using the national estimate, a one-bedroom local move is estimated at $420–$930 and a two-bedroom local move at $630–$1,395, while a two-bedroom interstate move from New Orleans is estimated at $3,000–$7,000. Final price depends on distance, packing services, and date.
When is the busiest moving season in New Orleans?
Late May through August is the peak window in New Orleans, with the heaviest volume around month-end weekends. Established companies commonly book out several weeks in advance during this period.
Should I get an in-home estimate or an online quote?
For local moves under 2,500 lb, an online or phone estimate is usually accurate. For interstate moves out of New Orleans or 3+ bedroom households, request a video survey or in-home estimate so the binding price reflects your actual inventory.
What's the most reliable way to verify a New Orleans mover?
Check the company's USDOT number on the FMCSA SAFER website, look at their BBB profile and current accreditation, and read recent reviews on Google and Yelp. Avoid any mover unwilling to share a USDOT number on request.
How long does a typical New Orleans move take?
A 1-bedroom local move in New Orleans usually takes 3–5 hours with two movers. A 3-bedroom local move runs 7–10 hours, and most movers won't book a same-day move past 4 PM start time.
How we evaluate New Orleans 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
