The FMCSA motor carrier census lists 37 household goods registrants whose physical address is in Madison, WI, and 13 of those are classified by FMCSA as interstate operations. BestMovers.info holds no Madison price measurement, only the Wisconsin range on the Wisconsin page. Moves that stay inside Wisconsin are licensed by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Motor Carrier Services. UW-Madison move-in week (late August) saturates movers within 100 miles; winter cold complicates outdoor carries.
Key facts
Local rate, two movers
$90 to $135 per hour
2-bedroom interstate
$2,600 to $6,100
Intrastate regulator
Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Motor Carrier Services
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 Madison or elsewhere in Wisconsin. This page shows movers that publish nationwide service, alongside pricing, licensing and federal filing data.
Common service neighborhoods: Downtown, Near East, Hilldale, Maple Bluff.
How far is Madison from the places people move to most?
Madison to Chicago, IL is 148 driving miles, about 3 hours behind the wheel, with a typical transit of 1 to 2 days.
Driving distances and transit windows from the routes dataset; transit days are carrier delivery spreads, not guarantees.
Estimate your Madison 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 Madison transaction-price dataset.
IRS county migration data for filing years 2022 to 2023 records 15,457 returns moving out of Dane County, the county Madison sits in, and 16,646 moving in. A return approximates a household rather than a person. Those filings cover 22,366 individuals leaving and 22,757 arriving.
The counties receiving the most households from Dane County were Rock County (776 returns), Milwaukee County (768 returns) and Cook County, IL (761 returns).
Arrivals came mainly from Cook County, IL (738 returns), Milwaukee County (728 returns) and Rock County (620 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 Madison?
The FMCSA motor carrier census lists 37 registrants carrying household goods whose physical address is in Madison, and 13 of those are classified by FMCSA as interstate operations. That figure counts companies whose federal registration lists an address in Madison. 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 Madison may not.
Moving crews quoting Madison work Downtown, Near East, Hilldale, Maple Bluff and the surrounding areas.
Who licenses movers operating in Madison
Movers working inside Madison are licensed by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Motor Carrier Services, whose licence, lookup route and complaint channel are set out on the Wisconsin page.
American Van Lines states first-party that it staffs moves with W2 employees rather than day labour. It requires a deposit to hold a move date, so ask what portion is refundable and by when before you pay it. We publish no BBB grade and hold no complaint dataset, so nothing here rates the company's service.
Why is this company shown here?
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.
USDOT 614506Pompano Beach, FL2BR est. $2,900–$6,800
One of the oldest moving brands in the US, Bekins runs an agent-affiliate model similar to Allied, with interstate shipments booked under the Bekins registration and performed by affiliated agents.
Why is this company shown here?
Bekins Moving Solutions 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 2256609Indianapolis, IN2BR est. $3,000–$7,000
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.
Why is this company shown here?
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.
Wheaton World Wide Moving shares a parent company with Bekins and moves interstate household goods through an agent network under its own federal registration.
Why is this company shown here?
Wheaton World Wide Moving 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.
8 companies with a Madison address on their federal registration hold a granted household goods authority from the FMCSA, and 3 of those identify as a moving business in their legal or trade name. The 3 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.
48 active registrants in Madison tick household goods among their cargo types on the census form, and 22 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 Madison: a company based elsewhere may serve the city, and a registered address is not a service area.
LIGHTNER & LIGHTNER INC, trading as TWO MEN AND A TRUCK
USDOT 919682 · 3817 KIPP STREET, MADISON, WI 53718
It filed 18 power units, registered with the FMCSA on December 5, 2000, and holds granted federal household goods authority under docket MC397609, active as common carrier.
MOVING ANGELS OF MADISON LLC, trading as COLLEGE HUNKS HAULING JUNK AND COLLEGE HUNKS MOVING
USDOT 2895578 · 1412 PARKSIDE DRIVE SUITE 1226, MADISON, WI 53704
It filed 5 power units, registered with the FMCSA on May 28, 2016, and holds granted federal household goods authority under docket MC973013, active as common carrier.
USDOT 3322160 · 905 DEMPSEY ROAD, MADISON, WI 53714
It filed 6 power units, registered with the FMCSA on August 13, 2019, and holds granted federal household goods authority under docket MC1066819, active as common carrier and contract carrier.
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.
Does a federal registration mean a Wisconsin licence?
No. Federal registration and Wisconsin authorisation are separate. The list above shows the federal record only, and we have not verified whether any company listed holds a Wisconsin licence or permit.
A mover operating inside Wisconsin needs the Intrastate operating authority for property, certificate number prefixed LC from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Motor Carrier Services.
Wisconsin issues an LC certificate number with intrastate property authority. We have found no public Wisconsin register for it, so the number is confirmed with Motor Carrier Services on 608-266-9900.
Peak demand across Wisconsin 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 Madison. 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 May–September. 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 Madison, 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 Madison 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 Madison?
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 Madison:
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 Madison. 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 Madison is estimated at $3,000–$7,000. Final price depends on distance, packing services, and date.
When is the busiest moving season in Madison?
Late May through August is the peak window in Madison, 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 Madison 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 Madison 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 Madison move take?
A 1-bedroom local move in Madison 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 Madison 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
