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How to read a moving-company profile
Every carrier on this page lists the same baseline: USDOT number, MC number, BBB rating, year founded, and headquarters. Those five fields settle whether the company is real and trading. They don't, by themselves, tell you whether the company is good — that's where the editorial summary, complaint history, and price range come in.
The directory currently profiles 182 national, regional, and DIY brands. Nothing here is ranked and no company carries a score: the order on the hub is for browsing only, and the sourced detail lives on each company's own page.
What the license line actually means
USDOT is the federal carrier ID assigned by the FMCSA. Anyone moving household goods across state lines has to have one. If a website doesn't list it, that's a yellow flag at minimum.
MC number (Motor Carrier authority) is what gives the company permission to move freight for hire across state lines. It's a separate filing from USDOT and shows up on the same SAFER record.
BBB rating runs A+ through F. The letter is the BBB's own scoring of the company, not customer reviews. A company can have an A+ from BBB and still average 2.5 stars from customers — both numbers belong on the page.
National carrier, van line, or local independent
National carriers (Allied, United, Mayflower, North American, Atlas) operate as agent networks. The brand handles dispatch, billing, and tracking; the actual crew is a local agent. Quality often tracks more closely with the agent in your specific city than with the brand on the truck.
Regional and local independents own their fleet, hire their own crews, and usually price 15–25% under the national brands on local jobs. Trade-off: limited geography, smaller claims department, and capacity that disappears in peak season.
DIY platforms (PODS, U-Pack, U-Haul U-Box, 1-800-PACK-RAT) are container-and-driver services. You load and unload; they handle the long-haul. For interstate moves under 1,500 miles with a flexible delivery window, this is consistently the cheapest option that's still safe.
Editorially independent, funded by referral fees. We may be paid when you request a quote from a company listed here. Payment does not decide who is listed or the order they appear in, and we publish no score or star rating. Advertising disclosure
The directory
Click any carrier for the full review, pricing range, and verdict.
Company summaries are based on publicly available information from official mover websites, FMCSA records, BBB profiles, and recent customer review patterns. Logos are displayed for brand identification in an independent directory and do not imply partnership, sponsorship, or endorsement.
Liffey Van Lines Inc files from 429 Stillwater Road in Mahopac, New York with 15 power units, 20 drivers, a household goods cargo entry and a current MCS-150 on file. The company publishes its own federal registration on its site rather than the van line's, which is the cleaner practice among Allied agents, but the licensing file returns no docket for that number, so its interstate work runs inside Allied's authority. It has moved New York City households since 1975 and handles local, long-distance and international relocations from a single Hudson Valley base.
The registrant behind the brand is Spike Inc, carrying the Olympia Moving & Storage DBA at 17 Bridge Street in Watertown, Massachusetts, with 70 power units, 91 drivers and a household goods cargo entry. Common authority is active under MC-288585 with household goods and property authority on the licensing record, which is a larger owned fleet than most regional agents run. The company began in 1993 and now operates branches across Massachusetts, the Washington DC region and Pennsylvania, moving long-distance shipments inside the Wheaton World Wide network under that van line's separate registration.
Safe Movers Inc, carrying the Isaac's Moving and Storage DBA, files from 181 Campanelli Parkway in Stoughton, Massachusetts with 25 power units, 28 drivers and a household goods cargo entry, with common authority active under MC-272369. The rating on file is Satisfactory, from a compliance review recorded in 2001, which is old enough that it describes the operation of that era rather than today's. The brand has run since 1988 and operates as an independent carrier rather than a van-line agent, with a second active Philadelphia registrant and one inactive registration also carrying the name, listed below so a reader can check the entity that will actually appear on their paperwork.
Victory Van Corporation files from 110 Terminal Drive in Sterling, Virginia with 21 power units, 25 drivers and a household goods cargo entry, and common authority active under MC-128153 with household goods and property authority. The rating on file is Satisfactory, from a compliance review recorded in 2006. The company's own site dates the business to 1928, when it was founded as the Federal Storage Company, and states that it took the Victory Van name in 1945. Its site publishes a docket that differs by one digit from the federal record, a discrepancy recorded on this page rather than quietly corrected, and long-distance shipments move inside the Allied Van Lines network under that van line's separate registration.
Paxton Van Lines Inc files from 5300 Port Royal Road in Springfield, Virginia with 20 power units, eight drivers, and both household goods and general freight cargo entries. The licensing record carries two dockets for the registration: common authority active under MC-061481 with household goods and property authority, and a separate freight forwarder docket with contract authority active, which is what supports the group's international shipping work. The rating on file is Satisfactory, from a compliance review recorded in 2009. The wider Paxton group holds several other registrations, active and inactive, and household interstate moves run under the van-line registration listed above, so the entity named on a quote is worth confirming before signing.
NorthStar Moving Corporation, trading as NorthStar Moving Company, files from Northridge, California, active on the federal census with a household goods cargo entry and eleven power units, and common authority active under MC-665757 with household goods authority on the licensing record. The federal filing carries a contact address on the company's own brand domain, which is what ties the registration to the business a reader is quoting. Several further registrants carry the same trading name in California and in other states; their corporate relationship to this registrant has not been established, so they are listed separately as unresolved rather than presented as branches. The company dates itself to 1994 and runs local, long-distance and international relocations from the San Fernando Valley.
Meathead Movers Inc files from San Luis Obispo, California with 53 power units and a household goods cargo entry, and the licensing record carries common authority active under MC-398077 with household goods authority alongside a separate freight forwarder docket. Freight forwarder authority is not broker authority, and no broker authority was located, so the company is reported here as a carrier that additionally holds a freight forwarder docket. The pair the company publishes on its own site matches the federal record exactly, which is the cleaner practice among California carriers. The business dates itself to 1997 and staffs its crews from local college athletic programmes.
Palmer Moving & Storage Co, carrying the Palmer Moving Services trading name, files from Warren, Michigan with household goods and general freight cargo entries and a docket recorded on the licensing file as MC-406654. The registration's own operating configuration is intrastate, and the interstate household work the company advertises is performed in relation to Atlas Van Lines rather than under independent interstate authority established here; the two are kept separate on this page rather than merged into a single claim. The number shown alongside the Atlas agent branding on the company's site identifies the van line and is held in the van-line relationship layer instead of on this record. The business dates itself to 1910.
Chipman Corporation, carrying the Chipman Relocations trading name, files from San Ramon, California, active on the federal census with a household goods cargo entry, and the licensing file returns a freight forwarder docket for the same registration. The company is a UniGroup agent, and the two further registrations printed on its website identify United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit rather than Chipman; they are held in the van-line relationship layer and never attached to this record. A separate registrant in Kent, Washington carries the brand's trading name and a first-party email domain on its filing, which is enough to disclose it and not enough to state the corporate relationship, so it is recorded as unresolved. The business dates itself to 1939.
Hollander International Storage and Moving Company, Inc. files from the Chicago area, active on the federal census with a household goods cargo entry and a fleet in the mid-forties, and the licensing file returns both common carrier authority and broker authority on the same registration. The two are reported separately on this page rather than merged into one generic authority line, because a shipment moved under the carrier authority and a shipment arranged under the broker authority are different contracts. The company is a United Van Lines agent and also references Mayflower in its service structure; no United or Mayflower corporate identifier is stored on this record. A separately registered person trading under a similar name in New Jersey, and an unrelated Kansas registrant, were reviewed and deliberately not merged here. The business dates itself to 1888.
Noted for: Chicago-area household and corporate relocations booked with a long-established United Van Lines agent that holds both carrier and broker authority in its own name.
Look up the USDOT number on safer.fmcsa.dot.gov. The record shows active status, insurance on file, and complaint history. Takes about 30 seconds and should be done before any deposit.
What does the BBB rating actually mean?
It's the BBB's own scoring of the company's complaint resolution and trading history. It runs A+ to F and is independent of customer review averages. A company can have A+ from BBB and 2.5 stars from customers — both numbers belong on the same page.
Are national van lines better than local movers?
Better for what? National brands win on interstate logistics, claims handling, and tracking. Local independents almost always win on local-job pricing and crew familiarity with your specific neighborhood.
Why do quotes from the same company vary so much?
Online quotes use generic ZIP-to-ZIP rates. In-home and video surveys use actual inventory. The difference between the two is often 20–40%. Always get the latter for moves over 5,000 lb.
What's a fair deposit to pay?
Under $100, ideally on a credit card (which gives you chargeback rights). Anything over that — especially in cash or wire — is a red flag in this industry.
