How movers calculate what a move costs

How do movers charge for a local move?

A local move is billed by the hour: a crew of a stated size, a truck, and a clock that usually starts when the crew leaves the yard. On top of the hourly rate sit a travel or fuel charge and any accessorial items, such as stairs, a long carry from door to truck, a shuttle where the truck cannot reach the building, or packing materials. Hourly rates and accessorial items are set by each carrier and, in many states, filed with a state regulator, so they vary by company and by state rather than by federal rule.

Our model estimates a two-bedroom local move at $630–$1,395 in total, and a studio at $315–$775. What moves that total is crew size and access, not the headline rate.

Figures on this page come from our pricing model. Editorial estimate, not a measured transaction price. Reviewed May 2026. They describe a full-service move on a national basis, not a quote, and they are not measured transaction prices.

How do movers charge for an interstate move?

An interstate household-goods move is priced on the weight of the shipment and the distance it travels, with packing, valuation, storage and shuttle work added as separate lines. The carrier must give you a written estimate before the move: An interstate household-goods carrier must give the shipper a written estimate of charges before the move. (49 CFR 375.401). Our model estimates a two-bedroom interstate move at $3,000–$7,000, and the full ladder from studio to a five-bedroom household spans $1,650–$18,900.

Figures on this page come from our pricing model. Editorial estimate, not a measured transaction price. Reviewed May 2026. They describe a full-service move on a national basis, not a quote, and they are not measured transaction prices.

Do movers charge by weight or by volume?

Interstate household-goods pricing is built on weight. Volume, measured in cubic feet, is the unit some brokers and container companies quote in, and it is the unit at the centre of most disputed interstate bills, because a cubic-foot figure is produced by a person looking at your belongings rather than by a scale. Weight is verifiable after the fact. Volume is not. If a quote for a move across a state line is expressed in cubic feet, ask what the weight assumption behind it is, and ask what the price becomes when the scale disagrees.

How do moving companies estimate weight?

Before the move, the carrier estimates weight from a survey: someone walks the home, or films it on a video call, and works from a room-by-room list. The estimate is a prediction. The charge is settled from the actual weight, obtained by weighing the truck empty and then loaded, and the difference between the two is your shipment. As a rough sense of scale, our model treats a two-bedroom household as 800–1,200 sq ft, ~5,500 lb and a four-bedroom as 1,800+ sq ft, ~12,000 lb.

What is the re-weigh right?

This is the one most people never use. The shipper may observe each weighing and may request a re-weigh before charges are computed. (49 CFR 375.519). You may be present at each weighing, and you may require the shipment to be weighed again before the charges are worked out. It is a federal right on an interstate household-goods move, it does not depend on the carrier agreeing that something looks wrong, and it converts a disputed number into a measurable one.

Two limits are worth stating plainly. The federal consumer-protection rules in Part 375, including the estimate, delivery and arbitration duties, apply to interstate household-goods shipments; a vehicle moved on its own is not a household-goods shipment. (49 CFR 375.101), so a move inside one state is governed by that state instead. And a re-weigh settles what the shipment weighs; it does not settle what the rate per pound should have been, which is a matter of the carrier's tariff and your contract.