How to Compare and Choose Local Moving Company

You don’t need to pressure yourself or feel as if the stakes are very high, but it can be make-or-break for the whole experience if your moving company doesn’t satisfy you in the ways you want. This is because the whole reason you’re hiring a moving company is to have a hassle-free experience, not to have another dimension of worry to add to the whole process.

However, it can be confusing to compare and choose a moving company, especially when it comes to a lack of information or limited choosing options for your local moving services. Comparing becomes hard when you don’t know what metrics to base your analysis on and choosing can be hard when each moving company claims to vaguely be “the best”.

What to Look For In Your Local Moving Company?

What we want is a moving company that is affordable, competent, experienced, and trustworthy. For this, you can start with a comparison of the moving rates and how they charge you, what services they offer and which ones are most important to you, and finally, what the customers and users are saying about each moving company.

Note that it doesn’t necessarily need to be in the order – there’s something to be said for researching services before comparing rates, for example. This whole process shouldn’t take up too much time, especially when you know exactly what factors to look for.

Comparing Moving Company Quotes

There are two ways to get a quote for the moving company’s rates. One is obvious, and the second is a bit more ingenious.

The first method is to simply go to their website, fill in a form, and get a quote. You can do this for multiple local moving surveyors and it shouldn’t take a lot of time. Especially if you take stock of what your requirements are, and list them down. This way you know exactly what you want and what you have to take care of.

However, we would say cost estimation with a moving company over email, a website form, or even on the phone cannot be very accurate. Without someone actually taking stock of the physical space and requirements, the quote can wildly fluctuate when it does move to the in-person element.

After collecting these quotes, you can now compare the prices and services.

Tips and Tricks: Factors and Services To Consider

You can’t just go with the lowest-priced moving company. Not at all! Sometimes, that low cost can be indicative of low-quality services as well, or it could be that what you want simply isn’t being offered.

A lot of factors must be considered and we are going to break it all down for you (in no specific order).

Check License and Insurance

This should be one of the first things you do. In the US, for example, the USDOT licenses moving companies and organizations such as the American Moving and Storage Association offer membership. Additionally, their insurance should ideally cover everyone and everything affected by your move; you, your family, your possession, and the movers themselves.

Go For an In-House Survey

We touched on this a bit in the previous section. But an actual in-house survey not only helps with an accurate cost estimate and also helps you ascertain which moving company you’re comfortable with and would want to use. Why? Their quote and what they consider will help you see how experienced they are, including their willingness to do an in-home survey, to begin with.

The moving company’s surveyors will look out for items to handle with care. Everything that requires special packing, complex problems such as narrow corridors, doorways, hallways, stairways, and areas presenting a challenge, as well as ascertaining what tools and people would be needed for the job.

Reach Out To F&F for Referrals

Even better than reading online reviews, start by asking your friends and family. If they’ve moved recently using a local moving company. This can make the need for a lot of legwork redundant, and perhaps even give you a few strong contenders to focus on and narrow down to who you want to go with.

Maintain a Criteria Checklist

Finally, start by listing down the qualities you want and what you’re looking for in your local moving company. And whether or not each company you look at (during the in-house survey or while asking your circle of friends and family) fulfills your criteria.

Some examples of things you want to prioritize can be: