From Selection to Protection: Picking Movers and Knowing Your Rights
In this episode of the Moving Tips and Tricks podcast, host Mariette Frey discusses two crucial topics for anyone planning a move: how to choose a reputable moving company and understanding your rights and responsibilities as a consumer. Mariette emphasizes the importance of thorough research when selecting a mover, including checking for proper licensing and reviews. She also highlights the significance of understanding the legal documents involved in moving, such as estimates and liability coverage, to protect oneself from potential scams and issues during the moving process.
Chapters
- 02:35 Choosing the Right Mover
- 10:40 Understanding Your Rights and Responsibilities
Mariette Frey is a relocation strategist, life coach, and host of the Moving Tips + Tricks podcast. Every week on Smart Move Monday: Coach Mariette’s Corner, she offers free coaching to help listeners move with clarity and confidence. Check out her favorite tools, trusted show sponsors, and more at www.decidingtomove.com. Free spots are limited — coaching roster opens soon!
—
Listen to the podcast here
Choosing The Right Movers: Your Rights And Responsibilities Explained
From Selection To Protection: Picking Movers And Knowing Your Rights
Choosing The Right Mover
I am excited to dig in on two very important topics. The first topic is picking a mover. The second topic is knowing your rights and responsibilities. I have decided that I’m going to put these two together because there are so much that can happen. A lot of times people spend more time picking their vacation spots and they do picking the company that’s going to put all of your stuff on a truck and derive it into the sunset with no recourse. There’s a little recourse but not a time if they steal your stuff.
I want to make sure that doesn’t happen to you but getting into both of those things. First and foremost, I want to say that when we are in a local move situation, it is just as important, if not almost more important to find a mover that is reputable. I have said this before and I know that these companies that do these like multiple quotes scenarios are probably going to have things to say to me about how I feel about this but this is my personal opinion. I don’t use them.
What I’m talking about are there are brokers sites where you go in and they have a whole directory of movers that they choose from. These are lists that could be sold onto the interweb. I have no idea where these people get these movers from. I would love to talk to a broker site if they feel like they’re among the unique ones that don’t have any scams or scam artists on there. Essentially what I recommend you do is you Google moving company and your ZIP code. I know sounds mind blowing but what’s going to happen is the first like 5 or 6 that are going to come up are going to be sponsored moving companies, which is fine.
What that list that Google puts together for you at the bottom of that, that says, “Here are the local ones in your area.” Those are the ones I want you to go to. I want you to go to their website and I want you to check to see that they have testimonies of physical location and got trucks with their names on them. Some of them movers don’t have trucks and do legitimately from like the writers and the U-Hauls of the world but here’s the unique differentiator.
They need to have a department of transportation number on the side of the truck on the website because what you want to do is you want to go to ProtectYourMove.gov and that is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration moving site. It is dictated by the government. What they do is they regulate household moving goods, which is what movers do. When you go to their site, they have a mover database that you can go in and see if there’s any complaints against these movers.
The Better Business Bureau is an option for you. However, sometimes these shell companies will come in and they will realize they’re getting bad reviews then they will change their name and start a brand new Better Business Bureau account. It’s a lot harder and that happens to you on Google and Yelp and all these different reviews sites. When you go to a moving company’s actual website, they are going to showcase and put things on there like about, like who are their team members, are they drug tested and background checked.
Those are the things that you want when somebody is grabbing your stuff and putting it on a truck. What I suggest is to get on the Google site and I would find local companies. Here’s the thing. When you are moving locally, you’re paying them by the hour. You get a couple guys. You get two hours or $180 or something like that and they’re just going to move stuff into a truck then bring it to the next place. I have a three-bedroom house. On average, it always is going to take longer to load the house up front than it is going to be to drop things off.
Loading the house up front, I would say, is going to take about 6 to 8 hours. That’s just a general rule of thumb. I’ve had it done in as little as four hours. It depends on how many people they bring. If it’s two guys and a truck. Not the company specifically but two dudes. I have never in all my twenty moves ever had a woman. I will generally like here and stereotypically say it’s two dudes. Sometimes I’ve had 3 or 4 and those moves always go quicker. When you’re when you’re picking a move, ask how many people they send.
What you want to do is you want to go to ProtectYourMove.gov. I have interviewed the division chief of the FMCSA. I’m not sure if she’s still in place. Her name is Monique Reddick. She was amazing. I’m trying to get them to come back on the show because even just in a year, there have been different moving scams. They’ve been moving crime rings that are out there. The reason I’m telling you all this is that when you go to an actual website, you can see what their Department of Transportation number is.
You can see what their testimonies are. You can see all of those things. You want them to come on site and evaluate how much you have. As I said, I’m building up studio. It’s also going to be my office as well. In this studio, I have a bunch of stuff because we haven’t built it yet. I’ve got a Bankhead, my file cabinets, a desk, and my Christmas stuff. I got all the stuff from my move that didn’t fit in my house or in my attic and I need to move it. I have a moving company coming out and they’re going to evaluate how much I have in that room.
I have a screened in porch back patio that’s got some stuff on it too that I want them to remove that and put it all in the same place. When my dad and I are finished building the studio, I’m going to be able to move everything. I’m going to have shelves or storage shelves or shelving units. I’m going to be able to move all this stuff back in but what I need for them to do is I need to take all that stuff out so we can put the floors, the walls and the cam lighting and all of that stuff in. I don’t want to put it in my garage because we need a place to cut the wood and work on the drywall.
We need to workplace in order to get all that stuff up. I don’t know if you’ve ever had anybody work on your place, but when you have all of your stuff in one place and you use a saw. Even once, it gets dust everywhere on all the stuff and all the places. What I’m going to have the moving company do locally, I looked at three different moving companies. I went and looked at their reviews. I went to the FMCSA. This is a local move into a storage unit. They might even store the stuff for me. I don’t know. They do it very inexpensively from what I can gather, but I also might want access to this stuff that I have so I can move it in slowly. We’ll see.
They’re going to come over and do an in-home estimate, which 100%. If they don’t do an in-home estimate you have to have them do a virtual estimate. There is no other good way to understand what you’re paying for. If they send you a contract and they have not seen your stuff. Do not sign it. That is a scam. If they ask you for money up front as a deposit. Do not give it to them. That is scam. You pay for things once you are done moving, once your stuff is on a truck. They can give you a good evaluation because they’re going to weigh the truck before they get there. This is for cross country moves because they do it typically by the pound.
They’re going to weigh the truck and put all your stuff on the truck weigh the truck again to see what accurately you have impounded of your stuff. That’s important to talk through because you want to get a good idea of what these moving companies can do and how they’re going to do it if they’ve got 2 guys or 4 guys coming. If they anticipate it’s going to take 6 hours or 3 hours. You want to get a good understanding and then sales rep or whoever the person is coming to do with the estimate is going to be able to give you that information.
Understanding Your Rights & Responsibilities
Now, you have rights and responsibilities when it comes to your move and so do they. That’s what I want to talk about. I want to give you some definitions and a summary of what the top ten most important things are when it comes to your move. I was looking right before this just to refresh my memory. If you’re watching on YouTube, I’m showing you a copy of your rights and responsibilities handbook. Now, when you are going to move and you get an estimate. The people come to your house, they are supposed to give you a copy of this rights and responsibilities book. Read it.
You do not have to sign right then and there. You can DocuSign later if you decide that you want to work with them. If they walk into your house and you’re spidey senses instantly go up that this is not the right person or the right team for you to move. You don’t sign anything. Don’t be polite because it’s going to lock you into something. The absolute first thing that it says in this rights and responsibilities book through the FMCSA. This is not Mariette’s rights and responsibilities. This is literally something that comes from the government, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or the FMCSA.
They’re the ones and you can find this at ProtectYourMove.gov. I’ve said that website a couple times. I don’t get anything out of it when you go to this website. I’m purely providing a service to you because it is about twenty pages. I want to go through and talk you through what the top ten most important points are from this particular handbook because they did a great job of putting it together. It was updated. The last time that they did it was in 2013. They updated it in 2022. They added a ton more stuff about being careful because there are cybercrime rings and moving mafia. There is all kinds of things that you need to be privy to prior to putting your stuff on a truck.
Key Things To Know Before Moving
Let’s talk about the ten key things you need to know before you move. I have them all because I tend to go up on tangents. I want to make sure I don’t do that for you. For the first thing that they have on their list is what we just talked about, getting a written estimate. You never want a verbal quote. It has zero legal standing. They must provide a non-binding or a binding written estimate. That’s based on the physical survey of your goods. A binding estimate locks you into a price unless you add items. That is important to understand.
Always get a written estimate—verbal quotes have no legal standing. Share on XIf you did not open a door that had a room full of books in it that is like a thousand more pounds. They can come back and say, “You didn’t tell us about this secret room with full of books.” What a binding estimate does is it locks you into a price. That’s why it’s important to have somebody come and do a survey of your home because walking around, they know that a washer dryer is about 2,000 pounds. I don’t know how much of it. Whatever the weight parameters are for things like that. They know what that is.
They also have a non-binding estimate which basically charges you on your weight. I prefer a binding estimate because if they screw up and didn’t give me a good estimate or correct estimate, then that’s on them and you pay up to a certain amount basically. It depends on what that moving company is going to do and what you’re comfortable with. There are some moving scams like for instance, one of the old-school scams is that the cross-country moving company because they do base it on weight.
They’ll go to the weigh station with like no gas in the car or in the truck. They’ll pull the truck up onto the scale and all the people in the truck will get out of the truck, so there’s no weight but the truck itself. They’ll show up to your house and they will load up the truck and then they’ll go to the gas station and fill up the truck, which you can only imagine like how much it costs. I should Google that. I don’t even know. It’s probably like $500, but it’s a lot of weight because they’re tanks can hold a lot. They’ll go back to the weigh station and all the guys will stay on the truck. They’ll have a full tank of gas and all your stuff and you’re paying for that extra weight. You figure each guy that shows up is somewhere between 160 and 200 pounds., right?
You’re paying for that weight. Each mover charges a different weight, but they’re all around the same. I know when I move, if I move with my washer and dryer, I have about 11,000 pounds worth of stuff. It’s scary that I know that, but I no longer travel with the washer dryer. I left it my childhood house. You’re welcome, Charlotte family. Those are my favorite washer dryer I ever owned. Anyway, the second one is knowing the difference between full value protection and released values. I’m going to do an entire episode just on valuation itself.
This is basically like insurance, is what they call it. The full value protection valuation. There’s two different, so full value protection is more coverage but it costs you more. That means if the mover damages something or break something or lose something, which I’ve had some things lost, which I’m so kicking myself but you have no way to know when they just drop everything off at your house. You’re not going through taking inventory. I know they all put the stickers on everything and they’re supposed to go and take all the stickers off and see what’s missing.
Never in my 6 cross-country or 7 cross-country moves, I’ve never had them do that ever. I don’t know why they even bother doing that outside of just an inventory list. Full value protection, as I said, more coverage and cost you more but they must repair, replace, or reimburse you for lost or damaged items. There’s a released value which is basically the free from what you get when you move. It only pays $0.60 per pound per item. It is not recommended for high value items. I would never put high value items onto the truck anyway. Always put those in your car.
I’ve told people sometimes too, you can put all of your stuff on a truck except for the high value stuff. Rent a tiny little U-Haul. You can get some U-Hauls that can connect to the back of your car to put those things in, so you always have eyes on it or if you can rent a truck or put in your trunk or something. $0. 60 per pound is not going to get you anywhere and just to put it in perspective, you have a super high-tech TV that cost you $3,000. Do the math.
If it costs a couple hundred pounds and you’re only getting $0.60 per pound and you just pay $3,000 for a 4K TV. Your math isn’t going to math on that one. I’m going to do math because that would require me to get my calculator. It is way too early for that. Number three, be careful what you sign. Never sign blank or incomplete documents. I know it sounds like it would go without saying but sometimes they’ll just have you sign up blank piece of paper that says they’ll write on there like, “I release the mover from liability.”
Unless it’s unaccounted and damaged or something. I can’t remember what they said that it would say sometimes but anyway, you want something on company letterhead. You wanted to have like the dot matrix print out. I don’t know if you guys remember that. I might be dating myself, but it’s that printout that has like two or three copies so you’re getting the same copy that you signed. Never sign something that’s blank. Never signs something that’s incomplete that they haven’t written in the pounds, the full value protection or whatever it is that particular form has.
Make sure it’s completely filled out. They sign it and you sign it. That is what becomes a binding document. Otherwise, you’re releasing the liability from the mover. If everything is unaccounted for none and damaged, then you have no way to legally get anything back from them. That’s important. Number four is that the movers must require documents. There are certain things that they are required to provide you when you sign with them, a written estimate. This is the booklet that I told you about the rights and responsibilities booklet.
Never sign a blank form. Never sign something incomplete—make sure the weight, full value protection, or any required details are filled in. Ensure everything is completed, they sign it, and then you sign it. That’s what makes it a binding document. Share on XIt’s like a ready-to-move brochure on what you can expect. They are required to give you arbitration program info, access to tariffs and a bill of lading. A bill of lading is basically like a receipt for your shipment. It’s all the things that they concur with you that you have on there and that’s what they’re going to basically put. You have to have those five things the written estimate, the booklet, ready to move brochure, and arbitration program information.
I have never gotten the access to tariffs things. I’m going to only say that the bill of lading is a fifth one. Access to tariffs, who knows? Especially with tariffs now in the US at this time. It’s just crazy time for tariffs. Anyway, the fifth thing is you have rights around weighing. I gave you the example of going to the weights station. The movers must weigh your shipment on a certified scale and provide you with those weight tickets. If they do not provide you with those weight tickets, you have the right to observe or request to go with them to get the truck weighed.
You can even do that before. I have gone so far. I signed with a company. It was one of the big major movers and I will tell you that I’m never going to use them again. I’m probably never going to move across country again. I’ll be quite honest. Basically, the guy that showed up, I just did not get a good feeling for it. It felt like he was being shady right out the gates. I asked him to see his gas tank and sure enough, he was on empty. I said, “Why don’t you go fill up your tank and I’ll meet you at the weight station,” because I knew that there was one right close to my house. I watched him weight the truck and he thought it was crazy.
Quite frankly, I knew how much poundage I had and he was already telling me that I had way more that I taught I did. I came within 300 pounds of what I told him I had and I went to the weigh station with him afterwards. He handed me the receipt and I was like, “See? This is where we’re at.” That’s a whole other story for a whole other time. I’m going to do a whole show on shady movers and phenomenal movers because it’s only fair. I had more good movers and I’ve had bad movers, let’s just put it that way. I want to be honest with that but I’ve always done my research.
The sixth thing, dispute resolution is available. All movers must offer arbitration for damage or loss claims. Arbitration is mandatory for claims under $10,000 if you request it. Over $10,000 is optional unless both parties agree. That’s the thing but arbitration is legal. If that truck turns over in a snowstorm on its way to Colorado. That’s $10,000 that you have to buy all new stuff. That’s not going to go over very far. Only to put it in perspective. I want a two-seater sofa for my tiny little living room and it was like $2,000.
That being said, they have to give you a way to be able to legally pay for your things or get your stuff back if it’s being held or there’s a loss. Make sure that dispute resolution is available when you are going through this process with the estimator. Claims for loss or damage. Again, filing a claim in writing within nine months of delivery. I know that sounds like a very long time but the mover must respond within 30 days and it has to be resolved or explained within 120 days with possible extensions. That’s always a thing.
Everything has to be resolved. You have no recourse after a year, so one year from the date that they picked up your stuff. That being said, you have the right to claim a loss or damage. A lot of times, the moving driver like the truck driver themselves will try and pay you out in cash right there if they break something. I’ve had that happen. It goes against them and they get dinged pretty hard if you don’t or if it’s something that they broke. That can affect their standing as a driver and their insurance.
Sometimes it’ll happen. I’ll give you an example that same mover that my spidey senses one up on. My stuff made it but there was one piece of glass that was like for the cover of my dresser. I have this mid-century modern legit authentic mid-century modern. It was from the ‘60s dresser and somehow the glass that goes on top of it disappeared. That was a huge bummer because now I’m going to have to get another one made when I refinish it.
Anyway, I had to make a claim on that one because it’s going to cost me a couple hundred dollars to get a new one made or it was going to. I ended up getting the money back but it’s just a pain in the butt to go through that. I’m sure he was very upset about it but he also broke an entire box of wine glasses that we had from the family. I didn’t make a big deal about that because I have plenty wine glasses unfortunately. Let’s just move forward.
Number eight on the top ten most important parts from the rights and responsibilities booklet is understanding your bill of lading. This is a tough one. This is your official contracts. This is what outlines like your services, charges, and your liability coverage because that’s important. As I said, that full value protection or your released value, pickup and delivery dates. Don’t lose it. It is vital for resolving disputes. I will say that your pickup and delivery dates are imperative to have in writing on a contract with signatures because it used to be that they have like six weeks to drop your stuff off and they have since changed that.
We’ll get into what happens when you’re holding something hostage. Basically, under federal law interstate movers are required to deliver your household goods within agreed upon delivery window. It could be further out than you anticipate like that same mover like this guy. At the time I had to be in Charlotte pretty quickly, so I just ended up going with it. The sales rep told me I would have all my stuff there by April 1st, and Frank’s decided to change the dates to April 9th. That’s nine full days of me being in an empty apartment with nothing.
I would have had to stay in a hotel. I ended up getting him to move that back. I lived in Illinois. He went and picked up something in Wisconsin then had to go back down to Charlotte instead of just going down to Charlotte, which you anticipate and assume that the movers going to do that but that’s not always the case. They have to basically fill their truck to make it worth for them to move. If that means going six hours North to come another six hours down back to you and then go to your trip. That’s what they’re going to do.
They’re always going to protect their own butts over protecting yours. If you’ve agreed to those certain dates and the movers fail to deliver your goods without a valid reason. In that case, I could not have argued that the valid reason was he needed to fill his truck because that is in the paperwork that’s a valid reason. If it’s like a natural disaster or other some unforeseen events. That could be considered a valid reason.
Them just holding your stuff or not wanting to drive until they get another load. That’s considered unlawfully withholding your property. That’s not allowed. That’s illegal. You want to know that. You want to have those dates. You want to hold on to that paperwork with your important documents that you will never ever put on a truck. You heard me say this before like your passports, birth certificate, or your taxes that have your social security number on. Anything that could be used against you cybersecurity-wise. You want to make sure you have that with you just the same as you want to have this paperwork. That bill of lading and contract that’s received is incredibly important.
Number nine, movers cannot hold shipments hostage. I have had this happen to me. If you listen to the episode with David Sidoni. I explain what happened how I had to get the FBI involved. Go back and read that one. That’s a good one, but movers cannot hold your shipment hostage. If you can have 100% of the binding estimate or 110% of the non-binding estimate because keep in mind, you don’t have insurance. That plus any applicable charges that they’re going to charge you for, the mover must release your goods.
Holding them otherwise is considered illegal and that’s when you get the FMCSA and potentially the FBI involved. What happens is when you’re dealing with a mover, sometimes what happens is they’ll call you and say, “We reweight the truck and you have 2,000 pounds more than you did originally.” You know that’s not true because you obviously didn’t add anything to the truck. That’s when you can go to them and to the FMCSA and file a claim.
What you want to do first is you want to go to your local police department. You don’t have to go physically in but you can do a virtual online police report and tell them what’s happening. I will say that when your movers show is up, you have to make sure that Department of Transportation number is the same that’s on the truck that’s on their website or on the paperwork. You want to take a picture of their license plate and the truck itself. I always take a picture with the movers. I always say like, “Before you get all gross from sweaty. Let’s all bring it in and let’s take a picture to start the day off right.”
I thumbs up and we do a picture. This is how they will track some of your stuff. You file a police report and then you go to the FMCSA’s website and file a claim there. They have no authority to go and arrest somebody but they work with the government bodies that do like the FBI. They can get a federal agent assigned to the case and then they will track down your movers for you. Know that number ten is a big one, know what you’re dealing with a mover or a broker.
Most people don’t know that. When we kicked off this the show, or I think I kicked off the show by saying I don’t ever use brokerage sites. I always go directly to the website. That is exactly why brokers arrange movers but they don’t do the hauling themselves. I only hire FMCSA registered movers or brokers. You can hire a broker. They basically go through and find the stuff or the people for you but you lose a whole element of control when you do that. I personally won’t do it. That’s where I draw the line in my boundaries because it can be scary if you don’t have a direct line to your hauler or your mover.
You lose a lot of control. What I will say is that you just heard the top ten things in here. I would 100% take the pamphlet when somebody comes to your house to do an evaluation or survey. I would read through it and I would 100% make sure that you have some checklist like this that I just gave you. Maybe I’ll put together a checklist and I’ll send it out via social media. It’s important to do your homework and to make sure you understand your rights. If you don’t, there’s going to be a lot of shame and a lot of heartache involved.
This is one way for you to make a move less stressful. When you look at the table of contents on the rights and responsibilities page. There are things like the general requirements, rules and regulations of interstate transportation, what a legitimate mover and a broker is or does, your responsibility as a customer, because you have responsibilities as well and estimates like what they mean, binding and non-binding like we talked. Your liability and your claims that you can file, the moving paperwork, what it means like your actual definition of common terms and things like that, that they’ll talk in that you can be privy to when they collect on the charges.
I could probably do a whole episode on that and then the transportation like pickup and delivery like what early delivery. Sometimes you can get that as well. Storage and transit like I might have somebody store my stuff instead of like bringing it to a U-Haul or something. There’s a bunch of stuff in here. It’s an easy read. It’s big print but it can make or break your move. That is all for today. I do have a call to action for you.
If you are confused by any of this and you want to learn more, that’s part of what I do in coaching. Sometimes, people will call me and say, “I have a lot of stuff. I’m not sure what I should do.” I’ll have a testimony from a guy named Garrett who I convinced instead of doing the show because he was going to need a ton of them. They always underestimate what you need. He ended up doing a hybrid move. We hired movers for all the big stuff and got most of it out. He also had a young child. He had a baby basically. I think she was 3 or 4 months old when they moved back to Chicago.
He got a rental moving truck and filled it with all the baby stuff and a lot of the kitchen stuff that they were going to need in case the movers were delayed. If I seem to remember, they worked a little but he did a hybrid move. He was happy he did because he was able to move into the new house with enough stuff that they could use themselves. They also had all the movers come all the big stuff. There are definitely things that we can do.
On my website, I have a free on-air coaching button and we can talk through things like this. We can talk through like if your DIY in your move, what insurance you need. We can talk through a lot of the stuff. We can also talk through deciding whether you should move or not. That’s primarily what I do when I coach somebody. I talk to them somewhere six months to a year before they’re planning their move to see if it’s the right time, the right place, the right mindset, and the right community.
There’s lots of stuff that we can coach and we can do it for free. I am going to be launching a coaching program in June again. It’s been a long time since I’m had a roster. I’m a certified life coach, certified professional organizers and financial coach. I’ve got all these certifications I might as well start using them. We will talk before we get on the air so it won’t be a complete blind side. For the most part, I am here providing a service. I just want to help people who were in the same position that I was but had nobody to ask. I hope you found this interesting. I know it’s not the sexiest of topics but it’s something that’s needed. Good luck picking a mover.
Important Links
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
- Homebuyer Tips For First Timers – Prev episode
- https://www.decidingtomove.com