How much does a cross country move cost anyway?
June 26, 2022 9:22 PM Subscribe
Trying to scope out companies to move our stuff cross-country from Portland, OR to CT/RI. Are these prices normal? If not where should I look to haul our belongings?
I've been getting quotes from several of the big van line moving companies (Allied, International, Mayflower) and I'm really stunned at the prices they're giving us. For moving a 1br apartment in July, we're getting anywhere from $12-25k-- which seems far above what I expected. Even UPack is quoting $7-10k for their moving containers. (We did get one quote for around $3200, but that turned out to be a scam company)
Is this how much it costs to move cross country these days? Is it because it's a summer move or gas or something? My other long-distance moves were shorter, and over a decade ago at this point. We have some furniture and lots of boxes, but are trying to pare down as best as we can to make this not break the budget. If anyone has any other good recommendations for long distance moving companies I'm all ears, thanks!
I've been getting quotes from several of the big van line moving companies (Allied, International, Mayflower) and I'm really stunned at the prices they're giving us. For moving a 1br apartment in July, we're getting anywhere from $12-25k-- which seems far above what I expected. Even UPack is quoting $7-10k for their moving containers. (We did get one quote for around $3200, but that turned out to be a scam company)
Is this how much it costs to move cross country these days? Is it because it's a summer move or gas or something? My other long-distance moves were shorter, and over a decade ago at this point. We have some furniture and lots of boxes, but are trying to pare down as best as we can to make this not break the budget. If anyone has any other good recommendations for long distance moving companies I'm all ears, thanks!
Upack quoted me $4200 a few months ago for a similar amount of stuff from SF to Ann Arbor, so yeah I could see $7-10k for a cross country move. Uhaul has similar shipping pods and those ran a few hundred dollars cheaper. More than that seems high unless it includes packing, loading and unloading your stuff.
Honestly I think your cheapest option is to rent a Uhaul and do it yourself. Those trucks get about 10 miles to the gallon, so that's around $1800 for gas, plus the milage fees which would be around $2400. Plus taxes and insurance, that's around $5000. Add in 4 or 5 hotel stays, and you're at about $6000. If you're towing a car your gas cost will go up. If you need paid help to load or unload that will increase the cost as well. So you have to decide if the savings is worth it versus going with Upack or a Uhaul shipping pod.
posted by ananci at 9:51 PM on June 26, 2022 [3 favorites]
Honestly I think your cheapest option is to rent a Uhaul and do it yourself. Those trucks get about 10 miles to the gallon, so that's around $1800 for gas, plus the milage fees which would be around $2400. Plus taxes and insurance, that's around $5000. Add in 4 or 5 hotel stays, and you're at about $6000. If you're towing a car your gas cost will go up. If you need paid help to load or unload that will increase the cost as well. So you have to decide if the savings is worth it versus going with Upack or a Uhaul shipping pod.
posted by ananci at 9:51 PM on June 26, 2022 [3 favorites]
You're talking about moving services, right? They come to your house and pack everything and drive it cross country? Or are you talking about just renting a UHaul yourself?
I would definitely recommend the latter. Many years ago my friends and I moved 3/4 the way across the U.S., and we simply rented a big UHaul and threw all our stuff in. Still had plenty of room to spare. We also got a trailer hitch and I towed my car behind. Not going to lie, it was a test of endurance to basically live in that UHaul for 4 days. But it's totally doable, and a fraction of the price.
posted by zardoz at 11:20 PM on June 26, 2022
I would definitely recommend the latter. Many years ago my friends and I moved 3/4 the way across the U.S., and we simply rented a big UHaul and threw all our stuff in. Still had plenty of room to spare. We also got a trailer hitch and I towed my car behind. Not going to lie, it was a test of endurance to basically live in that UHaul for 4 days. But it's totally doable, and a fraction of the price.
posted by zardoz at 11:20 PM on June 26, 2022
U-box (Uhaul gives you a crate, you fill it or hire people to fill it, they haul it to the destination over a couple weeks, you or hired hands unpack it) is about $3-5k. You can for sure fit a couch, a queen bed, some tables and chairs, and a bunch of boxes in the crate. I've done it across the country twice and it worked great both times.
The only other cost is bringing a car-- about $1-2k to have it shipped, plus plane tickets for you to get there. Or, drive the car yourself, about $2k with gas and amenities for yourselves, and a week of your time. U-box typically runs a little cheaper than driving it yourself, with the obvious benefit of not driving it yourself.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:41 AM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
The only other cost is bringing a car-- about $1-2k to have it shipped, plus plane tickets for you to get there. Or, drive the car yourself, about $2k with gas and amenities for yourselves, and a week of your time. U-box typically runs a little cheaper than driving it yourself, with the obvious benefit of not driving it yourself.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:41 AM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Excellent suggestions but I've not seen any suggestions to take a step back. This really comes down to what your have in your apartment. Unless your furniture is very valuable, for a 1br apartment, you may be in a position where the cost to replace your furniture and the cost to move it are more or less the same given high fuel costs demand for moving services at the moment.
So I'd start by opening up a spreadsheet to figure out how much it would cost to replace the furniture you are planning to bring...as an aside I have never moved and not felt that some of my existing items were a poor fit for the new place after all and replaced certain things soon after moving.
If it looks as if it may be more economical to replace than to move your furniture, do the next step and add another column and identify all the things you're planning to box up that you actually use on a regular basis. Would that still require a truck to move? What if you replaced these items as well?
Irrespective of where you end up in terms of numbers, working through that process would allow you to put the prices you're quoted into context.
posted by koahiatamadl at 2:41 AM on June 27, 2022 [11 favorites]
So I'd start by opening up a spreadsheet to figure out how much it would cost to replace the furniture you are planning to bring...as an aside I have never moved and not felt that some of my existing items were a poor fit for the new place after all and replaced certain things soon after moving.
If it looks as if it may be more economical to replace than to move your furniture, do the next step and add another column and identify all the things you're planning to box up that you actually use on a regular basis. Would that still require a truck to move? What if you replaced these items as well?
Irrespective of where you end up in terms of numbers, working through that process would allow you to put the prices you're quoted into context.
posted by koahiatamadl at 2:41 AM on June 27, 2022 [11 favorites]
We moved a 2-bedroom apartment's worth of stuff from Southern California to southwestern Ontario in August last year and that ran us $16k. That was with us packing our stuff up and the moving company loading the truck and unloading at the destination. But certainly we paid a premium for cross-border service. So $25k sounds high, but $12k doesn't seem wildly off the mark.
I see somebody has suggested that you ditch your stuff and replace it at the destination. If you do consider this, remember that you have to account for not just purchasing the stuff, but also the opportunity cost: it will take not just money but also time and mental effort to replace those things, and depending on what kind of stuff you're talking about, that strategy may also prevent you from unpacking your other stuff. Eg, you can't get unpack your books until you buy bookshelves to put them on, etc.
posted by number9dream at 5:37 AM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
I see somebody has suggested that you ditch your stuff and replace it at the destination. If you do consider this, remember that you have to account for not just purchasing the stuff, but also the opportunity cost: it will take not just money but also time and mental effort to replace those things, and depending on what kind of stuff you're talking about, that strategy may also prevent you from unpacking your other stuff. Eg, you can't get unpack your books until you buy bookshelves to put them on, etc.
posted by number9dream at 5:37 AM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
I’m in the middle of a cross-country move and things are nuts. So many people are moving. Depends on the direction of travel the price can vary by 5x, and gas prices and other things make the price fluctuate wildly. I priced a move at $3200 and a day later the price had jumped $1200.
Allied, International, Mayflower, etc are all owned by the same parent company, and their prices more than doubled since January.
The best deal I found by far was U-Haul’s U-Box. Much cheaper than renting a truck and driving it ourselves. (So much cheaper the employees at the U-haul complained no one was renting their trucks.) It’s like Pods, you get containers and fill them up. Unlike Pods you can fill them at the U-Haul facility, which was important because I didn’t have street access. I paid a moving company to load and pack the containers 2 weeks ago and U-haul is dropping them off this Friday. A 1 bedroom, 1600 mile move cost around $3k for the U-haul stuff plus’s $600 for the movers at the start. (We’re unloading ourselves.)
posted by Ookseer at 6:55 AM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
Allied, International, Mayflower, etc are all owned by the same parent company, and their prices more than doubled since January.
The best deal I found by far was U-Haul’s U-Box. Much cheaper than renting a truck and driving it ourselves. (So much cheaper the employees at the U-haul complained no one was renting their trucks.) It’s like Pods, you get containers and fill them up. Unlike Pods you can fill them at the U-Haul facility, which was important because I didn’t have street access. I paid a moving company to load and pack the containers 2 weeks ago and U-haul is dropping them off this Friday. A 1 bedroom, 1600 mile move cost around $3k for the U-haul stuff plus’s $600 for the movers at the start. (We’re unloading ourselves.)
posted by Ookseer at 6:55 AM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
I see somebody has suggested that you ditch your stuff and replace it at the destination. If you do consider this, remember that you have to account for not just purchasing the stuff, but also the opportunity cost: it will take not just money but also time and mental effort to replace those things, and depending on what kind of stuff you're talking about, that strategy may also prevent you from unpacking your other stuff. Eg, you can't get unpack your books until you buy bookshelves to put them on, etc.
Don't forget to account for supply chain shortages, too. There's something I want at Ikea but they've been consistently out of it for months, for example. You can certainly buy new furniture (perhaps for less money than moving your old stuff, perhaps not), but it may or may not be the most perfect furniture for you just because of what is available at a given moment.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:06 AM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Don't forget to account for supply chain shortages, too. There's something I want at Ikea but they've been consistently out of it for months, for example. You can certainly buy new furniture (perhaps for less money than moving your old stuff, perhaps not), but it may or may not be the most perfect furniture for you just because of what is available at a given moment.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:06 AM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I did a long-distance move in 2019 and thought I would be easy on myself by spending more money to let the professionals handle things ... they broke or lost several boxes/furniture pieces and took 3 tries over 2 weeks to deliver all my things. SO ... those crazy high prices aren't necessarily going to get you better service. Save money *and* psychic energy and do the DIY.
posted by mccxxiii at 7:10 AM on June 27, 2022
posted by mccxxiii at 7:10 AM on June 27, 2022
We moved east from CA and were shocked by the cost. There is a huge exodus from CA and west coast in general. Would be interested in why.
Some movers charge by the pound and some by vo!ume. We went with volume. We took the advice that it is cheaper to discard and replace, but not so sure that was a good idea. It's been a year and we're still replacing. Much time and effort involved and it ain't cheap. Good luck, it's a big PAITA.
posted by charlesminus at 7:12 AM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Some movers charge by the pound and some by vo!ume. We went with volume. We took the advice that it is cheaper to discard and replace, but not so sure that was a good idea. It's been a year and we're still replacing. Much time and effort involved and it ain't cheap. Good luck, it's a big PAITA.
posted by charlesminus at 7:12 AM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I see somebody has suggested that you ditch your stuff and replace it at the destination. If you do consider this, remember that you have to account for not just purchasing the stuff, but also the opportunity cost: it will take not just money but also time and mental effort to replace those things, and depending on what kind of stuff you're talking about, that strategy may also prevent you from unpacking your other stuff. Eg, you can't get unpack your books until you buy bookshelves to put them on, etc.
Don't forget to account for supply chain shortages, too. There's something I want at Ikea but they've been consistently out of it for months, for example. You can certainly buy new furniture (perhaps for less money than moving your old stuff, perhaps not), but it may or may not be the most perfect furniture for you just because of what is available at a given moment.
Yep. I recently moved from Michigan to California, and I jettisoned basically all my furniture (it was all IKEA stuff to begin with so moving it definitely cost more than replacing it), but I did so with the knowledge that I was totally OK with waiting on getting furniture I actually wanted in my new spot. I was lucky that I was able to get enough from IKEA to at least furnish a couple rooms so that I could have a place to live, but they were pretty low in inventory on the stuff that I got and the showroom was full of signs on all kinds of furniture pieces saying "temporarily unavailable". So, I'm in the situation where I've got a bunch of boxes filled with books sitting around, but I'm fine with that.
I did UPack/ABF's Relocube thing - it was $3400 for one, where I loaded at their terminal and had it delivered to my driveway at the destination. With no furniture, just all my stuff (books, clothes, bike, kitchen stuff), I just about filled one up, so if you're moving more than one person's things plus some furniture, you almost certainly need two relocubes (if not more) and the prices you're mentioning don't seem that out of whack to me. If you're moving that much stuff, you might also consider UPack's trailer option, where you load a 26' long trailer and only pay for the amount of space you use within it - I've done that a couple times and it was quoted as quite a bit cheaper than a cube for my last move, but I didn't have the space at my destination for them to put it in my driveway (you can also load/unload a trailer at an ABF terminal).
posted by LionIndex at 7:44 AM on June 27, 2022
Don't forget to account for supply chain shortages, too. There's something I want at Ikea but they've been consistently out of it for months, for example. You can certainly buy new furniture (perhaps for less money than moving your old stuff, perhaps not), but it may or may not be the most perfect furniture for you just because of what is available at a given moment.
Yep. I recently moved from Michigan to California, and I jettisoned basically all my furniture (it was all IKEA stuff to begin with so moving it definitely cost more than replacing it), but I did so with the knowledge that I was totally OK with waiting on getting furniture I actually wanted in my new spot. I was lucky that I was able to get enough from IKEA to at least furnish a couple rooms so that I could have a place to live, but they were pretty low in inventory on the stuff that I got and the showroom was full of signs on all kinds of furniture pieces saying "temporarily unavailable". So, I'm in the situation where I've got a bunch of boxes filled with books sitting around, but I'm fine with that.
I did UPack/ABF's Relocube thing - it was $3400 for one, where I loaded at their terminal and had it delivered to my driveway at the destination. With no furniture, just all my stuff (books, clothes, bike, kitchen stuff), I just about filled one up, so if you're moving more than one person's things plus some furniture, you almost certainly need two relocubes (if not more) and the prices you're mentioning don't seem that out of whack to me. If you're moving that much stuff, you might also consider UPack's trailer option, where you load a 26' long trailer and only pay for the amount of space you use within it - I've done that a couple times and it was quoted as quite a bit cheaper than a cube for my last move, but I didn't have the space at my destination for them to put it in my driveway (you can also load/unload a trailer at an ABF terminal).
posted by LionIndex at 7:44 AM on June 27, 2022
Wanted to jump back in to agree that this is not a great time to be replacing a majority of your furniture, unless it's all cheap crap that you hate and want to upgrade anyway. Supply chain delays, increased fuel costs for shipping, the high price of wood, etc. are all working against you.
Caveat: I personally do not move dishes or glassware unless they are extremely expensive or family heirlooms. Too much chance of breakage in transit, even if packed well in special boxes with foam and bubble wrap. I just buy new sets at Target, which seems to cost about the same as dish and glass packing boxes do.
posted by ananci at 9:55 AM on June 27, 2022
Caveat: I personally do not move dishes or glassware unless they are extremely expensive or family heirlooms. Too much chance of breakage in transit, even if packed well in special boxes with foam and bubble wrap. I just buy new sets at Target, which seems to cost about the same as dish and glass packing boxes do.
posted by ananci at 9:55 AM on June 27, 2022
I'm going to add to the pile of people who are wary about buying new furniture on the other end. If your old stuff is truly worthless or won't survive the move, then okay. But we've been trying to supplement our move with some new pieces of furniture and have been shopping since February. In every store we shopped, every piece of furniture we liked, we were told to expect a wait from 6 to 18(!!!) months if it wasn't already in stock.
It's honestly so bad we're pricing lumber and new power tools as a more economical way to get more shelves and tables.
posted by Ookseer at 11:47 AM on June 27, 2022
It's honestly so bad we're pricing lumber and new power tools as a more economical way to get more shelves and tables.
posted by Ookseer at 11:47 AM on June 27, 2022
My friends and I have the same exact apartment footprint/layout -- 2 BR/1BA. They hired one of the big name moving companies to transport their furniture and boxes (which they packed) from CA to CO. It cost them $14K. We moved the same month, from CA to NM. We drove a truck we rented from U-Haul, and hired movers to pack the truck on one end and unpack it on the other side. It cost us $4k all-in.
posted by egeanin at 12:54 PM on June 27, 2022
posted by egeanin at 12:54 PM on June 27, 2022
I moved from North Carolina to the Oregon coast in the fall of 2018. I did the U-pack option where I used part of a whole container. I was moving a 3 bedroom house and I brought all my furniture except the couch - I don't know about you all but even if I found it on the street in NYC I love my furniture and my stuff and I'm not dumping it - anyway, long story short, it ended up costing me roughly $5000. That was for the shipping alone; I also had to hire people at both ends to pack and unpack the trailer. I had to do that twice on the Oregon end because they would only store it for 30 days before the price basically quadrupled so I had to go get a storage unit and move everything into it, then move all that to my new house 3 months later. Be warned in case you need some extra time. I drove across country with the dogs and the cat and my daughter and a tiny camper; took us about two and a half weeks and yes, that was also expensive. Altogether I think it was about $10,000. Worth it, though.
TL/DR - yeah, I would say 5 years later (and what a 5 years they have been) your 7K quote from U-Pack sounds about right and the other is what the big moving companies were quoting me back then for a 3 bedroom, so sadly, yes, that is what it costs.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:55 PM on June 27, 2022
TL/DR - yeah, I would say 5 years later (and what a 5 years they have been) your 7K quote from U-Pack sounds about right and the other is what the big moving companies were quoting me back then for a 3 bedroom, so sadly, yes, that is what it costs.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:55 PM on June 27, 2022
I've only done moves inside one state, but U Haul's fleet is not the best. We've been given trucks that broke down on the highway and they just towed the empty truck to our yet-to-be-emptied apartment. We have been left waiting 4-6 hours for a truck to be available. Maybe things have changed and maybe long distance moves are prioritized, but I'd still look for other DIY options. Either way, you want some insurance with Roadside Assistance if you are driving the vehicle.
posted by soelo at 1:40 PM on June 27, 2022
posted by soelo at 1:40 PM on June 27, 2022
I recently paid $8k to move 2bd of stuff from SF to NYC, using MoveEast which is specialized in moving between that pair of cities. I got price quotes from several other companies that were generally in that ballpark, except one company that was 2x as high.
posted by vegetableagony at 7:11 PM on July 4, 2022
posted by vegetableagony at 7:11 PM on July 4, 2022
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posted by infinitewindow at 9:44 PM on June 26, 2022