Guides
How to choose moving company services to publish
Choose moving company services to publish based on your calendar and customer surveys. Keep inclusions clear and build less common options during estimates.
What to take away
- Moving company services are easier to publish when they are grouped into a few clear configurations.
- Show customers what changes between configurations instead of relying on a tier name.
- List access charges separately from package inclusions. State the billing unit, rate, and estimated quantity on the estimate; these charges depend on the building.
- Publish no more than three at a time on the website. The other configurations can be built during the survey.
Package structure
Choose a core service, then state any optional work included. The estimate and crew sheet should name the work rather than rely on a package label.
Bases
Bases vs modules
Bases
- Labor only
- Crew, no truck
- Local move
- Survey, crew, truck
- Long-distance
- Delivery window
- Packing
- —
- Partial packing
- —
- Materials
- —
- Unpacking
- —
- Disassembly
- —
Modules
- Labor only
- —
- Local move
- —
- Long-distance
- —
- Packing
- M1 all rooms
- Partial packing
- M2 fragile only
- Materials
- M3 no labor
- Unpacking
- M4 debris removal
- Disassembly
- M5 reassembly
Modules
A base is the core service; a module is optional work added to it. Name each inclusion in plain language—packing, partial packing, materials, unpacking, disassembly, crating, or storage—on the estimate and crew sheet. Codes are shorthand, not a substitute for a customer-facing inclusion list.
Moving company service configurations
The examples below are grouped by service type: labor marketplaces first, then local full-service moves, then containers and van lines.
The companies that sell them: U-Haul Moving Help, HireAHelper, Bellhop, Two Men and a Truck, FlatRate Moving. Roadway Moving, PODS, U-Pack, 1-800-PACK-RAT, Modern Piano Moving. Craters & Freighters, Dolly, Mayflower Transit, Atlas Van Lines, 1-800-GOT-JUNK.
| # | Package | Build | Who it fits | What the customer gets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | U-Haul Moving Help, loading | B1 | Customer rented a U-Haul truck and wants the load done properly | Crews book by the hour through U-Haul's Moving Help marketplace and set their own rates. The request lists truck size, address, and stairs. |
| 2 | HireAHelper unloading crew | B1 | Truck arriving, nobody to unload it | You enter truck size, date, stairs, and long carry, and crews quote against it. Access lines left out of the request turn into a change at the door. |
| 3 | Bellhop Labor Only | B1 + M5 | A move the customer drives themselves | The customer supplies the truck. Bellhop gives an hourly price before the day, with a two-hour minimum that is typical for labor-only bookings. |
| 4 | Two Men and a Truck local move | B2 | The default job | Company truck, crew, transport, and placement. The local franchise sets the hourly rate and quotes from a walkthrough or a phone inventory. |
| 5 | FlatRate Moving local move with furniture taken apart | B2 + M5 | Beds, tables, and items that will not clear a doorway | The price is fixed from a walkthrough or a video survey. Beds and tables come apart and go back together inside that price. |
| 6 | U-Haul cartons with a company crew | B2 + M3 | Cost-sensitive customer who will pack | U-Haul centers sell small, medium, and large cartons and room kits. Materials go on the estimate with no packing labor attached. |
| 7 | Two Men and a Truck partial packing | B2 + M2 + M3 | The most common upgrade, and the one that prevents most claims | Named fragile categories only: glass, art, lamps, electronics. Cartons, tape, and padding arrive with the module. |
| 8 | Roadway Moving full-service local | B2 + M1 + M5 | Customer wants to touch nothing | Packing, disassembly, loading, transport, and placement at one quoted price. Roadway runs crews in the New York metro and ships nationwide. |
| 9 | Full-service local with unpacking | B2 + M1 + M4 + M5 | Short turnaround, or a customer who will not unpack | The crew unpacks to flat surfaces. 1-800-GOT-JUNK removes the empty cartons and packing debris, priced by volume at the door. |
| 10 | PODS container with storage | B2 + M7 | Closing dates that do not meet | Containers come in 8, 12, and 16 feet, and the 16-foot unit takes a three-bedroom home. PODS stores the loaded unit and delivers it when the new place is ready. |
| 11 | Modern Piano Moving single item | M8 + M6 | A piano, a safe, or a single heavy item | Piano crews travel nationwide with skids, straps, and boards. Craters & Freighters builds a custom crate for art, a piano, or machinery. |
| 12 | Dolly in-home move | M8 | Renovation, staging, or a floor change in one building | Dolly books a two-person crew by the hour, often same day in major metros. No truck is needed when the load stays inside the building. |
| 13 | Materials delivery before the crew day | M3 | Sold at the survey, no crew day | U-Haul centers and the counters at Penske and Budget sell cartons, tape, and mattress bags. Buying them early keeps the crew off a supply run. |
| 14 | U-Pack ReloCube by ABF Freight | B3 | A move out of the metro | The cube is about 6 by 7 by 8 feet and holds a studio or a one-bedroom. It moves door to door on ABF's schedule and can sit at the address while you load. |
| 15 | U-Pack trailer, fragile items packed by the crew | B3 + M2 + M3 | The usual long-distance configuration | ABF prices trailer space by the linear foot with a five-foot minimum, which is typical, so a partial load costs less than a whole trailer. A hired crew packs the named fragile items. |
| 16 | Mayflower Transit full-service long-distance | B3 + M1 + M5 | Employer-paid and relocation work | One crew packs, loads, drives, and unloads, with a delivery window measured in days. The estimate type is in writing before the pickup. |
| 17 | Atlas Van Lines long-distance with storage in transit | B3 + M1 + M7 | Dates that do not align at the far end | Goods wait in the destination warehouse, billed by the month once included days run out. 1-800-PACK-RAT and Smartbox store the load too, but they do not pack it. |
List access separately from package inclusions. State the billing unit, rate, and estimated quantity on the estimate, because access charges depend on the building.
For container moves, U-Haul's U-Box, PODS, and 1-800-PACK-RAT rent the box, and the customer or a hired crew fills it.
Seventeen packages by build
Package
- 1 Loading help
- B1
- 2 Unloading help
- B1
- 3 Load and unload
- B1 + M5
- 4 Basic local
- B2
- 5 Local with disassembly
- B2 + M5
- 6 Local, customer packs
- B2 + M3
- 7 Fragile packed by us
- B2 + M2 + M3
- 8 Full-service local
- B2 + M1 + M5
Build
- 1 Loading help
- Customer rented truck
- 2 Unloading help
- Truck arriving
- 3 Load and unload
- Customer drives
- 4 Basic local
- Default job
- 5 Local with disassembly
- Beds, tables
- 6 Local, customer packs
- Cost-sensitive
- 7 Fragile packed by us
- Common upgrade
- 8 Full-service local
- Touch nothing
Who it fits
- 1 Loading help
- 2 Unloading help
- 3 Load and unload
- 4 Basic local
- 5 Local with disassembly
- 6 Local, customer packs
- 7 Fragile packed by us
- 8 Full-service local
How to choose the three you publish
Publish the three configurations that cover most of your calendar and differ visibly from each other. A local yard that leads with hourly work can publish a basic move, a fragile pack, and full service.
Those three differ in what the crew does, so customers can see the step up between them. A yard that leads with containers can publish a container package instead.
The other fourteen are configurations you assemble during the survey. That is the right place for them, because the survey is where you learn whether there is a piano, whether the dates meet, and whether the customer intends to pack.
The rules that hold across all seventeen
- No package price without a survey.A configuration is not an estimate. The estimate comes from cubic feet, inventory, and access.
- The estimate type is stated on every one.Binding, non-binding, and not-to-exceed put the risk of a wrong survey in different hands, and the type belongs in the first line the customer reads.
- Customer-packed cartons are flagged when packing is not included.The flag goes on the survey, the estimate, and the crew sheet, and the crew inspects those cartons at the walkthrough.
- Exclusions are named, not implied.Appliance disconnection, wall mounts, and debris removal are the three most often assumed to be included.
- Valuation is presented, not bundled.The protection level for the goods is the customer's selection under the rules that govern the move, so it appears as a choice with a recorded answer on every package.
Which packages are worth selling
Use the contribution-per-crew-hour method in most profitable moving company services: subtract variable job costs from package revenue, then divide by crew hours, using your own job sheets. Compare like with like; the result is specific to your operation.
Modules sold during work you were already doing tend to do well, because the travel is already paid for. Examples: materials at the survey, disassembly at the walkthrough.
For corporate and property-manager work, packages are often replaced by a unit rate card. Account pricing needs a separate rate-card approach.
What the packages demand of the crew
Any package that includes packing requires crews trained to pack. Packing is a skill, not an attitude. Selling a packing module a crew cannot deliver turns a margin into a claim.
Train first, then publish, the sequence in the hiring and training guide. Packages that include storage need a suitable facility and insurance coverage appropriate to stored goods before they appear on a page.
What you may say about a package
If a package is described as complete, all-inclusive, or fixed, that is a claim you must support on every job it is sold on. The Federal Trade Commission's advertising FAQs for small businesses set the standard that claims be truthful and substantiated.
An access charge appearing at delivery on an all-inclusive package is exactly the situation that standard is about.
Before offering long-distance packages
Numbers 14 through 17 change what the law requires if the move crosses a state line. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Protect Your Move materials describe the documents and information an interstate customer must receive and the distinction between a mover and a broker.
U-Pack, Mayflower Transit, and Atlas Van Lines all haul household goods under those rules. A company that sells the move without hauling it is a broker, and the FMCSA materials say so.
Interstate move documents
- Confirm FMCSA requirements before publishing
- Confirm state regulator rules for in-state long moves
- Distinguish mover from broker
- Provide required documents to customer
For moves that stay inside one state, check the requirements that apply in that state before publishing. The expansion and market guide treats the paperwork rebuild as a real cost of adding these packages.
Keep the configuration with the job
Record the configuration sold by base and modules on the job file, plus the hours and materials the job used. Put the product name next to it, so the invoice the customer holds and your job file agree.
The Internal Revenue Service's guidance on what kind of records should I keep leaves the system to the business, provided it clearly shows income and expenses. Recording it lets you tell next year which of the seventeen were worth offering.
Common questions
Is seventeen too many to offer?
Seventeen to build from, three to publish. The rest exist so the survey has somewhere to put an unusual job.
Should packages have tier names?
Only if the names sit above real inclusion lists. A name without a list is decoration, and it produces the argument at delivery.
Can a customer mix modules freely?
Mostly yes, which is the point of the grammar. The exceptions are storage, which needs a facility, and specialty handling, which needs the equipment and a trained crew.
What if a customer wants a package you no longer sell?
Quote the configuration from the grammar. Nothing is lost by building it once for one customer if the modules are already defined.
