Guides
Moving company daily operations: the SOP checklist owners rely on
Moving company SOP checklists for one move day: pre-trip, arrival walkthrough, loading, delivery and placement, and close-out, each tied to the loss it prevents.
What to take away
- A move day has five checkpoints. Each has a short list, and each list exists because of something that went wrong without it.
- The crew lead runs the lists at the door, not the office at the desk. Print them on the crew sheet.
- The arrival walkthrough is the checkpoint most yards skip and the one that prevents most claims, because it records the condition of the goods and the building before anything is touched.
- Close-out captures the actual hours and the deviations from the survey. Without that record the estimator never learns and the invoice cannot be explained.
Why lists and not training
Training tells a crew what good looks like. A list tells them what to do at 7:40 on a Saturday with a customer watching. The two are not substitutes. The lists below assume the crew has been trained under the hiring and training guide and needs a prompt, not a lesson.
Checkpoint 1: pre-trip, at the yard
- Vehicle inspection completed and recorded: lights, tires, brakes, mirrors, ramp or liftgate, and the walk-around.
- Pads counted on and the count written on the crew sheet. Pads that are not counted on cannot be counted off.
- Dollies, straps, shoulder straps, floor runners, door jamb protectors, tool kit, and shrink wrap loaded.
- Crew sheet in the lead's handaddresses, access notes, special items, customer-packed flags, building contacts. No prices.
- Materials for the job (boxes, paper, tape, mattress bags, wardrobe cartons) loaded against the estimate's materials list.
- Departure time set to land at the origin at the start of the window.
What it prevents: the truck that arrives without the piano board, the pad count argument at the end of the month, the late start that cascades into the second job. The vehicle and equipment specification behind this list is in the equipment and setup guide.
Checkpoint 2: arrival and walkthrough, at the origin
- Truck positioned where the survey said it would stand; if it cannot be, the lead calls dispatch before unloading equipment.
- Walkthrough with the customerevery room, the garage, the basement, the attic. Compare against the survey inventory.
- Pre-existing damage to floors, walls, door frames, and furniture noted and, where possible, photographed with the customer present.
- Customer-packed cartons inspected. Any carton the lead judges unsafe to carry is pointed out to the customer before it is loaded, and the decision recorded.
- Items added since the survey identified and the office called for a change order before they go on the truck.
- Floor runners and door protection down. Elevator pads hung if the building supplies them.
What it prevents: the claim for the scratch that was there before, the box of books that fails on the ramp, the garage that doubles the hours without anyone agreeing to pay for them.
Checkpoint 3: loading
- Inventory tags applied and the inventory sheet completed as items go on, with condition codes for anything already marked.
- Heavy and fragile items loaded in the sequence the lead planned, with the pieces for the destination's first room loaded last.
- Every wrapped piece padded before it moves, not at the truck.
- Disassembled hardware bagged and taped to the piece it came from.
- Load secured with straps at intervals, and the load checked before the door closes.
- Loaded time reported to dispatch.
What it prevents: the missing bolt bag, the shifted load, the dispute over what went on the truck.
Checkpoint 4: delivery and placement
- Truck access at the destination confirmed on arrival; shuttle plan executed if the survey called for one.
- Building protection down before the first piece comes off.
- Inventory checked off as pieces come in, with the customer or their representative present.
- Placement by the customer's room plan, and reassembly of items that were disassembled.
- Damage discovered at delivery recorded on the inventory before the customer signs, not after.
- Customer walkthrough of the truck to confirm it is empty.
What it prevents: the "we never received it" claim, the argument over placement, the customer signing a clean sheet and calling about a broken leg the next morning.
Checkpoint 5: close-out
- Actual hours by phase (load, travel, unload) written on the job sheet.
- Deviations from the survey listeditems added, access different from the notes, waits for elevators or docks.
- Pads and equipment counted off against the count from checkpoint one.
- Documents collectedsigned inventory, bill of lading, any change orders, and payment record.
- Anything that could become a claim reported to the office the same day.
What it prevents: the estimator's productivity figure drifting from reality, the invoice nobody can explain, the claim that arrives as a review. The dispatch side of close-out, and what the actual hours feed into, is the dispatcher's side of the same record.
Interstate jobs carry more paper
For a move that crosses a state line, the documents at checkpoints two, three, and four are more than good practice; some are required. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Protect Your Move materials describe the documents and information an interstate customer must receive. Its regulations and enforcement page identifies the rules that govern interstate household-goods carriers.
Add the interstate items to the crew sheet as a separate block rather than trusting the lead to remember which job is which. The expansion and market guide treats the paperwork rebuild as one of the costs of going interstate.
The lists are records
Completed checklists filed under the job number are the operating record. The IRS's guidance on what kind of records should I keep asks for a system that clearly shows income and expenses. The job sheet from checkpoint five, with hours and materials against a job number, covers the cost side.
Beyond the tax use, the owner reads the lists when a claim arrives. The operations and workflow guide builds its monthly review on them.
Common questions
Do the lists slow the crew down?
Checkpoint two adds minutes at the start. It saves the hours spent on a claim that a photograph would have closed.
Who signs off each checkpoint?
The crew lead, on the sheet, with a time. A checkpoint with no time against it was not done.
What if the customer refuses the walkthrough?
Note the refusal on the sheet and photograph what you can from the doorway. The refusal itself is a fact worth having later.
Should the lists be on paper or in an app?
Whichever the lead will actually complete standing in a hallway. The record matters, not the medium.
