About the author
Chris Terry
Editor, Encore Editorial
Chris Terry edits and publishes at Encore Editorial. He has spent years covering business finance and consumer markets, with a focus on making complicated cost decisions easier to think through.
A local move and a long-distance move are priced in completely different ways. Long-distance is mostly about weight and miles. Local is about time: how many movers, for how many hours. Once you know that, the quote stops being a mystery.
Local movers usually charge by the hour per mover, often around $25 to $50 per mover per hour, so a two-person crew runs roughly $80 to $120 an hour with the truck. A typical local move lands somewhere between $400 and $1,200 depending on home size and how much you have. Estimate yours in the moving cost calculator.
Most local movers quote an hourly rate that includes the crew and the truck, with a minimum number of hours. The clock usually starts when they arrive and stops when they finish, and some companies add travel time to and from their depot. A studio might take two movers three hours; a three-bedroom house can take a four-person crew most of a day.
Time is the meter, so anything that slows the crew costs money: stairs, a long walk from the door to the truck, an elevator you have to share, and boxes that are not packed and ready when they arrive. The single best way to keep a local move cheap is to be completely packed before the movers show up, so they spend their hours moving, not waiting.
If you are crossing state lines or going a long way, the hourly model gives way to pricing by weight and distance, which works very differently. Compare the two approaches in the cross-country cost guide, and weigh hiring a crew against doing it yourself in movers vs DIY.
Two things people forget to budget. A tip is customary for movers who do a good job, often $20 to $40 per mover for a local move, or a percentage of the bill. And timing changes the price: the end of the month, weekends, and summer are peak, so a midweek move in the off-season often means a lower rate and a crew that is not rushing to the next job.
Local movers usually charge by the hour per mover, roughly $25 to $50 each, so a two-person crew with a truck runs about $80 to $120 an hour. A typical local move totals between $400 and $1,200 depending on home size and volume.
By time, not distance. Movers quote an hourly rate that covers the crew and truck, with a minimum number of hours. The clock usually runs from arrival to finish, and some companies add travel time to and from their depot.
Anything that eats hours: stairs, long carries from the door to the truck, shared elevators, and boxes that are not packed when the crew arrives. Packing your own boxes ahead of time is the easiest way to keep the bill down.
Almost always, because there is no long haul and pricing is hourly rather than by weight and miles. Once you cross state lines, movers switch to weight-and-distance pricing, which usually costs considerably more.
Chris Terry edits and publishes at Encore Editorial. He has spent years covering business finance and consumer markets, with a focus on making complicated cost decisions easier to think through.