Having to move your items across town, adjacent county or nearby city poses a dilemma for many people – do I move myself or do I hire professionals to help? For those with a do-it-yourself mentality (or many friends that owe you a favor), taking on the task of a local move is an option. If your situation does not provide you with access to a pool of manual labor (or you just don’t want to do it yourself), there are luckily many local moving companies that are willing to do the heavy lifting for you.
Local movers will come to your home, load everything into their truck, drive it to your new home and bring everything inside. If you want to pay a little extra, you can even talk with movers what they would charge for additional moving services, like packing.
Local Moves Charged by the Hour
Before your things are loaded into the truck, a moving company representative will come out to your home and perform an in-home estimate, a process that involves them speaking with you and taking an inventory of everything you would like moved. Based on your needs, the representative will determine how much time it will take to load your items, drive to the new location, and unload your items at the new location. The mover will take the total hours required and multiply that by their hourly rate for labor. This hourly rate may include fuel charges, or they may be itemized separately.
Be sure to ask movers what types of moving services they provide as part of a move. Since local moves are charged by the hour, every request made is time the moving company has to pay for required labor. If you require additional services to be performed (i.e. disconnecting and reconnecting appliances, crating of fine art or antiques), make sure that they are included in any time estimate you receive.