How big is the move? Start with the room-by-room list
Every price in moving rests on the inventory, so the first job is to get it right. Go room by room and dig: bed size, headboard, what is in the closet, what is under the bed, rugs, lamps, wall art, the garage shelves. Mark the items that are not going.
Then send the list to the customer to approve, and say plainly that the price is built on it. If more items turn up on move day than are on the approved list, the price can go up, and the customer should know that before they book.
Once the list is approved, turn it into weight and boxes. A common shortcut is cubic feet times 7 for the weight, and the weight divided by 100 for a rough box count. So a 6,000 lb move is about 857 cubic feet and about 60 boxes. Those two numbers tell you how many movers to send and roughly how long the day will run.
Why 6,000 lb and 3 movers is not "3 men and a truck" for everyone
Crew size and hours should come from the weight, not from habit. Plenty of new movers send three people and one truck to everything from a studio apartment to a big house, and that is exactly how one move pays and the next one loses.
The number that fixes this is your own crew's speed. Write down the pounds and the real hours on every move, and after a season you will know how long your team takes for a walk-up 1-bedroom versus a house with a garage full of tools. This is an estimate versus actual record, and job costing is the same idea for any business.
A simple example shows why it matters. Say your crew of 3 moves about 1,000 lb an hour on load and unload combined. A 2,000 lb apartment is then about 2 hours of lifting, and a 6,000 lb house about 6. Quote both at the same crew and a guessed number of hours and one of them is badly wrong.
What a crew hour and a truck hour cost you
In the example company, each labour hour on a customer's move costs $39.62 before the truck and before profit, so a 3-person crew costs about $119 an hour just to show up. That floor covers the company's yearly overhead plus everyone's full pay, the owner's included, spread over only the hours spent on moves.
The truck is priced separately, by the hours it is out on a job. A 26 ft box truck costs its lease, fuel, upkeep and insurance every hour it runs, including the hour the crew spends waiting for a freight elevator. Pads and dollies get a small share of the same hours.
The page on what a moving company charges per hour builds this into rates for 2, 3 and 4 movers and checks them against the market. The true hourly rate calculator does the floor with your own numbers.
The 3-bedroom walk-up move, start to finish
The worked example is a 3-bedroom local move of about 6,000 lb with 60 boxes the customer packed. Pick-up is a 2nd floor walk-up, the new home is about 15 miles away, and the crew wraps furniture, takes the beds apart and puts everything back by room.
The day breaks into the stages the customer sees on the quote: drive out, protect floors and wrap, take apart, load, drive the load, unload and place, reassemble. Those planned stages come to about 19 labour hours. A parking permit for the truck on the pick-up street goes on as an outside cost, and the forgotten items add about 5 more labour hours.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3-bedroom local move, 6,000 lb | Amount |
| 2 | Supplies, crew, truck and parking permit | $1,114 |
| 3 | Forgotten costs | $223 |
| 4 | Full cost | $1,337 |
| 5 | Markup, 5% cushion and 20% profit | $425 |
| 6 | Price to the customer | $1,762 |
The $425 is 24.1% of the price, and it is what stays after the crew and the owner have both been paid. Over the 24.25 labour hours the move earns about $57 an hour against the $39.62 floor. Take out the supplies and permit and divide by the roughly 8 hours the crew is out, and the move sells at about $185 an hour for 3 movers and a truck.
Stairs, the drive back and other hours movers do not bill
Most lost money on a local move is time around the lifting, not the lifting. On the example move the forgotten list adds $223 to cost; leave it off and the same pricing rules give about $1,481 instead of $1,762, a $281 gap.
The inventory call itself. Going room by room and sending the list for sign-off feels like sales, but it is paid time and the price stands on it.
The closet nobody mentioned. An estimate that only asks about the big furniture will be way off once the closets, the garage and the space under the beds are opened. Agree up front that items missing from the approved list are added on move day, which is a small change order settled before the truck arrives.
Stairs, elevators and the walk from the truck. Parking trouble, narrow road access, delivery time windows, elevators and stairs each add crew time, and big moving companies tell their own customers to expect a higher price for them. Ask about every one on the inventory call, at both ends of the move.
The trip back to the yard. It happens after the customer signs off, so it slips off the estimate, yet it is a full crew on the clock. Some owners try a separate travel or mileage fee and drop it because customers find it confusing. If you do the same, the drive has to be inside your hours or your rate.
Parking permits. A city permit to hold the street costs cash and time to arrange, and the rules differ at each end of the move.
Bulky items and extra services. Pianos, safes and hot tubs, extra stops, long carries, pack-up service, added valuation coverage and storage are all add-on charges. Quote them on their own lines.
Paperwork and claims. Movers get into legal trouble when a rushed crew skips parts of the bill of lading, so give the paperwork real time on the schedule. Sooner or later a damage claim will come in, so set aside a per-move amount based on your own claims history.
Mistakes that cost movers the job's profit
Most underpriced moves come from three habits: one rate for every move, an owner who is not in the math, and no deposit.
Pricing from payroll alone. A common rule is that crew wages should be about 30% of the hourly price, and never more than 40%. It is a useful check, but it does not see the truck, rent or insurance, so a rate can pass it and still lose money.
Leaving the owner out. Many owners do not pay themselves at first and price as if their own time were free. That works until the day someone has to take your place on the truck, and then the rate is suddenly too low.
Booking on a handshake. A customer who has paid nothing can cancel the night before and leave a crew and a truck with no work. The rule to follow is simple: no deposit, no date on the calendar.
By the hour, flat rate or by the pound?
Local movers mostly sell by the hour for a crew and a truck, but the build underneath is the same whichever way you quote. Work out the price from the inventory, then show it as an hourly rate, a not-to-exceed price or a flat price; quote vs estimate explains what each one commits you to.
By weight, the example comes to about $0.29 a pound. Treat that as a check only: long-distance moves priced by weight and mileage run on your tariff and your state or federal rules, which this page does not cover. On markup, the example's 20% profit and 5% cushion on full cost land at a 24.1% margin; markup vs margin and overhead and profit explain the difference once.
Build your next quote from the inventory
The Moving Company Pricing Calculator takes the approved inventory, your crew hours by stage, truck hours, supplies and permits, and makes you answer every forgotten-cost line before it gives a price and a one-page customer quote with moving terms.