Starting from boxing up your belongings to dealing with moving chaos, moving across the country is a stressful time of your life. It is important to consider hiring the services of only the cheap long distance movers, to avoid stress and confusion during your moving process. The last thing you would ever want is to hire rogue movers, who may end up charging you high moving prices or provide you with substandard moving services. Fortunately, there are a few moving tips to consider and steps that you can follow to avoid such disasters.
Here are six essential steps on how to choose the best long distance movers who can handle your upcoming move smoothly:
Check Whether they are Licensed & Insured or Not!
Before you hire and move, it is highly recommended to check if the professional moving company you are considering is properly licensed and insured. Otherwise, you would end up engrossed in the drama of moving scams. Thankfully, it is easy to avoid such frauds. Firstly, you should be aware that all long-distance moving companies must possess a license number, known as USDOT Number, which is issued to all moving companies by the United States Department of Transportation. Once you get the USDoT number, you can quickly check their complaints about moving service by putting the number into its database.
Another important thing you must check is what moving insurance coverage the movers are offering. After all, moving mashups happen, even by best of movers. So it is crucial to be prepared for any uncertainty. All licensed best long distance movers are required to provide you with two types of insurance coverage; full value protection and released value protection.
Full Value Protection: The mover is liable to pay for the total amount of loss or damage to your belongings during the move. It is a comprehensive plan that protects your belongings to the fullest.
Released Value Protection: There would be no extra charges of adding released value protection coverage in your moving estimates. It is the most economic plan for securing your belongings. However, the protection amount is minimal, a mover under this coverage is not liable to pay more than 60 cents per pound per an article in case of any loss or damage.
Read Reviews & Check Ratings
In addition to checking the complaints in the history database on the USDOT website, it is advisable to research and read as many reviews about the movers as possible. You can check ratings and reviews online by visiting BBB, as well as other review sites. By reading reviews, you will be clear about the credibility of a mover, and read what past customers have to say about the professionalism and other things about their experience with long distance movers.
Ask your Friends or Neighbors for Referrals
Undoubtedly, word of mouth is still a perfect way to find out reliable movers around you. So never hesitate to reach your friends or neighbours for recommendations and suggestions. Many of them will be happy to share their great experience and some might even tell you about their bad experience of moving. It does not cost you anything if you will ask them about the moving company they hired for an interstate move and how the experience was. While movers may look great on paper or website, someone’s personal experience will give you a much better picture of their moving services.
Make Sure to obtain Accurate Moving Estimates
Before you hire a moving company, make sure you ask them to conduct an in-home survey of your belongings, before they give you free moving quotes of your cross country move. If the moving company denies to come for in-house inspection and gives you a professional movers quote over phone or online, based on your account of inventory, then you need to question the legitimacy of a mover. The movers should survey your belongings themselves to provide you with accurate moving estimates.
Once the survey is done, a moving company has to provide you with written moving estimates with all details and possible moving costs. You should know that a long distance move means the majority of your moving costs will be based on the weight of your belongings. So the less stuff you move, the cheaper your move will be. Keeping this in mind, make sure that your mover knows everything about what is coming with you. If you plan to leave any of your belongings, then it is better to inform the moving representative during the home survey.
Check Details of Subcontractors
Before you hire the long distance movers for your interstate move, it is important to check that your belongings will be packed, loaded, transported and unloaded by movers themselves or whether they will hire subcontractors to handle some part of the move for them. Many professional movers prefer to hire subcontractors, especially during summer when the demand is high. Now you need to remember that subcontractors are neither a part of a moving company nor they are employees of them.
However, they don’t tend to follow the same standards as the moving company you hired. If you are comfortable with the subcontractors part, then ensure they are insured by the moving company you are hiring. In case you are not comfortable, then you should consider hiring a moving company who does not subcontract any part of moving.
Review Moving Estimates
Why do you get moving quotes? To understand how much does it cost to move across country for your move. So, it is always better to choose a moving company that provides you with moving estimates that you are comfortable with and mentions everything about additional charges if your move requires any of them. You would not want any surprises due to hidden charges at the end of the move. Make sure you get written binding moving estimates that provide every detail of your move along with all the information of moving costs.
