Reliable Craigslist Movers
March 10, 2010 by admin
Filed under Moving Tips and Advice, Moving labor
One of the many questions that I get asked a lot is: “Are Craigslist movers reliable?” And the answer to that is simple. Some are and some aren’t. You have do your home work on all the movers you may hire no matter where you find them. And it doesn’t matter if you find through friends, Craigslist, Yellowpages, or on Google.
I made a quick video about reliable Craigslist movers; enjoy:
Related posts
Moving Systems
December 10, 2009 by admin
Filed under Moving Tips and Advice, Moving Truck Rental, Moving company rates, Moving labor
There are several moving systems.
Depending on your move the moving system that you should use will vary. I.e. a small local move will most likely best served by a do it yourself move; and a large long distance move may be bettered served by a full service mover or vanline.
The best way to determine what is best for you is to know what each kind of moving system there is and to ask a lot of questions.
I know that moving can be tough and stressful that is why I have this website and all these articles: I want to address every question that may come up and answer them. I am also very accessible via email or the telephone.
But this article is about the different moving systems out there. So lets get into them:
Do it yourself moving:
Quite obviously this kinda of speaks for itself.
This is the moving system you may use when you have a small local move.
moving yourself may not be viable to you – or even cheaper – if you have a larger move in town. However, if you have a 1 bedroom apartment (or even a small 2 bedroom) or smaller this may be a great option.
It is not uncommon to rent a U-Haul (or Penske, Budget or Ryder) moving truck, load it up with a bunch family and/or friends and move to your new place down the road.
This can be very cheap. But don’t kid yourself: moving yourself is the most stressful of all the moving systems out there. You have no insurance protections or any other fail-safes. Something goes wrong…and it is all on you.
Secondly, you must weigh in the hidden cost factors: Gas, Mileage (the real killer), Boxes, dollies and blankets, etc. These are all added to overall cost of the move if you can not or do not have way to provide them yourself.
That cheap do it yourself move may quickly become more expensive to do than if you hired a full service mover.
Moving Labor:
A moving labor moving system is more than just hiring a couple of guys off Craigslist or elsewhere to load and unload your moving truck or trailer. There is a bit more.
There are few different business models that I categorize under moving labor: There are the “you load, we drive” style of movers. The most famous of these types of moving labors are ABF and PODS.
What these companies do is bring you a trailer or shipping container and you have to load them yourself or hire the muscle to do it for you.
This can be very inexpensive to move your household goods very long distances, but they are too expensive really for the shorter, in state moves.
Again, there are not a lot of insurance protections for you here. If something is damaged or stolen (highly unlikely) then “oh well”. Not much you can do about it.
Moving labor also can go hand-in-hand with a do it yourself move. You rent a moving truck from a moving truck rental place and then hire laborers to load and unload your moving truck. This also goes with “you load, we drive” types.
But like I said there is far more risk in this type of moving than with your full service style movers.
But this can be very cheap if nothing goes wrong.
Full Service Moving:
These are companies like mine – U-Save Moving, Two men and Truck, All My Sons, Moishe’s, etc.
These companies, when hired, will do everything for you. They’ll box up your household, store your households possessions if needed, load and unload the trucks, and even assemble your furniture and place it in the right rooms for you. These companies are insured and licensed for your protection.
And best of all, they are there for you every step of the way.
Using a full service mover lessens the stress factor by a 1000x easy. Sure it can be expensive, but not in all cases.
Typically, a medium to large move locally will be cheaper with a full service mover than if you were to do it yourself believe it or not, PLUS you get the peace of mind knowing that you are insured.
Most of the movers are pillars of their communities. Being members of the BBB or Chamber of Commerce and other social and charitable organizations.
Reversely, there are a lot of scammers in this moving system. There are many that have a pick up and trailer and think they can become movers. So one really has to be on guard initially until they hire a licensed and insured full service mover.
A good rule of thumb in hiring a full service moving company is the amount of information that you can find out about the company and their principles. The more info you can find, typically, the better the company.
Just try it: Google me – Jae Burnham – or my company – U-Save Moving – and notice the amount of information there is about me and this company. I am all over the place. I am on Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr. I have listings with every major search engines. I am in the Yellowpages and Yellowbook. I am not hiding.
Any company that little to no information easily accessible should NOT be used.
Vanliners:
When moving across the country this moving system may be most affordable option for you. I would not recommend them for local or even across the state moves.
The most notable vanliners are Mayflower, Allied, United and if you have to, Bekins (voted one of the worst by J.D. Powers and Associates.)
The problem with this type of moving system is that it takes far longer for your possessions to reach your destination than if you were to use a full service mover.
Where typically a full service movers can deliver your possessions in a day or two, vanliners will take a week or two to deliver your goods.
Another negative point is that your possessions may be unloaded and reloaded a couple of times, adding to the chance that your stuff is lost, damaged or even stolen.
However, rarely will you find a vanliner that is not insured and licensed.
These companies usually are usually very bureaucratic. Meaning if there is an issue with something lost, damaged or stolen it is very hard to reach someone that can make a decision and give you satisfaction with your claims. There is a lot of red tape and hoops to jump through and many just give up.
However, for the most part, many of these moves are smooth and problem free.
So you can see there are many moving systems and each of them have their own strengths and weaknesses. Not all moving systems will be right for you. You need to know what each moving system is and how it could benefit you personally.
Choosing a moving solely based off the cheapest usually ends in disaster and will leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Asking questions and studying the industry will give you a basic education and allow you to make educated choices for which moving system is for you.
Related posts
Do It Yourself Moving
November 26, 2009 by admin
Filed under Moving Tips and Advice, Moving Truck Rental, Moving company rates, Moving labor
In today’s economy many of you are turning to do it yourself moving. You are looking at your alternatives in saving money because you don’t want to pay a full service mover to move you: And truthfully no one can really blame you. However, there are certain truths about do it yourself moving that may sway to using a full service mover instead of doing it yourself.
When looking at do it yourself moving you need to look at the costs of it. Now don’t get me wrong; you can save yourself a lot of money by moving yourself, but you also have to figure in the hidden costs of moving yourself versus paying a full service mover.
Moving Truck Rentals:
Renting a moving truck for your move requires a bit of planning. I have written reviews on the moving trucks that you could rent for your move. U-Haul, Penske, Budget, Ryder and even Enterprise all rent moving trucks, but I don’t recommend them all for certain moves.
For instance, for your local, in-town moves U-Haul will give you the best service and rates, but Penske and Budget are better for your longer and larger moves going across the state.
Now for your out of state moves I recommend either Budget or Ryder. Penske is also a good choice but they are a little more expensive. Ryder is great if you can bring the truck back to the original location. Ryder does not do one-way rentals. Budget and Penske do.
You can expect about 10 to 12 miles per gallon of fuel. This is true for U-Haul, Penske, Budget, Ryder and Enterprise. However, realize the newer trucks that you would rent from Budget, Penske and Ryder may actually get up to 15 mpg.
Rental rates are all pretty much the same as well ranging from $20 for the smaller trucks to $60 for the larger trucks per day. One way rental rates will be determined by availability and distance. Moving from Michigan to California may cost about $1000 during the winter months, but may cost about $1800 during the busier summer months.
And finally, don’t forget about the mileage costs. U-Haul is always the most expensive. You will pay about $.79 to $.99 per mile, while with Budget, Penske and Ryder you can haggle them down to $.11 and $.12/mile. The more miles the more it will cost.
Of course you have to return the moving trucks back with the same amount of fuel as you had when you left.
Moving Help:
In do it yourself moving you are going to need moving labor to load and unload your truck. Whether it is you personally, friends and family, or hire help you are going to need people to help with the loading and unloading.
Doing it yourself is always be free. However, this will add a lot of time to the the rental. I have heard of it talking as much as a week to load a moving truck. The more help you have the better (and faster) it is.
You may not have to pay your family and friends with real dollars, but it will cost your something e.g. food, beer, etc.
But understand, when you have family and friends loading and unloading the moving truck, they are not professional movers so the loading and unloading will not be great, and the chance of damage to your possessions are far greater.
If you don’t have access to family and friends then you may have to hire professionals. Typically you will have to pay about $40/hr for two men and most moves take about 3 to 4 hours for loading and unloading together. You can expect to pay about $200 in labor when it is all said and done.
You can find good labor with either Hire-A-Helper.com or MovingHelper.com. These laborers are all rated so you know before you hire them if they are good and reputable right from the start.
Or you could go to Craigslist and hire moving help from there. While you may hire good reputable moving help from here, it will be less reliable then the above places.
When hiring off Craigslist look for ads that are professional in appearance and structure. The more time they have put into an ad the more likely they are a good moving company.
At the very least they should include their name, phone number and an email address. If the ad doesn’t have at least those three things in it move on…it is usually a scammer.
Finally, who will drive the moving truck rental for you. You or somebody else. If you don’t have a lot of experience driving large trucks then you should have somebody that does do the driving. Driving through a big city or mountains can be tricky if you don’t have the experience. Of course by sticking to the freeways you will be mostly okay.
Now lets do the math for a typical move and see how the figures add up with a do it yourself move or hiring full service move.
In our example lets move you from Lansing, MI to Detroit. Fairly typical. Lets figure out the the do it yourself move first (this moves is for a 3 bedroom house):
Rental truck: $40/day
insurance: $15
Gas: $83
Mileage: $148.5 (150 mi @.99/mi)
Labor: $200 (hired laborers)
Misc: $30
Total: $433
Of course this may not be your move. Maybe you are just in town, or you are moving out of state. And in those cases the figures would be different obviously. But the idea is still the same.
Full Service Movers:
Full service movers are movers that will do the job, start to finish, themselves. They bring everything to the move and do it all. You can sit back and relax watching the football game while they slave.
Typically you can expect movers to charge between $70 to $95/hour for two movers. And for three movers between $90 and $120/hour.
In towns moves these hourly rates are typical. However for moves that are 40 miles or more some movers will follow a tariff. Some won’t depending if they belong to the Movers Association for their state or not. So in those cases you could pay about $1500 for move from Lansing to Detroit may be more depending on the time of year.
But in all cases these rates include the truck, men, dollies, blankets, straps, tools, plastic, insurance, fuel, etc.
So lets take the same example above and compare it to a do it yourself move:
Service: $425 ($85/hr for 5 hours) (not a Movers Association move)
Movers Assoc move: $1500
So based on the above you can see by hiring a full service mover you could actually have a cheaper move than by doing it yourself for this situation.
Do it yourself moving is only cheaper if you are doing an in-town move. You larger and longer moves you will actually save money by using a full service mover.
So before you go a rent that U-Haul call up some full service movers and compare. You’ll get a lot better service with full service movers then by doing it yourself…that is for sure.
Do it yourself moving is an option, but don’t forget to look at all your options first.
Related posts
Gas Mileage For Moving Trucks
June 8, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving Truck Rental
Now depending on how old the moving truck is, and if the truck is either gas or diesel will determine the gas mileage of any moving truck. Another factor is whether the truck is empty or full.
I have found that gas fueled moving trucks average around 10-12 miles to the gallon.
For diesel fueled trucks I have found that they average around 12-15 miles to the gallon.
Here is a simple math equation to use when determining the the cost of fuel when using a moving truck:
Take the amount of miles to and from the locations and divide that by the average mpg. Now multiply that by the average price of the fuel at the time you are deciding to move and that will equal the approximate amount of fuel costs you can expect.
Let me show this example using real figures. Your move is about 100 miles to and from. You are using a gas fueled moving truck. Average gas mileage is 12gpm. Cost of gas is about $3.00.
100/12 = 8.3 x $3.00 = $24.90 for the cost of this trip to fuel up.
Of course this is average and it may be lower or higher depending on the above factors. But it gives you a good estimate of the cost you should expect.
Related posts
Where To Find And Get Moving Labor Services
April 5, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving labor
As opposed to full service moving companies, moving labor services can provide a high quality and inexpensive alternative to moving.
What are moving labor services:
Moving labor services are individuals and/or moving labor companies that provide labor for your moving needs. They are different from traditional full service moving companies because they do not provide a truck in which to transport your possessions.
Simply put: they are there just for the grunt work of the move. They can and will drive the moving truck that you provide, and they can and will pack/unpack your belongings as well. Nor are these types of moving providers licensed and insured like traditional full service or long distance moving companies.
Moving labor providers can preform much of what other moving companies can perform. They can do the following:
- Packing/unpacking
- loading/unloading
- assembly/reassembly
- blanketing and wrapping furniture
They can handle everything that other moving companies can. They have many similarities in how they operate and bill customers. You’ll find services very comparable with only one slight difference. Because these moving helpers do not provide the truck their hourly and/or flat rate fees are much lower, thereby giving you a much needed break in the pocketbook.
Where you can find and hire moving labor services:
There are typically for major places that you can find these moving helpers:
These are the best sources for find moving labor services. I’ll briefly go each one so that you know what you can expect from each.
Craigslist: Most of the moving labor providers list their services here. It is cheap but very effective. Many of you probably have already looked here in your search for moving help. However, too many moving scammers also list their “services” here, so you need to be on the lookout when using this resource.
Yellowpages: Great source for finding reliable and trustworthy moving labor services. However, few moving labor helpers have any kind of presence here. You may have to long and hard to find a company like this there.
Movinghelper.com: The moving truck rental company UHual owns and runs this service. Basically this is a directory of moving labor providers. The cool thing about this resource is that the moving help is customer rated, so you can “kick the tires” as they say. You can also pick and chose which moving help providers you want by price and/or reputation.
Hireahelper.com: Is exactly like movinghelper.com except that you not only find moving helpers there but you can get excellent day labor, housecleaning help and landscaping help as well. All the helpers that are listed in this directory are also customer rated so know in advance there person reputation.
Beware of the moving and labor broker scams:
There are many companies out there that have look and feel movinghelper.com and hireahelper.com. These companies have one major difference: They do not allow you to see the performance of these moving labor providers. So you may get a good company, or most likely, get a very bad company.
I would stay away from any moving labor services that will not let you see the moving help providers reputation in advance. You will not have any control if you these labor brokers.
Helpful articles that will help with your moving decision:
I have written quite a lot on the moving industry in this website/blog. You could spends hours, if not days going through all the information that I provide. So I decided to help you. Below is a listing of articles that I have written that will help you with you moving help.
Moving and Labor Broker Scam on Craigslist
Qualities A Moving Company Should Have
How Moving Truck Rentals Can Be A Cheap Moving Option
Moving Helpers Can Be A Real Help Moving
I hope that you have enjoyed this post. If you have then please do me the honor of clicking on the “thumbs up” button at the top right of this site and voting for me.
And if you have enjoyed this post, please be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed also at the top of this website to get and read further articles about the moving industry.
Related posts
Moving Helpers Can Be A Real Help Moving
April 1, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving labor
How You Can Hire Cheap Moving Helpers For your Move And Get As Good Or Better Service Than Full Service Movers.
Many people know that renting a moving truck can be a very inexpensive option to hiring a full service moving company. But many people don’t know that they can hire very reputable moving helpers (and sometimes women) to load and unload their moving truck for very cheap.
Lets say that you have a 2 bedroom apartment to move 10 miles. If you were to hire a full service mover you could expect to pay about $85/hr for a two man crew. The move would be roughly three hours time, plus there would most likely be a small travel charge of $50 to $75 and the billing would begin when the movers left their shop until they returned. Lets say they are about 15 minutes away. Okay…now do the math: 3 hours to do the move @ $85/hr = $255 + $50 travel fee = $305 + time to and from the shop @ 15min ea. (15 x 2 =30. $85/2 = $42.5) = $347.50.
$347.50 to move your 2 bedroom apartment 10 miles.
Now lets take a look at how much hiring good moving helpers is: Truck rental from U-hual for a 17′ truck = 39.95/day + mileage of approx. $.79/mile and you will probably travel about 30 miles total (30mi x .79 = $23.7) = $63.65 + gas to refuel the truck (approx. $10) = $73.65. You can hire a 2 man moving helper crew on average of $45/hr (3hr move)+ $50 travel fee = $185 + truck fee = $258.65.
$258.65 for renting a moving truck and hiring good, reputable moving helpers. That’s a savings of $88.85. Almost a $100 in savings by hiring reputable moving helpers.
And you would get as good or even better service. There are places where you can hire this labor where these helpers are customer rated.
Where you can find a hire these moving helpers:
There are only really two sources for good reputable moving helpers. They are movinghelper.com and hireahelper.com. Only thee two source have customer rated moving help. The other sources broker out the moving help so you never know who you may get.
Of course there is always Craigslist. Many of the moving helpers (not the actual moving companies) listed there I wouldn’t give a second glance. Hiring moving helpers there is like playing the lottery. If you do hire moving helpers from Craigslist make sure you follow all my advice on this website.
I hope that this helped. Good luck with your moves. I hope to maybe hear from you. If you liked this article please bookmark it by clicking on the “thumbs up” button at the top of the page.
Related posts
How Moving Truck Rentals Can Be A Cheap Moving Option
March 29, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving Truck Rental, Moving labor
In my moving business I often rent moving trucks as opposed to using my own fleet. The reason is simple: It is cheaper to rent a moving truck from the closest city where I am moving someone to or from.
I cover a lot of ground in my state of Michigan. It is just not economical for me or for my customers to drive my trucks to a move that may be up to 100 miles or more, so I rent a truck from that area instead.
So as a result I know a lot about renting moving trucks, and I can confidently recommend which moving truck rental places would be preferable with different situations.
So, whether you rent from Uhual, Penske, Budget, Ryder or even Enterprise I have the info that you can use to pick the right moving truck rentals for you.
Related posts
U-Haul Moving Truck Rentals
March 29, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving Truck Rental
Since the writing of this post U-Haul has upgraded their fleet with newer trucks. So what could have been a bad truck will be a good truck to rent. I still only recommend U-Haul for local, in-town moves.
The most popular moving truck rental store…But how good is it?
Uhaul has been around for a very long time. Far longer than any of the other moving truck rental places. In fact, you could say that Uhaul create the moving truck rental business.
When I first started out in my moving business, when I had no trucks of my own, I used Uhaul exclusively. I didn’t do that because I was loyal to them, but because they were the company that had the brand recognition for me. When I thought of a moving truck place to rent from, I thought of Uhaul. Just like many of you.
The prices of renting trucks and materials from Uhaul are going to differ with the city your in; the time of year, month, week; and of course the availablitiy of the trucks, etc, etc, etc…
Uhaul advertises very cheap trucks for daily rentals. For the smaller trucks you can rent them for less then $20 bux for the day…Where they get you is in the mileage costs. I have seen Uhaul charge as much as $.99/mile. With a typical move, it is not uncommon to travel up to 50 miles, times that by a $.99 and you are paying close to $50 just in mileage, plus the daily rental of a typical moving truck (15 foot) of about $29 your total to rent a truck is close to $80. Suddenly, that cheap moving truck rental is not so cheap anymore. I hadn’t factored in the insurance that is sometimes tacked on to your bill. Oh, and don’t forget…you have to refill the gas tank before you turn it in; how much is gas these days? Need moving blankets or dollies, yep don’t forget those costs as well.
After all that you could have hired a full service moving company for a couple of hours and you would have paid just about the same.
Uhaul’s fleet of moving trucks usually tend to be quite old, so they tend to break down quite a lot. And they are horrible with gas mileage. Expect to only get 10 to 12 miles per gallon of gas.
That is the cons of using Uhaul…
I like Uhaul because, unlike most of their competitors, they usually have everything available to rent at the time you need to rent. And they have everything you need to move for rent.
I have been able to go in in the middle of the day and rent moving trucks with no problems. Of course, this is not always true. They do sometimes have no availability, so it is always best to reserve your truck in advance.
The best thing about renting a moving truck from you U-Haul are their trucks. I know I said earlier that the break down a lot and are horrible on gas…and that is all true, but their trucks are low to ground which means it is easier to actually load and unload the trucks; and much faster, too.
The best reason to use U-Haul when renting moving trucks is for the small (1 or 2 bedrooms or less), short distance moves. For the longer, large moves; the other moving truck rental places are best.
Related posts
Penske Moving Truck Rentals
March 29, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving Truck Rental
Can Penske Moving Truck Rentals be better than the rest?
After I been moving people for sometime and using Uhual exculsively for my moving truck rental needs I discovered Penske.
Penske was a godsend. Unlike Uhaul, Penske was more willing to make deals with me on the costs of their moving trucks. While Penskes’ daily rental rates were comparable to Uhuals’ their mileage fees were so much better; so much better in fact that it was economical for me to rent one of their trucks from my home and drive to and from moves no matter how far away it was.
However, that was not the case at first. I had to rent quite a bit and build up a working relationship with the Penske franchise before I could get those great deals. But before I built that relation ship I was able to rent the trucks for close to the same cost as Uhual. So if you are going to be rent from Penske and you are not a repeat customer do not expect a price break.
Penske does charge less for mileage, but they get you with the insurance, which they will make you get. There is no option with insurance like there is with Uhual.
Penskes’ trucks tend to be far newer than Uhual’s. Only once did I have maintenance issue with one of their trucks and that was for a flat tire. I can’t say that with Uhual. The gas mileage is about the same as Uhual’s may slightly better because of the newer trucks. However, depending on the area where you are at, Penske’s larger trucks are diesel which could mean a larger fuel bill when you gas up the truck. Their diesels do get better fuel mileage though.
The ease of renting is not even close to that of Uhaul. And they do not have the selection of other items that you may need for your move. Oh they can be gotten, but you have reserve your move far in advance to get them.
Penske’s trucks are very high off the ground. Their trucks are more designed to be delivery trucks rather than moving trucks. So in wet or wintery weather you need to be really careful about going up and down the ramps…they can very slick. I can say that I have slipped and fell on a couple occasions.
I believe for your mid to large moves that tend to be farther in distance that Penske is the company that you should use when renting moving trucks.
Related posts
Budget Moving Truck Rentals
March 29, 2009 by jburnham
Filed under Moving Truck Rental
Is Budget the next big moving truck renting business?
Factually I have rarely used Budget Truck Rentals. And the couple of times that I did (when I had worked for a moving company) I was not really impressed with them.
Truth be told, they are not really any different than Penske. I could copy and paste my review of Penske and put here and just change the name of the moving truck rental company and there would be no differenece.
As with Penske, the good and bad with Budget is the same.
So what more can I cay?…