Anyone know of good out of state movers to use (Austin: broker, house)

[texasboi]

I have my furniture in storage in NJ but need to bring it to Austin. I'm curious about how long this will take for them to do? Do they just use a standard amount of days? It took me 2 days to drive down but i'm wondering if they say 3 days. I just want to know so I know how to schedule this properly.
I have my family up in NJ monitoring the move out of storage and of course i'll be here in Austin to monitor the move but not being with my stuff the whole time I am a little nervous about safety, trust and price. Any advice or recommendations would be helpful. Thank you in advance

[stillkit]

The only advice I can offer is to make sure you're dealing with the carrier itself and not a transportation broker. Too many times, you'll get screwed if a broker is involved because they'll promise something the carrier can't deliver.

The time of arrival is very much in flux. Unless you're willing to pay for the trailer load rate, your shipment will not be the only one on the truck and those other deliveries may be from New York to Timbuktu. Any problems encountered during any of those delieveries will result in a delay of yours.

And, of course, there are legal hours of service rules which the carriers and their drivers must adhere to. If the truck delivering your goods has only one driver, he's pretty much restricted to roughly 6-700 miles per day. If it has two drivers, that's essentially doubled. You can figure the mileage from point of origin to point of delivery yourself and get a rough idea of when the load might arrive, subtracting any additional stops along the way.

Here's the kicker, though. IF the truck arrives and nobody is there to receive it, they can't wait as you're not the only customer they're serving. What typically happens is that they'll take your goods to the nearest agent's warehouse and begin charging you for storage. Usually, they won't re-load and deliver your goods until that storage charge is paid.

It's a crap shoot, but most of the problems involved in the movement of household goods can be avoided by first ensuring that you're dealing with the carrier themselves and good communications.

If you run into problems, the federal Department of Transportation has an office which is tasked with dealing with those problems. So do the various states.

[paul6835]

I moved here from NYC and used Mayflower. Its not very quick, but they'll give you an accurate timeframe for delivery. You pretty much have to use a nationwide mover because they have the logistics to do it affordably. If I remember correctly it was something like "we'll come get it on X date and deliver between Y and Z". The time between X-Y being about 10 days and Y-Z being about 3 days. They call you 2 or 3 days before delivery to give you an exact date.

I'm always impressed when a company gives me dates or date ranges and calls me with status regularly. If I ever move out of state again, I'll be using them.

[atlanta hope]

We used PODS in our move from Atlanta and were happy with them.

[JLO]

We used Mayflower from NC to Austin. They couldn't have been more professional. Wonderful experience. I used another company when I moved from NYC to Charlotte several years back. I highly recommend Mayflower. Last year when we moved from NC, I dealt with the move alone as my husband was already in TX. They made it very easy. There's a number for every item. They inventory it with description. When they unload, you can check off each item yourself. I had my house in storage with Mayflower for 6 months before we found a house. When the truck arrived everything was in perfect condition.

[readymade]

This site was INVALUABLE to me when researching moving companies.

Moving: How to avoid Moving Company Scams

I can't recommend it enough. I wish it had been around (or that I'd known about it) for some previous moves I had (and got ripped off on).

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by atlanta hope

We used PODS in our move from Atlanta and were happy with them.

Your post reminded me of another option which the OP might want to explore.

ABF freightlines has a program they call something like "You Load, We Haul," or something like that. In any case, ABF will bring a trailer to where you have your furniture in storage and you load it (or hire someone else to). Then, they'll take the trailer and put it into their normal freight delivery operations and haul it to Texas. They'll let you know when it arrives and you can arrange to have it delivered to the point of delivery, where you'll unload it.

The up side is that there's no fuss, no muss. Just load, haul and unload. You'll also have the ability to track your shipment on line, 24/7.

The downside is that it's not going to be a trailer specifically designed for hauling household goods. That means it probably will not have an air ride suspension, so pack it good and tight to prevent shifting during its transit. Also, check the contract closely because any damage is likely to be on you, not them, as they didn't load it.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

MAYFLOWER, MAYFLOWER, MAYFLOWER!! I was worried sick about our junk and they took great care with it! The movers were respectful, careful and actually CARED about what they were doing. I cannot say enough good about them. We moved over a great distance and I shudder at the thought of having to load and unload all that stuff ourselves. It would have been a nightmare. We thought about just starting clean and leaving everything, start over...but I realized one thing: you gotta pay either way. MAYFLOWER is worth every penny.

My two cents.