Need moving info (San Francisco, Santa Clara: movers, how much, price)

[lisashomeoffice]

I am moving from the Bay Area to south ID this year and was wondering if anyone out there has used a "you pack, we drive" type of moving. I would like to try these;however, I don't know which ones are good or which ones are not good. I have no idea how much the rates are for these either. I don't have alot of stuff. I have a large studio type with a tiny back room I use for a office room. Have anyone of you used one of these mover companies?

[psychprof]

I'm doing this right now. I am moving from Penn State to the bay area. The movers I am using are ace worldwide. They come, do an assessment of your stuff, and give you an estimate. It is determined by weight. I don't have much stuff, small one bedroom, and it is costing about 3,000. I am using ace because my job is relocating me and they are their moving company.

An important fact. There is an ambiguous window of time between when they come get your stuff and when it arrives at your destination. They pack several moves into one truck. I was told it would be between 5 and 20 days.

hope this helps

[lisashomeoffice]

Three thousand dollars is a lot for me. I have decided to use one of those "you pack, we drive" movers. It is a little more than if you rented a Uhaul and packed and drove the truck yourself. I think that it is a good deal considering how tired one can get driving long distance.

[kiwilover70]

Try looking in the "General Moving" topic area of City Data for information on movers.I think what you are looking for is something like PODS, where they bring you the containers and then you load them. They are a bit pricey though. We are making another big move this year(did one last year) and we are going to use ABF. They have either pods or drop off a "trailer" for you to load and then they move it.seem to be cheaper than the PODS. Driving yourself with a moving truck is crazy. Between the gas and the sad states of most of the trucks the trip would be very unpleasant!

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by kiwilover70

Try looking in the "General Moving" topic area of City Data for information on movers.I think what you are looking for is something like PODS, where they bring you the containers and then you load them. They are a bit pricey though. We are making another big move this year(did one last year) and we are going to use ABF. They have either pods or drop off a "trailer" for you to load and then they move it.seem to be cheaper than the PODS. Driving yourself with a moving truck is crazy. Between the gas and the sad states of most of the trucks the trip would be very unpleasant!

I used a Penske truck to move my stuff about 50 miles last December, and I would use them for long distance moves in a heartbeat. They have good solid trucks that are pretty comfortable. You can even tow your car on a flatbed if you're so inclined.

San Francisco to Twin Falls is about 670 miles, taking I-80 E to SR 93 N in Wells, NV (sign for the exit is 93 - East Wells). That can be done in a single day on a single tank of fuel, or two 5-hour stints. If you figure 10 mpg for a fully loaded 26-footer, you'll use 67 gallons of diesel or about $200 worth at worst.

Penske also has 10% discounts if you reserve online, 20% if you're a AAA member. I ran a quote online (without the AAA discount), the truck itself if you picked it up tomorrow from Santa Clara would be $612, flatbed car carrier $248, unlimited mileage and 5 days' use.. the only issue is you'd have to drop off the truck in Boise and backtrack 136 miles back to Twin Falls.

I'm not affiliated with Penske at all btw. U-Haul would probably have more locations closer to where you're looking to move to, but hopefully this gives you an idea of what you can expect if you should think of doing the job yourself.