Timing drive w moving company (adapt, ABF, U-Haul, trailer)

[hemmie]

I'm moving cross country with my family and would like to make a trip out of it - as in, not necessarily doing it as quickly as possible but rather stretch it out at least by a few extra days. We have young children and two cats, so actually doing long, long driving days isn't really realistic anyway.

The last time we moved across several states, we had to argue with the moving company and actually cut our trip short by one or two days to meet them at our new house, which really disappointed me.

Any tips for negotiating this with a moving company? Rather than being in a hurry to get there, I'd really like to take the opportunity to show my kids the Grand Canyon and visit some friends along the way. I'm not talking a month... just ten days rather than five.

Thanks in advance for any advice. The trip will be from Los Angeles to Detroit. Yes, yes, you read it right... we're moving TO Detroit, please hold your jokes - we have our reasons

[mawipafl]

First thing I thought about: will your stuff fill the moving van or will the shipment be combined with another customer?

If it's just your belongings on the truck, then the driver will drive directly to Detroit, and if you're not there to meet him, your things will go into storage at the closest agent's facility even if it's only for a couple of days or even less.

If your mover has to combine customers to fill the truck, then the delivery date and route are unknown until both customers' (yours and whomever's) belongings are packed onboard.

Have you talked to your moving company yet, or did you just want to get some opinions from us here at C-D first?

[hemmie]

Thanks for your reply! Great questions. I imagine our stuff would fill a moving van; I believe that was the case last time around (two years ago, moving from Austin to LA).

I have not yet talked to a moving company yet; I wanted to seek opinions from you.

[jctx]

We used www.uship.com and LOVED it. We also did a cross-country move, but as we were the ones setting up the move, we were able to list our wants/needs and select a bid that met our needs. Its alot like ebay, only instead of the highest bidder automatically winning, you can take all kinds of bids on your move, and pick the one you like best.

Anyways, another idea would be to get one of those bins that goes in your driveway, but you'd have to load it yourself or pay a couple of local guys to come load it for you. The positive of this is that you can have the company come and get the bin when you want them to and have it arrive on a date that suits you, I think.

Maybe you'd already thought of these things, though. The uship mover guy was very accommodating and was able to adapt his arrival to our new place by shifting his loads around so he dropped them off in a timely manner. He was also so amazing, I'd definitely call upon him again. Very down to earth and funny and helpful and kind!

[sunshineann]

With having a husband who use to do this for a living...you can call the moving company and talk to them. They usually try to work with you. However like another posterd stated, If its going in a semi-truck..they fill them first and then work with the "whole" schedule. You could tell them you wont be there until a certain date. The worst that could happen is that they put it in storage if you are not at the new home. Which could result in extra $$$.
Have a great trip

[hemmie]

uship sounds really intriguing! Thanks for the idea - I hadn't thought of it myself. And sunshineann - thank you. I guess last time I either wasn't assertive enough or didn't really think to ask the question! THANKS! Very helpful.

[jkwing]

As a sales manager for a moving company I will tell you, we try to work out the timing to meet your needs. And yet the driver does not get paid till the shipment comes off his truck, so he is wanting to deliver as soon as possible. Best thing to do is have 3 major moving companies come out to provide estimates, they will give you a delivery spread based on the size of your shipment. There are times, that can be negotiated, so take what they give you, match it against what you would like and come up with dates, both parties can work within.

[Scotch99]

This thread has been very helpful since I had the same question! We are nowhere near getting quotes from moving companies yet for our move this summer as we just made the decision to move. But I've been wondering if we can take it easy on the drive out to Portland, Oregon. According to Google Maps, the distance from here is just shy of 2000 miles. With two small kids (5 and 2) strapped to carseats, we'd like to make plenty of stops along the way. I mapped things out and I think it would be good to take 5 days to reach Portland, driving around 300 miles the first day and range from 350-500 miles for each of the remaining days. It would be even better to take an extra day and reduce the number of miles driven each day. The last time DH and I moved from the west coast to the midwest we were childless and had only enough stuff from a 1BR apartment; so the movers had several other customers' items in the moving truck and we had no trouble reaching our new home days in advance of the movers, even though we took a leisurely trip. This time we have a packed 4 bedroom house and the thought of having all that stuff in storage (and having to pay a fee) if the truck were to reach Portland first is very unappealing.

[Asheville Native]

Gotta understand time is money, and the truck and the driver don't earn a nickle sitting and waiting on your to take pictures and take a leisure drive/mini-vacation. Now if you offer to pay for the truck and driver to sit idle for days you might be able to work something out.

[TroElli]

We moved cross-country 4 years ago - Seattle to Atlanta - and used a company called ABF to transport our stuff. You load up your stuff yourself into the nose of one of their trailers - so any damage is on you - put up a bulkhead and then they load up the rest of the trailer behind you. You're charged by the linear foot, and I don't know if they have a minimum. We used 10 linear feet, which was the equivalent of a 2 bedroom home and it cost us approx $2200. Because of logistics, we actually had to rent a U-haul both loading and unloading, but if you have space, I know they'll drop a trailer off at your old location to load and then bring it to your new location to unload.

We were then able to drive our respective vehicles down and took the time to spend a night and a day at Yellowstone. All told, it took us 6 days of travel, but the Yellowstone detour probably added 2 extra days. And our stuff arrived the day after we did. It worked out great. I think if you just tell the transport company when you'll be arriving in Detroit, they should be able to work with your schedule - it's not a race to see who arrives first. All they need to know is that you're moving out of of Place A on this date and moving into Place B on that date. What you do or where you go during that time is nobody's business. Just be straight with them at the front end, then there shouldn't be any surprises for anyone on the back end.

One last thing.. while we didn't travel with kids, I did have my cat. Altho she was less than amused, I chose to put a harness on her and had a leash, just in case she tried to make a break for it. With cats, you just never know what going on in those furry little brains.. Good luck with your move!!