How Moving Estimates Actually Work, From Survey to Signature

It Starts With an Inventory Survey

Every honest estimate begins the same way: someone looks at your stuff. For interstate moves, the weight of your shipment and the services involved drive the cost, and neither can be known without a survey. Traditionally this meant an estimator walking through your home with a clipboard, opening closets, peeking into the garage, and noting the piano nobody mentioned on the phone. Today, many reputable companies offer video surveys instead: you walk through your home with your phone camera while a surveyor watches and builds the inventory remotely. Both methods work well when done thoroughly. What matters is completeness. Show the attic, the basement, the shed, and the storage unit, because anything the surveyor never sees is a change waiting to happen on moving day. The output of the survey is an itemized inventory, often called a cube sheet or table of measurements, which becomes the factual basis for everything that follows. If a company is willing to skip this step entirely for a long-distance move, they are not estimating your move; they are guessing at it, and someone will eventually pay for the gap between the guess and reality.

The Written Estimate and What It Must Contain

After the survey, you should receive a written estimate, and written means written. For interstate moves, federal regulations require movers to provide estimates in writing, describing the shipment, the services, and the charges. A proper document identifies the company by its legal name and U.S. DOT number, states whether the estimate is binding or non-binding, lists the services included, such as packing, stairs, long carries, or shuttle trucks, and spells out the valuation coverage you have selected. Read it before you sign anything, and keep a copy. Two habits will serve you well here. First, compare estimates line by line rather than by the bottom number alone; one company's figure may include packing materials while another's does not, and that difference explains more gaps between quotes than anything else. Second, ask about anything vague. A reputable estimator expects questions and can explain every line. Interstate movers are also required to give you the federal booklet called Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move, which explains estimates, liability, and claims in plain language. If a company has never heard of it, that tells you something.

Binding vs. Non-Binding: The Real Difference

A binding estimate is a contract price for the services listed: if your inventory and services do not change, the figure does not change, whether the shipment weighs more or less than the estimator expected. Some companies offer a variant called binding-not-to-exceed, where the figure can go down if the actual weight comes in lighter but cannot go up. A non-binding estimate is the mover's educated approximation; the final charges are based on the actual weight of the shipment and the services performed, so the number can move in either direction. Neither type is inherently better or worse. A binding estimate gives you certainty; a non-binding one can work out favorably if the estimate was conservative. What matters is that you know which one you are holding, because the document itself must say so. The classic trouble scenario is a customer who believes a number is locked when the paperwork says non-binding. Also remember that any estimate, binding or not, covers only the inventory and services on the paper. Add a storage unit's worth of boxes at the last minute and even a binding figure gets legitimately revised through a written addendum before loading.

The Federal 110 Percent Rule

Here is the consumer protection that too few people know about. Under federal rules enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, if you have a non-binding estimate on an interstate move, the mover cannot require you to pay more than the estimated amount plus ten percent at the time of delivery. That is the one hundred ten percent rule. If the actual charges come in higher than that, the mover must deliver your goods upon payment of one hundred ten percent of the estimate and then bill you for the remaining balance, which is generally due within thirty days. With a binding estimate, the rule is even simpler: the mover must deliver upon payment of the binding amount for the listed services. The point of these rules is to prevent the ugliest scenario in the industry, a truck full of your belongings held until you pay a surprise figure invented on delivery day. Knowing the rule changes the conversation. If a driver demands an inflated amount before unloading, you can state, accurately, that federal regulation caps what is collectible at delivery. Legitimate companies know this rule well and build their paperwork around it.

Why Phone-Only Firm Quotes Are a Red Flag

Now the warning that ties it all together. If a company offers you a firm, locked price for an interstate move after nothing more than a short phone call, with no video survey, no in-home visit, and no itemized inventory, treat that as a red flag. It is not that phone conversations are bad; an initial call is a normal way to discuss timing, route, and rough scope. The problem is a firm number with no factual basis. Rogue operators use attractively low phone quotes to win the job, then raise the figure dramatically once your belongings are on the truck, precisely the hostage scenario federal rules exist to prevent. A legitimate mover protects itself and you by surveying first, because it does not want the dispute either. So the sequence to insist on is simple: survey, then written estimate, then signature. If you want a shortcut to reaching companies that operate this way, Moving Company Call connects callers with professional moving companies, and every one of them should be willing to walk through this exact process. Any company that resists the survey step has answered your most important question already.

The takeaway

A trustworthy estimate follows a fixed sequence: a real inventory survey by video or in person, a written document stating whether it is binding or non-binding, and, on non-binding interstate moves, the federal cap of one hundred ten percent of the estimate collectible at delivery. Compare estimates line by line, keep copies of everything, and walk away from any company offering a firm interstate price from a phone call alone. The paperwork discipline is the protection.