You have a bunch of routes to take when gaining moving help. Everyone always has tips for hiring a moving company that gets the job done right, but what size? Should you go local? Stick with friends and family? Hire a big-name moving company? Here are the arguments surrounding each of the popular moving company options that arise when you’re moving to a new home.
Friends and Family
Well first off, they’re not professional movers. Someone could easily pack something dangerously, or hurt themselves lifting boxes and furniture. You can pay them in pizza and soda later, but if you’re exhausted from the move you might get into that awful social stalemate where everyone feels obligated to hang out post-moving, but are grumpy and tired from the day. On the other hand, it is a nice experience to feel supported by your loved ones and share your first few hours in your home with them. Just be careful; you need to have enough trucks and cars that can actually move all your packed belongings, and there’s no insurance to help you if something goes wrong. Plus, you’re now obligated to help on their next move.
Local Movers
You’re supporting a local company that might be family owned and doesn’t get nation-wide revenue. There’s no corporate board or CEO. Their headquarters is right down the street, local to you. They likely know the area well, growing up, living, and working nearby. They have to be held accountable for any mistakes, and since they’re a small company and you can likely easily speak to the owner. Many of them own their own professional trucks and know how to safely drive them from point A to point B. Workers in local moving companies are well-vetted and work closely with the owners, so if anything is fishy with a new hire they notice very quickly. This means more integrity and trust on your end. Although, some local movers won’t extend their services past a certain amount of miles.
Big Moving Company
By hiring a big-name regional or national moving company, you’re still putting food on the tables of workers. In recent times just about 186,722 jobs were created that are directly related to the moving industry; it’s still supporting the economy. There is a corporate entity to petition if anything goes wrong, but they may not be responsive to you as one customer out of many. A large company may also skimp in their vetting process, having many more employees to oversee than a smaller local company. But, they’ll be more likely to cover long-distance moves across many miles.
None of the moving company options are perfect, clearly. They all have their faults and their merits. Choose carefully! Your moving company options are the most important part of moving day, but they are a huge deciding factor in how smoothly things go.
