Moving Company Rates Compared in 2026
By the Moving Company Estimate data team · Last updated July 2026 · Methodology
Short answer: not one of the national moving brands publishes a rate card, and we are not going to invent one for them. Franchises set hourly rates location by location; van lines quote through local agents against a weight-and-distance tariff. What you can compare, and what actually decides your bill, is the pricing model behind each name and whether the estimate is binding. Below: how all ten major brands price, and an independent 2026 benchmark, from our own rate model, for what the job should cost before anyone quotes you.
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Why no national mover publishes a rate card
Search for any big moving brand plus the word “rates” and you will find pages of confident numbers. Almost none of them come from the company. There are three structural reasons a national rate does not exist:
- Franchises price locally. Brands like Two Men and a Truck and College Hunks are networks of independently owned businesses. Each one sets its own hourly rate against its own labor market, so the brand cannot publish a single figure that would be true anywhere.
- Van lines price by tariff, through agents. United, Mayflower, Allied, northAmerican, Atlas, and Bekins move interstate shipments under published tariffs based on shipment weight and mileage, then add accessorial charges. Your price depends on a survey of your home, not on a menu.
- Local moving is state-regulated.Intrastate household-goods moving is licensed and, in several states, rate-regulated at the state level, California's intrastate movers, for example, operate under the state utilities commission's household-goods rules. The same brand therefore works under different rules in different states.
How each major brand actually prices
Everything in this table is a structural fact about the business, not a price. Read the last column first, it is usually the thing that decides whether two quotes are even comparable.
| Company | Model | Local pricing basis | Long-distance basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two Men and a Truck | Franchise network | Hourly, for a crew and a truck, with the clock typically running from when the crew leaves the depot to when it returns. | Quoted per job, based on the weight or volume of the shipment and the distance. |
| College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving | Franchise network | Hourly for a crew and truck on moving jobs; junk removal is priced separately by truck volume. | Quoted per job for long-distance moves, arranged through the network. |
| United Van Lines | Van line + agent network | Handled by the local agent under that state's intrastate rules, usually hourly. | Interstate shipments are priced on shipment weight and distance, plus accessorial charges, under the carrier's published tariff. |
| Mayflower Transit | Van line + agent network | Handled by the local agent under state intrastate rules, typically hourly. | Weight and distance under the carrier's tariff, plus accessorials for packing, shuttles, long carries, and storage. |
| Allied Van Lines | Van line + agent network | Priced by the local agent under state rules, typically hourly for intrastate work. | Weight and distance under the carrier's tariff, with accessorials itemised separately. |
| northAmerican Van Lines | Van line + agent network | Priced by the local agent under state intrastate rules. | Weight and distance under the carrier's tariff, plus accessorials. |
| Atlas Van Lines | Van line + agent network | Handled by the local agent, typically hourly under state intrastate rules. | Weight and distance under the carrier's tariff, plus accessorial charges. |
| Bekins | Van line + agent network | Local agent pricing under state intrastate rules. | Weight and distance under the carrier's tariff, plus accessorials. |
| U-Haul | DIY truck rental | An advertised base day rate for the truck plus a per-mile charge, with fuel, damage coverage, and equipment billed separately. | A flat one-way rate for the truck between two locations, priced by route and demand rather than by your inventory. |
| PODS | Portable container | Delivery, a rental period, and redelivery, priced per container per month. | Container rental plus a transport charge for the route, with storage billed monthly if you need it. |
Two Men and a Truck rates: how their pricing works
Two Men and a Truck is the brand people search rates for most, so it is worth being precise. It is a franchise network of independently owned locations. A local move is billed hourly for a crew and a truck, and the clock generally runs portal to portal, from when the crew leaves the depot until it gets back, not just the hours spent at your address. A long-distance move is quoted per job against the weight or volume of your shipment and the distance.
The practical consequence: there is no such thing as the Two Men and a Truck rate.The franchise serving your zip code sets it. Two locations an hour apart can be well over a hundred dollars an hour apart on a three-mover crew, because they are separate businesses hiring in separate labor markets. Ask which franchise is quoting, get the hourly rate, the crew size, the minimum hours, and the travel-time policy in writing, then compare the total against the benchmark below rather than against another brand's hourly number.
The van lines: United, Mayflower, Allied, northAmerican, Atlas, Bekins
These six operate on the same underlying model: a national carrier brand with a network of independent local agents who survey, pack, load, and often haul. Interstate pricing is built from your shipment's weight and the distance, plus accessorial charges for packing materials, shuttles, long carries, stair carries, storage-in-transit, and anything else that is not simply putting boxes on a truck.
Two things are worth knowing before you treat several of these quotes as independent. First, they pair up by ownership: United and Mayflower sit under one parent, Allied and northAmerican under another. A quote from each half of a pair is closer to one opinion than two. Second, the brand on the truck is not the business doing your move, the agent is. Ask for the agent's name and USDOT number and vet that company, using the same standards we apply in how we vet movers.
- United Van Lines. An interstate household-goods carrier operating through a network of local agents; part of the UniGroup family alongside Mayflower. The agent who surveys your home may not be the agent who loads it. Confirm who holds the contract and which estimate type you are being given.
- Mayflower Transit. An interstate household-goods carrier operating through an agent network; part of the same UniGroup family as United. Because United and Mayflower share a parent, quotes from both are not always the independent second opinion they look like.
- Allied Van Lines. An interstate carrier operating through an agent network; part of the SIRVA group alongside northAmerican. Ask whether your estimate is binding, non-binding, or binding not-to-exceed, this single choice changes what happens if the shipment weighs more than the survey said.
- northAmerican Van Lines. An interstate carrier operating through an agent network; part of the same SIRVA group as Allied. Same parent as Allied, so treat a pair of quotes from these two as one data point, not two.
- Atlas Van Lines. An interstate household-goods carrier operating through a network of independent agents. Agent quality varies more than brand quality in any van-line network. Vet the specific agent, not just the name on the truck.
- Bekins. A long-established interstate carrier operating through an agent network. As with every agent network, the estimate is only as good as the survey behind it, insist on a video or in-home walkthrough.
U-Haul and PODS: different question entirely
Neither is a moving company in the sense the others are. U-Haul rents you a truck, priced as a base day rate plus mileage locally or as a flat one-way rate between cities, and separately sells access to third-party loading labor. PODS drops a container, you fill it, and they move and optionally store it. In both cases the headline price excludes the labor that a full-service quote includes, which is exactly why they look so much cheaper at first glance.
We price both against full service in detail elsewhere: PODS vs movers and truck rental vs movers. This page stays on how the full-service brands set their prices.
Carrier or broker: the distinction that decides everything
A carrier owns the truck and employs the crew. A broker sells your job to a carrier you have not met. Both are legal, both must be registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to arrange interstate household-goods moves, and a broker is required to identify itself as a broker rather than let you assume it is a carrier. The problem is not brokers as such, it is not knowing which one you hired: a broker's low quote is not binding on the carrier that eventually shows up.
Three questions settle it in one phone call. Are you a carrier or a broker? What is the USDOT number of the company whose truck will arrive? Is my estimate binding, non-binding, or binding not-to-exceed? Every legitimate interstate mover is also required to give you the FMCSA's consumer rights booklet, which is a reasonable thing to ask for on the same call.
The benchmark: what the job itself should cost
Since the brands will not give you a number in advance, here is ours. These come from our published rate model, the same engine behind the calculator, and they describe the work, not any company:
| Crew | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 movers + truck | $118 | $124 | $134 |
| 3 movers + truck | $177 | $186 | $201 |
| 4 movers + truck | $236 | $248 | $268 |
| Job | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Bedroom, local (~15 mi) | $450 | $550 | $675 |
| 1 Bedroom, ~1,000 mi | $1,725 | $2,100 | $2,550 |
| 2 Bedroom, local (~15 mi) | $875 | $1,075 | $1,300 |
| 2 Bedroom, ~1,000 mi | $2,675 | $3,275 | $4,000 |
| 3 Bedroom, local (~15 mi) | $1,200 | $1,475 | $1,800 |
| 3 Bedroom, ~1,000 mi | $3,900 | $4,750 | $5,800 |
| 4 Bedroom, local (~15 mi) | $1,925 | $2,350 | $2,875 |
| 4 Bedroom, ~1,000 mi | $5,325 | $6,500 | $7,925 |
A quote well under the low column usually means the inventory is incomplete or the estimate is non-binding and will move. A quote well over the high column is not automatically wrong, access problems and accessorials are real, but it should come with an itemised explanation of which ones apply. City-level versions of these numbers are on our metro cost pages, and the sq-ft version is in the cost by square footage guide.
Making three quotes genuinely comparable
- Same inventory, same week. Get all three surveys within seven days, from the same room-by-room list. An inventory that grows between quotes makes the comparison meaningless.
- Same estimate type. Binding, non-binding, or binding not-to-exceed. A non-binding quote is not a price, it is a prediction, and comparing it to a binding one is comparing two different products.
- Same valuation. Basic released-value coverage is included by default and pays a fixed amount per pound per article, which is very little for anything valuable. Full-value protection costs extra. Make sure all three quotes assume the same one.
- Same accessorial list.Shuttle, long carry, stair carry, elevator, packing materials, appliance servicing, storage. Ask each company to price the same list, this is where two “identical” quotes usually diverge.
- Same date. Peak season and the last days of a month cost measurably more, quantified in our best time to move guide.
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FAQ
There is no single national rate, and any site quoting one is guessing. Two Men and a Truck is a franchise network: each independently owned location sets its own hourly rate for a crew and truck, so the same job can be priced quite differently by two nearby franchises. Get a written estimate from the specific franchise serving your address, then check it against an independent benchmark for a move of your size and distance.
The question does not have a stable answer, because none of these brands price nationally. Van lines like United, Mayflower, Allied, northAmerican, and Atlas quote through local agents under a weight-and-distance tariff; franchises like Two Men and a Truck set hourly rates location by location. The cheapest quote in your market this month may be the most expensive next month. Compare the model, the estimate type, and the inventory instead of the logo.
Independent of any brand, our 2026 rate model puts a 2-bedroom local move at $875–$1,300 and a 3-bedroom move of about 1,000 miles at $3,900–$5,800. Use that as the sanity check: a quote far below the band usually means an incomplete inventory, and one far above usually means accessorial charges you have not been shown yet.
A carrier owns trucks and moves your goods. A broker sells the job to a carrier you have not met and may never have vetted. Both must be registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for interstate work, and a broker is required to identify itself as a broker rather than a carrier. Ask directly, in writing, which one you are hiring, and get the USDOT number of the company whose truck will actually arrive.
It is one of the three interstate estimate types. A non-binding estimate can rise if your shipment weighs more than the survey predicted. A binding estimate fixes the price for the inventory listed. A binding not-to-exceed estimate caps the price at the estimate but lets it fall if the shipment weighs less, which is the most favourable of the three for a customer. Ask every company which one they are giving you.