Moving Labor vs Traditional Movers

We try really hard to make it easy to understand what we do, but not everyone understands right away. We've created this guide to help you understand what a "traditional mover" is and why "we" are not "them".

Types of Movers

You can put moving companies into two groups: moving labor and full service (a traditional mover). MovingLabor.com is a moving labor company. Let's review what each means:

Moving Labor

Also sometimes called moving help or moving helpers, what we do is the same- we are movers without the truck. Moving labor companies provide a range of labor-only moving services, such as loading and unloading rented moving trucks, moving storage containers, freight trailers, shipping containers, and so on. You can also hire a moving labor company to move furniture in your existing home. We provide the muscle and handle all of the heavy lifting to physically move your furniture and boxes.

When you hire moving labor you are hiring movers by the hour. You can hire movers to do as much or as little as you need. For example, if you rented a U-Haul for a move from Tampa to Chicago, you could choose to hire movers only in Tampa to help load your U-Haul. Alternatively, you could hire movers only in Chicago to help unload your U-Haul. And, of course, you could also hire moving help in both cities- it's up to you!

Full-Service Movers

A full-service mover is any moving company that also provides a moving truck. This could be a company that only provides moving services in a local area or a nationwide van line. TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® and College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving® are both examples of local full-service movers. United Van Lines® is an example of a nationwide van line.

Why Moving Labor?

A full-service mover is obviously the more convenient option, however, they cost a lot more too. On average, you can expect to save 40-60% on the cost of your move by combining moving labor with a rented truck, freight trailer or moving container.

The high cost of a full-service moving company isn't the only reason why people choose moving labor. Let's look at some of the other major differences between a traditional moving company and a moving labor company.

Quality of the Movers

Most traditional moving companies hire career movers, also referred to as "lumpers". While they are without a doubt experienced, they are usually not friendly or polite. Moving labor companies, on the other hand, typically pay their movers more than two times the industry average. This is because moving labor companies are smaller and typically don't have the big government and commercial contracts that the traditional movers have, which means the performance of our movers and the satisfaction of our customers is absolutely vital.

Versatile Experience

Traditional moving companies, and their movers, are experienced in loading and unloading their trucks - not rental trucks, moving containers or the hundreds of transportation solutions that come in different shapes and sizes. Moving labor companies, however, provide loading and unloading services for a wide variety of storage containers, moving trucks and freight trailers. We don't just know how to load or unload one truck size, we have experience with all types of do-it-yourself moving methods and the different sizes they come in.

Take U-Haul for example- They have five different truck sizes, three sizes of cargo trailers, as well as their U-Box moving container. Each sized option presents different challenges for your movers, and moving labor companies are going to have a significant amount of experience with loading and unloading all of these truck, trailer and container sizes.

Impartial Advice

A traditional full-service mover will always try and sell you their transportation or storage service, whether it's in your best interest or not. Everyone has a different situation and different needs. Are you storing your items for 6 months? If so, a full-service mover will load your items, unload them into one of their storage containers, load your items when it is time for delivery and then unload them at your new home. Count it, that's four touches! Four opportunities for lost, stolen or damaged items. It's also four billing opportunities for the full-service company to rack up the bill.

Moving labor companies, on the other hand, will always have your best interest at heart. This is because we don't provide transportation or storage, so our advice is based on what is best for you, not how much money we can make. If you're moving and need long term storage the logical decision is a portable storage container, which offers competitive rates (compared to full service movers) and allows for only two touches - Your load and your unload. You possess the only key to your unit and there is no need to load and unload multiple times.