Local vs. Long-Distance Moves: Important Moving Industry Info
Last updated May 2024
To deal effectively with moving companies, it helps to know how the industry works. A key is to know about the differences between local and long-distance moves. The distance of your move greatly affects how your job will be priced, which consumer protection laws apply, who will do the work, and other important matters.
Long-distance interstate moves—from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, for example—are regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The FMCSA has rules regarding documents movers must provide to customers; the mover’s liability for loss of, or damage to, belongings; types of estimates that can be provided; and other matters.
The FMCSA does not regulate intrastate moves; this is left to the states. The same applies to interstate moves within specified commercial zones, such as the commercial zone that extends 15 miles out from the District border, plus all of Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties.
In Virginia, the Department of Motor Vehicles regulates moves only if they exceed 30 miles. The District regulates movers through its Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection. Moves within Maryland are regulated by the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s office.
There are other big differences between local and long-distance moves.
For local moves, one moving company does the entire job. For long-distance moves, interstate carriers (e.g., Allied, North American, and United Van Lines) work with independent moving companies to coordinate packing, loading, trucking, and unloading. Some interstate carriers maintain employee-staffed branch offices, but most rely on local independently owned moving companies as their agents. The local agent assigns a representative to prepare an estimate and “order for service.” If you agree to use the agent’s affiliated interstate carrier, they notify the carrier, which dispatches a driver and truck to pick up and deliver your goods.
Most local agents have their own trucks for local moves and long-distance moves performed under contract with the interstate carrier. If your move is short (say, from Washington to New York), your local agent company will likely ask the interstate carrier for the contract back to do the haul, and the interstate carrier is likely to honor that request. But for longer moves, the interstate carrier’s dispatcher will use any trucks that happen to be in the area and are available to travel in the direction of your move. These will probably not be the local agent’s trucks.
Even if the interstate carrier dispatches a contract trucker from some other part of the country for your move, the agent that prepares your estimate and books your move can offer advice and provide packing assistance, and may arrange for local hourly labor to load your stuff.
