Moving truck vs freight line

[fitz19d]

Anyone have advice on finding a decent price on an 18 wheeler to deliver all my house and furniture?

Been looking fast and loose ahead of June move to OK. Trying to figure out if i can fit a 26' truck. Though except for gas, 2 16' might be cheaper anyways. One way certainly pricier but not sure if so much so it makes it worth driving an empty truck back 750 miles.

Cost is a bigger factor than personal effort. Wouldn't be so much a provoked but i get nervous without enough $$$ buffer built up and there's certainly going to be some disruption on income between the time of move and getting home rented and working steady there.

[eddiememphis]

Have you looked into pods?

You pack them, they ship them. Then you unload.

[DenverGP]

No idea on the 18 wheeler.

For my move to tx, we went with a 16' PODS, plus a 16' rental truck. PODS cost was a little more than the cost of a one-way 16' truck rental. But most of the PODS cost was for mileage. Was around $200 per month for container rental, $2000 for transport of container from Littleton to Dallas. The rental truck was about $1800, but that included trailer to haul a car as well. I didn't keep track of fuel costs for the drive, but it added up.

One related story:
I originally planned to go thru Budget truck rental, but they didn't have a trailer or car dolly available. I switched over to u-haul, with a pickup location just down to the road from me in Littleton. Pickup was set for 9am on Saturday. At noon Thursday, got a call/email from U-Haul, stating that my pickup location had been changed. It was now in PAONIA. Luckily, when I cancelled my original budget reservation, the regional manager called and emailed to see if he could get me to stay with Budget. I called him up, and within a half hour, he had a truck/trailer set up in arvada. More $$$ than the u-haul, but only a few hundred bucks more. I will NEVER go with u-haul again. (not that I intend to move ever again). U-Hauls managers and customer service people repeatedly mentioned fine print on the website that the location you reserve at is just a preference and they can send you wherever the hell they want if they don't have what you need at your preferred location.


Oh, and I wish I had just ponied up the extra $$$ for the 26' truck vs the 16'.

[fitz19d]

Have you looked into pods?

You pack them, they ship them. Then you unload.

Pricy for what they are, unless you have a fairly minimalist home

[thedave1164]

Buy a box truck that will meet your needs, make the move, then drive it to CA and sell for a profit

[fj605]

How's the price of a POD compare to the price of a truck rental once you account for travel time? 750 miles of travel in one of those trucks has to be the better part of 12hrs.

[Great-Kazoo]

U-Boxes from U-haul. Each hold 2k of weight. They get delivered to your door, then picked up and delivered to the closest, or major uhaul storage facility near you. They store them in climate controlled warehouse, then will load them on to a dolly you can use to unload at your house.

[fitz19d]

Uboxes similiar to pods are pricy for the amount of crap we have though working on that. 6 boxes which is Somewhat similiar to a 26' truck is showing like 3200. Currently 26' for 4 days and 850 miles is 1300 from uhaul, about 700 in gas. 20' is 1k.

So 1k to have a very long day driving is worth saving. Now if we need a 2nd truck it gets ugly quick and basically doing a truck and a half with pods may be worth it vs 2 whole trucks

[Gman]

We went the PODS route. Wood framed U-Boxes from U-Haul give up some internal capacity due to the way they are constructed.

Wasn't cheap, but it worked since we didn't have a home to move into on this side of the move out of CO. Nice thing about packing your own stuff and moving via sealed and locked container is that we didn't have anything mysteriously come up missing in the move.

[DenverGP]

Ditto on the experience with PODS... We were able to fill a pod with most of the stuff in our house and have PODS pick it up about a month before the move. Left us with a more manageable amount to move via the truck. Everything in the PODS container arrived in exactly the same condition as when we loaded it, and they dropped it off the day after we closed on the new house.

A relative moved to CO from AZ, and paid professional movers to do it all... over 10k in cost, and a bunch of their stuff was either damaged or lost during the move.

[Ah Pook]

In the middle of this right now.

3 bed, 3 bath, two story, with a basement. and a 2 car garage. Pods didn't work for us. Moving companies were guesstimating $14k. Yes, we are ass deep in Biden years but not that deep. We ended up with a combo of 2 rental trucks, movers on both ends and inde drivers for less than $10k. Not the best but doable.

[Bailey Guns]

I know when we moved from CO to ID, we did 4 of the U-Boxes, a 20 ft truck, my 8x16 trailer towed by my F-250 and a car-hauler. Cost was about $1500 less than what a moving company would've charged. But that was 2015. I hate U-Haul. Really hate U-Haul. One of the worst companies for customer service on the planet. The local dealers are usually great. U-Haul corporate sucks. Unfortunately they're usually the only choice...especially in smaller markets.

My advice is call a moving company (or two or three) and get a quote for someone to come out, pack it up, delivery it and unpack it. It might be close enough to make it worthwhile considering the brain damage involved in moving yourself.

I'm 2 months into moving into my new place and I still have stuff left at my old place. What a PITA... I HAVE to do it myself, though. I don't have the money to hire someone.

[fitz19d]

If I did any kind of freight line, I'd certainly try to cut cost by having it all packed just needs loading. Bonus if I can seal their trailer. We are working on that now and well over a month out.

Not sure how to find moving companies that are legit, that's one of my big fears is these various slime balls.

[Mykidsdad]

ABF has a system of self load pup trailers that might be a good solution for you.

https://www.upack.com/how-upack-works/equipment/moving-trailer

[Great-Kazoo]

If I did any kind of freight line, I'd certainly try to cut cost by having it all packed just needs loading. Bonus if I can seal their trailer. We are working on that now and well over a month out.

Not sure how to find moving companies that are legit, that's one of my big fears is these various slime balls.

Just a suggestion. if you haven't worn, used or worked with it, in the last 6 months. Sell it.

[thedave1164]

ABF has a system of self load pup trailers that might be a good solution for you.

https://www.upack.com/how-upack-works/equipment/moving-trailer

We used UPACK in 2000 when we moved to CO, if you are LTL it can get a little messy on the delivery schedule, since ours was on the front, they had to get the load off the back first, and for some reason it took 2 more days than was scheduled. But it was a cheap option, I believe we had 20' of a 40' trailer from CT to CO was $1300 which was a fraction of u-haul rental back then even

[fj605]

So 1k to have a very long day driving is worth saving. Now if we need a 2nd truck it gets ugly quick and basically doing a truck and a half with pods may be worth it vs 2 whole trucks

We've been talking about moving so this has been in the back of my mind. I just haven't crunched the numbers on it yet. We had professional movers when we moved to Colorado from South Dakota but it was a paid move so no cost to me. Since then, we've used amateurs for a move which sucked and PODS for another short move which wasn't bad because I could follow the truck.

[fitz19d]

We used UPACK in 2000 when we moved to CO, if you are LTL it can get a little messy on the delivery schedule, since ours was on the front, they had to get the load off the back first, and for some reason it took 2 more days than was scheduled. But it was a cheap option, I believe we had 20' of a 40' trailer from CT to CO was $1300 which was a fraction of u-haul rental back then even

For their 27' freight trailer they are now quoting like 4k. The trucker shortage on top of had prices i suspect is making this way costlier than say 2019 would have been.

[flogger]

Just a suggestion. if you haven't worn, used or worked with it, in the last 6 months. Sell it.

Good point, sometimes its cheaper to replace than move.

[fj605]

I use the one year rule. Gets me through all the seasons. Most tools get an exception. I don't use a drain snake very often but I like to have one handy.

[00tec]

We bought 25 or more big Rubbermaid tote deals (home depot brand) and put all the crap in them that we don't access regularly, but lives in spots for long periods of time. Books, cables/wires, etc.

[GeorgeandSugar]

Anyone have advice on finding a decent price on an 18 wheeler to deliver all my house and furniture?

Been looking fast and loose ahead of June move to OK. Trying to figure out if i can fit a 26' truck. Though except for gas, 2 16' might be cheaper anyways. One way certainly pricier but not sure if so much so it makes it worth driving an empty truck back 750 miles.

Cost is a bigger factor than personal effort. Wouldn't be so much a provoked but i get nervous without enough $$$ buffer built up and there's certainly going to be some disruption on income between the time of move and getting home rented and working steady there.

Check Penske trucks. I believe they have a good one-way rate. Old Dominion has a household division. A better deal than Upack.

[fitz19d]

I'll check OD. Id heard that about penske, but fob what i saw uhaul shit on them for prove this time. May be market dependant etc.

[KevDen2005]

We used a moving company. Our stuff eventually made it, but it they weren't great and their prices were the best but still cost us lots last July. My brother packed up everything himself, hired movers to load his Uhaul and then hired movers at the arrival location to unload.

We thought we got rid of tons of stuff before moving here, and since getting here, we have gotten rid of a ton more. If you're a prepper of any kind, no matter how little (like have some survival gear and some freeze dried food), it will be a big pain.

I also rented a uhaul trailer to move anything that I deemed a "sensitive item" with my former Army terminology. So firearms, ammo, etc. I also made sure to have clothes and a large blow up mattress with us, thank God we did, the moving company took about 15 days longer than they said they would, we would have been without a bed for 10 days.

[Erni]

You can cut deeper than you think on stuff you have. I still have boxes that are unpacked in the basement after 15 years. Most of it sentimental stuff, but let?s face it is it really that important if you haven?t touched it in a decade?
My comment on the beds is this. Time for a new mattress, leave the old one here. And are you really that in love with your furniture? We have lots of oak furniture but honestly if we move cross country I will look to get rid of it.
I second self transport of the critical stuff my suburban was to the top with important stuff and a vacuum cleaner and the kids blankets and pillows.

[KevDen2005]

You can cut deeper than you think on stuff you have. I still have boxes that are unpacked in the basement after 15 years. Most of it sentimental stuff, but let?s face it is it really that important if you haven?t touched it in a decade?
My comment on the beds is this. Time for a new mattress, leave the old one here. And are you really that in love with your furniture? We have lots of oak furniture but honestly if we move cross country I will look to get rid of it.
I second self transport of the critical stuff my suburban was to the top with important stuff and a vacuum cleaner and the kids blankets and pillows.

I agree, some of the sentimental stuff is hard to get rid of because it feels weird to do so. Also if you have a gun safe a moving company will most likely charge a lot for it. Depending on what they charge you could potentially price out newer safes. I don't think you'll find a better deal on one, but you never know. We left our washer and dryer since they were over 11 years old, our oak furniture is only two years old and it's our first bedroom set, we never had an actual set before, I thought it was time to get one before I turned 40.

The kids rooms were hard since moving companies hate bunk beds and cribs. We had all the extra baby stuff for our one year old, and the car seats too. All things that we wouldn't have dealt with a couple years down the road

[fitz19d]

Lol old Dominion household suspended for now due to shipping ltl levels across the rest of the business or whatever....


And yeap. I think i said it, but we are ditching 80% of furniture. King frame will be gone. The mattress itself might come just due to cost of a new one and that we won't have much time. After we unload I'll return to CO for a few months leaving her there with enough problems to deal with anyways.

Basement 4x10 dog kernel can't come and no fence so another fun thing is like day 1 attempting to create a make shift dog run. If we somehow do have spare room then maybe the panels will fit, otherwise got to go find chain link.

[Delfuego]

Just a suggestion. if you haven't worn, used or worked with it, or shot it in the last 6 months. Sell it.FTFY

[Erni]

FTFY

With my schedule that means everything. Hell no.