An itemized moving estimate, at your rates
This page builds a moving estimate the way a mover’s quote is built: measured quantities (mover-hours, truck-days, miles, boxes, flights of stairs, months of storage) multiplied by rates. There are no built-in prices here, deliberately: moving rates are local, seasonal and crew-specific, so every rate is yours to enter from real quotes, and the rates in the worked example below are labelled as illustrative. The estimate itemizes each line, applies any minimum charge openly, adds contingency once and tax once, and gives a low to high range, a per-mile and per-cubic-foot figure, and a downloadable estimate you can compare against actual quotes line by line.
Crew and truck
Distance, packing and access
Storage and fixed charges
Minimum, contingency, tax and range
Disclaimer: This calculator gives estimates for general information only. It is not financial, medical or other professional advice. A moving estimate built on your own rates is a planning tool and a way to test quotes; it is not a quote itself, and the binding figure is the one in a written agreement with the mover you choose.
What this calculator does
It assembles a moving estimate from the same components a professional quote contains, and keeps quantities and rates separate, because the two go wrong in different ways. Quantities (how many mover-hours, miles, boxes, flights of stairs) you can measure or count. Rates (what an hour, a mile or a box costs) belong to your market and your date, so the page takes them from you and prints them on the estimate; nothing is dressed up as a national average. The arithmetic is then strict bookkeeping: each line is quantity times rate, rounded to cents, the lines sum to a subtotal, a minimum charge replaces the subtotal as the base when it is larger, contingency applies once to that base, tax applies once on top, and the range is your own uncertainty band around the total, not a promise in either direction.
How to use it
- Mover-hours are crew times hours. A three-person crew working six hours bills eighteen mover-hours, and the estimate multiplies the two before pricing, printing the arithmetic on the line so a quote that bills differently (a flat crew rate per hour, for instance) can be converted and compared honestly: divide a flat crew-hour quote by the crew size to get the per-mover rate this page wants.
- Hours are the estimate’s soft centre. Loading and unloading time drives the crew line, which is usually the largest line, and it depends on volume, access, distance between door and truck, and how ready the house is. If a mover quotes a suspiciously low hour count against everyone else’s, the low quote is not a bargain; it is the same job with the overrun left for moving day.
- Stairs, distance and access are real charges, not padding. Flights of stairs, long carries from door to truck, elevators that must be booked, and parking permits all appear on professional quotes as named lines. Entering them here, at the mover’s stated fees, stops them ambushing the total later and makes two quotes with different access assumptions visibly different.
- Packing is two lines, service and materials. Crew hours spent packing are billed like other hours; boxes and materials are goods. Homes that self-pack can zero the service line and keep the materials, and partial packing (kitchen and breakables only, the common professional offer) is just fewer hours.
- Replace every rate with a real quote before deciding anything. This page structures the comparison; it does not know your market. Get written quotes, convert them into these lines, and the estimate tells you where each quote is fat and where it is thin in a way the quotes’ own totals hide.
How it is calculated
- Each line = its quantity x its rate, rounded to cents: crew = movers x hours x per-mover rate; truck = trucks x days x per-day rate; distance = miles x per-mile rate; packing = hours x rate; boxes = count x price; stairs = flights x fee; storage = months x rate. Materials and other fixed charges enter as flat amounts.
- Subtotal = the sum of the line amounts. Minimum charge: if a minimum is entered and exceeds the subtotal, the minimum becomes the base and the results state that the minimum charge applied.
- Contingency = the contingency percentage applied once to the base (the subtotal, or the minimum-charge base). Tax = the tax percentage applied once to base plus contingency, when a tax rate is entered.
- Total = base + contingency + tax. Range = total less and plus your percentage. Per mile = total / distance; per cubic foot = total / the volume you entered.
Worked examples
A local move, fully priced. Illustrative rates, entered as a user would from quotes: a 3 mover crew for 6 hours at $55 per mover-hour ($990.00); one truck for 1 day at $150 ($150.00); 25 miles at $2.00 ($50.00); 4 packing hours at $45 ($180.00); 40 boxes at $3.50 ($140.00); $60 of other materials; 2 flights of stairs at $75 ($150.00); no storage. Subtotal $1,720.00. Contingency at 10% adds $172.00 for a total of $1,892.00, and a plus or minus 15% range runs from $1,608.20 to $2,175.80. The total is $75.68 per mile travelled and $2.37 per cubic foot on an 800 cubic foot load, the two figures movers themselves sanity-check against.
The minimum charge doing its job. A tiny job (10 miles of travel at $2.00, $20 of lines) against a mover’s $500 minimum: the estimate builds on the minimum, applies 10% contingency to the $500 base ($50.00), and totals $550.00, stating plainly that the minimum charge applied. Small jobs are priced by the floor, not by the lines, and the estimate should confess that rather than pretend the $20 was real.
Tax where it applies. The same $1,720 subtotal with 10% contingency and an 8% tax rate entered: tax is 8% of ($1,720 + $172) = $151.36, and the total is $2,043.36. Tax is applied once, on the built-up figure, never line by line and never on the range.
Reading your results
Read the itemization against any real quote the way an auditor would: which lines does the quote carry that you did not expect, and which of yours are missing from it? A quote much lower than your estimate usually resolves, on inspection, into fewer hours, no stairs fee yet, or packing excluded, each of which returns on moving day as an extra. Read the per-mile and per-cubic-foot figures as smell tests rather than standards, since long-distance moves price distance and weight differently from local hourly moves. And read the range as the honest shape of the answer: a move estimated at $1,892 with a range to $2,176 is a plan that survives its own surprises; a point total with no range is a hope.
Limitations
- Long-distance moves are priced differently. Interstate moves are typically priced on weight and distance under a tariff, with binding and non-binding estimate rules, not on local hourly lines. This page’s structure suits local and hourly moves and quote comparison; a cross-country move needs the mover’s own tariff paperwork read carefully alongside.
- Valuation and insurance are not lines here. Released-value coverage versus full-value protection is a real cost decision with real consequences for loss or damage; it belongs in the agreement with the mover and is deliberately not folded into this estimate as a rate you guess at.
- Hours and volume are estimates inside the estimate. The crew line is only as good as the hours entered, and per-cubic-foot figures inherit the volume guess. The contingency and the range exist precisely because these inputs wobble; setting both to zero does not make the move predictable, it makes the page pretend.
- Nothing here is a quote. Prices, availability, minimums and fees are set by the mover in writing. This page’s job is to make those documents comparable and their surprises visible in advance.
Frequently asked questions
How is a moving cost estimate built?
By pricing measured quantities at stated rates, line by line: mover-hours (crew size times hours) at the per-mover hourly rate, truck-days, miles at a per-mile travel charge, packing hours and materials, access fees such as stairs, and storage by the month. The lines sum to a subtotal; a minimum charge, if larger, replaces it as the base; contingency and tax each apply once, in that order. This page follows that structure exactly and prints every line, which is what makes its output comparable with a written quote.
Why are there no default prices in the calculator?
Because a default rate would be a fabricated national price wearing the costume of help. Moving rates vary by city, season, day of the week and crew market, and an estimate built on invented rates produces a confident, wrong total. The page instead gives you the structure, takes rates from the real quotes you collect, and labels the rates in its worked example as illustrative for exactly that reason.
What is a minimum charge on a move?
The floor a mover sets under any job, covering the fixed cost of sending a crew and a truck at all. On small jobs the minimum, not the itemized lines, is the price, and movers do not always volunteer it in a headline quote. This page asks for it explicitly and tells you in the results when the minimum, rather than your lines, set your total.
How much contingency should I add to a moving estimate?
Enough to cover the surprises your specific move can plausibly produce: hours running over, an extra flight of stairs discovered on the day, a second trip. Ten percent is a common planning allowance on a straightforward local move with good access; complicated access, elevators, or a house not fully packed argue for more, and the range field then shows what the total looks like if the day simply goes badly rather than well.
Related calculators
Method: itemized quantity times rate lines at user-entered rates, minimum charge applied to the base, contingency once and tax once, exactly as defined on this page. Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.