Questions to Ask a Moving Company in Texas, and Our Answers to Them
Most moving pages tell you what to ask and then leave you to go and ask somebody else. This one puts our own answers next to the questions, including the ones about money.
The questions to ask a moving company in Texas come down to four: who is doing the work, what sets the price, when your things arrive, and how they are protected on the way. Matthew & Mois answers them as a family-owned interstate carrier operating under MC 1710429 and USDOT 4368130 from a yard in Alvarado, Johnson County. A fleet of seven trucks covers the range from a small apartment to a full semi load, and nobody sells your booking on afterwards, so the outfit that writes the estimate is the outfit that turns up. Four things set the figure: the room your things take up on the truck, the miles between the two addresses, how much of the work you want us doing, and whether anything unusual has to be handled differently. Delivery comes as a window and never as a fixed date, because distance and federal driving limits decide it. Everything is padded, wrapped and listed before it leaves the house.
Five things people want settled before they book
The questions on this page are the ones our office fields most often. Three of them come up so reliably that we plan around them: whether the price will hold, whether delivery will slip, and whether anything will arrive broken. Every question on the page is listed below, and clicking one takes you straight to its answer.
Estimates and what you pay
4
Dates, windows and delivery
4
How your things are protected
4
Who you are hiring
4
Every figure on this page starts with your inventory.
What sets the price, and what makes a price move
Price stops more bookings than anything else, and the worry underneath it is that the figure will move once the truck is loaded. So this section covers what goes into ours, and what genuinely does change it.
What information do you need before you can quote me accurately?
Names and contact details, both addresses, the dates you have in mind and the best time to reach you. Then the part that drives the figure: a complete inventory, anything specialty that needs extra care, and whether you want packing, storage or other services. The more of that we have at the start, the closer the first number is to the last one.
Do you quote over the phone, or does someone come out?
Most estimates start with a detailed phone consultation. For a complicated home, or if you would rather have someone see it, we can do a walkthrough instead. You can also send photos or a video, which is the quickest way to handle odd sized pieces, specialty furniture and anything fragile enough to need its own materials.
What actually causes a quote to change after booking?
Six things, and we would rather name them than let you find out on the day. Items added after the estimate was written. Items that were in the house but not in the original inventory review. Packing requested at the last minute. A change in what delivery needs to be. A specialty piece that turns out to need its own preparation. And services added after the booking.
Every one of those is a change to the job. We do not write a low estimate to win the booking and correct it on the day.
How do the deposit and the payments work?
Once you approve the estimate, a one-third deposit reserves your date on the calendar. The remaining pickup balance is settled at the end of loading day, after the final walkthrough and the paperwork. The rest is collected at delivery once the move is complete.
When your things arrive, and how you find out
The single biggest misunderstanding about interstate moving is how long it takes. It is worth settling before you start comparing quotes, because two estimates with very different delivery windows are not really comparable.
Can an interstate move be done in a day or two?
Usually not, and this is the misconception we correct most often. Interstate schedules are set by distance, route planning, transport logistics and federal regulations, and the timeframe grows as the mileage does. What we can do is make sure you understand your estimated delivery window before the move starts rather than after.
Will you give me a guaranteed delivery date?
No, and we would be careful with anyone who does. Nobody moving goods across state lines controls the weather, the traffic, or the hours a driver is legally allowed to be behind the wheel. What you get from us is an estimated window and then updates against it. If another company hands you a firm date, ask them how they calculated it.
What happens between booking and moving day?
About 48 hours before pickup we call to confirm your arrival window. On the day itself the crew starts with a walkthrough of the home to go over the inventory and anything you want handled a particular way.
Will I hear from you while my things are on the road?
Yes, and without having to chase us for it. We send updates while the shipment is in transit, and about 24 hours before delivery you get a call with an estimated arrival time. We use whichever of phone, text or email you prefer, because people are not the same about that.
What happens to your furniture between the two houses
The materials arrive with the crew
The list is written as pieces are wrapped
Labeled where the label can be read
Loaded to hold its shape for the whole trip
How will my belongings be protected during transit?
Each item gets the level of protection that item calls for, decided piece by piece rather than by one rule applied to a whole house. Furniture goes under professional grade protective materials, fragile things get extra cushioning, and every box and piece of furniture is labeled. The crew then loads so the stack holds its shape on the road, which is most of what keeps things intact once the doors are shut.
Do you write down what you are taking?
Yes. Anything that has to be dismantled to leave the room is taken apart first, everything is wrapped, and each item is labeled and inventoried before it is carried out. At the end of loading we walk the empty rooms with you to confirm nothing was missed.
Do I need to buy materials before you arrive?
No. The crew arrives with professional packing materials, and there are spare supplies on the truck for whatever the walkthrough did not catch. If you want full packing, or specialty protection for delicate or valuable pieces, say so at booking so the right materials are loaded that morning.
What we would ask, if we were the ones hiring
Ask for the MC and USDOT numbers, then look them up rather than taking a website’s word for it. Ours are MC 1710429 and USDOT 4368130 and both are public: put the MC number into the FMCSA company snapshot and read what comes back. Licensing is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the one part of this business that somebody who has never met us can check.
Ask whether you are talking to the company that will do the lifting, and ask it plainly enough that a yes cannot turn out to be a maybe.
Ask what is not in the estimate. A lower number may be missing fees, tariff increases or a commission, and none of those absences shows up until later. Two quotes are only comparable if both were built from the same inventory.
Ask what happens if the delivery window slips, and treat a confident date as a warning rather than a comfort. We would rather set an expectation we can hold than win a booking with one we cannot.
Then ask something specific about your own house: the stairs, the piano, the closing date nobody has confirmed yet. A general answer to a specific question tells you how the estimate was built.
The more complete your inventory, the steadier the figure.
Who shows up, and who stays answerable
Are you a carrier or a broker?
A carrier. The trucks are ours and the crews are on our payroll, which is the reason the company was set up this way. Brokers commonly hand the customer off to another company after booking, and accountability and communication both suffer for it. Here you deal with one company from the first call to the last box.
Who unloads at the other end of a long move?
Our own crew runs the move from end to end, and most of our people have been with us at least four years. On deliveries to some distant states we hire experienced local helpers for the unloading. They work under our crew, who stay responsible for supervising the job and holding the standard. We would rather explain that than let you picture something else.
How big is the operation?
Three semi-trucks and four box trucks, and four moving crews whose members work together regularly. That range is deliberate. It covers an apartment, and it covers a four to six bedroom house that fills a trailer, which is where most of our work comes from.
How quickly will I hear back?
In most cases immediately, and no later than the same business day.
Ask us the awkward ones. We answer those the same way.
Short answers, with the longer ones a click away
Do you move out of state?
Do you pack?
Can you store things between homes?
Do pianos, gun safes and antiques need a different service?
Will beds and tables be standing again at the other end?
Do you do moves across town?
Where are you based?
Is there a question this page missed?
What customers say once the move is done
Ask us the ones this page missed
Send the inventory and both addresses and we will come back with a figure and the reasoning behind it. If something on this page did not answer your question, put it on the form or say it on the phone. Both reach the same people.
We are a family company, and we move memories, not boxes. Your things get handled the way we would want someone handling ours.