Interview a moving company by asking eleven questions across three areas: credentials and cost (license, insurance, how pricing works, what's included, payment terms), logistics (process, timeline, handling of special items), and accountability (cancellation policy, dispute process, experience, references). A good company answers all eleven specifically and in writing; hesitation on licensing, pricing, or paperwork ends the interview.
Why interview at all?
Because a mover isn't a commodity, you're choosing who carries everything you own, on a day with no do-overs. Homes and businesses alike get burned the same way: they collect prices instead of answers, pick the middle number, and discover on move day what the quote didn't include. The interview flips that. Fifteen minutes of direct questions reveals a company's transparency, competence, and honesty faster than anything else you can do, and the good companies enjoy answering. We field these questions daily, and the customers who ask them are our favorite customers, they know exactly what they bought.
Run the same script past two or three licensed companies and the differences jump out. Here are the eleven questions, grouped by what they reveal.
Credentials and cost: questions 1–5
These five establish whether the company is legitimate and whether the price you're quoted is the price you'll pay.
Listen for specifics. On question 1, you want actual numbers you can look up, CAL T and USDOT, not 'we're fully licensed.' (Ours: CAL T-192729, USDOT 3801918, and we'll say them before you ask.) On pricing, a trustworthy answer names the structure plainly, hourly for local, with fuel itemized, and arrives in writing. A real estimate also requires the company to learn your inventory first; anyone quoting a firm number without asking about your home is guessing, and their guess always resolves in their favor.
- 1. Are you licensed and insured, and what are the numbers?
- 2. How is the cost calculated: hourly, weight, or flat rate?
- 3. What exactly does the estimate include, and what costs extra?
- 4. Will the quote be in writing, and how is it built (walkthrough, video, inventory call)?
- 5. What are the payment terms, deposit, timing, accepted methods?
Logistics: questions 6–8
The next three reveal whether the company can actually run YOUR move, not just a generic one.
Question 6 should produce a concrete walkthrough of their process: how furniture gets protected, how loads get labeled and organized, who leads the crew. Question 7 matters double for businesses, where every hour of downtime has a price, ask for a stage-by-stage timeline and what the contingency plan is when something slips. Question 8 is where you name your hardest items, the piano, the server rack, the fragile heirloom, and listen for specific technique: crating, padding, climate-controlled storage, trained handlers. 'We're careful' is not a technique.
- 6. Walk me through your moving and packing process, start to finish
- 7. What timeline can you commit to, and what happens if it slips?
- 8. How do you handle delicate, high-value, or specialty items?
Accountability: questions 9–11
The final three tell you what happens when things don't go to plan, which is exactly when your choice of mover matters most.
On cancellation and rescheduling, life happens: escrow slips, leases shift. You want stated policies and reasonable fees, known before you book. On disputes, every real company has a damage-claim process; a company that gets cagey about complaints is telling you how yours will be handled. On experience, ask for tenure and proof: years in business, volume of moves, references or reviews you can actually check. For scale: we've been at this since 2008, with 25,120+ moves done and 730+ reviews across platforms averaging 4.8 stars on Google. Any established mover should be able to produce their own version of those numbers without flinching.
- 9. What's your cancellation and rescheduling policy?
- 10. How do you resolve damage claims and complaints?
- 11. How long have you been in business, and can you prove the track record?
Red flags that end the interview early
Some answers don't need follow-up questions, they need you to hang up. From two decades of watching competitors come and go, these are the signals that reliably precede a bad move:
- No license number, or excuses about why it can't be shared
- No physical address, a PO box or website-only operation
- Quotes wildly below every competitor, or given without any inventory questions
- Large cash deposit demanded before anything is in writing
- No written contract offered, or pressure to book 'today only'
- A pattern of unanswered complaints in reviews, one-offs happen; patterns predict
- Unprofessional basics: missed calls, late arrivals to the estimate, vague answers
- No real equipment, a mover without trucks, pads, and dollies is a middleman
What good answers sound like
After enough interviews you develop an ear for it. Good companies answer in specifics and paperwork: license numbers recited from memory, pricing explained before you push, estimates that arrive fast and in writing, policies stated rather than improvised. They ask YOU questions, lots of them, because accurate quotes come from accurate information. And they never mind being compared, because companies with real track records win comparisons.
That's the standard we built ourselves to meet: written quotes within one business hour, hourly rates with fuel itemized up front, uniformed employee crews, and the license numbers printed where you can't miss them. Interview us first or interview us last, just make sure everyone you talk to survives the same eleven questions.