The first decision sets most of the cost, and it is not really a price comparison. A rented truck moves the price toward fuel, mileage, a deposit and the labor of everyone helping. A portable container splits the job: the household loads, the company drives, and storage is often bundled because the container can sit. A full-service household goods carrier prices by weight and distance for the transportation itself, then adds accessorial charges for the things that are not simply carrying boxes onto a truck. Appendix A to part 375 names several of them, including packing and unpacking, appliance servicing, piano carrying and a flight charge for carrying items up or down stairs. Those are where a quote and a final bill part company.
On an interstate move, the estimate is a regulated document, and there are exactly two kinds. A mover must conduct a physical survey of the goods, on site or virtually, unless the shipper waives it in writing before loading, and must give a written estimate; a verbal quote is not an estimate. A binding estimate guarantees the total for the services shown on it, and once the shipment is loaded, a mover that has not executed a new estimate has reaffirmed the original and "may not collect more than the amount of the original binding estimate" (49 CFR 375.403(a)(7)). A non-binding estimate is the mover's belief about the cost, with the final charges set by actual weight and the mover's published tariff, and its face must state that the shipper "will not be required to pay more than 110 percent of the non-binding estimate at the time of delivery" (375.405(b)(5)). Either estimate can be amended by agreement before the shipment is loaded and, under 375.401(i), not after.
The 110 percent rule is a rule about the day of delivery, not a cap on the bill. It says how much money the mover may require before it lets go of the shipment. Anything above that is still owed; it is billed after 30 days. Section 375.407 makes the point in the other direction: once the shipper offers up to 110 percent of a non-binding estimate on a collect-on-delivery shipment, the mover "must relinquish possession of the shipment at the time of delivery", and failing to do so is a failure to transport with reasonable dispatch. Appendix A puts it in plain words: a mover that does not let go at that point "is holding your shipment hostage in violation of Federal law". Two related numbers sit beside it. Charges for impracticable operations, meaning conditions that force the mover to use special equipment or extra labor, may not exceed 15 percent of all other charges due at delivery (375.407(d)). And on a partial delivery the mover may demand only a prorated share, measured by the weight delivered against the total weight (375.407(c)).
Valuation is a cost decision disguised as a paperwork question. Full Value Protection is the default: the mover's liability is the replacement value of what is lost or damaged, up to the declared value of the shipment (375.201(b)). The cheaper released rate applies only where the shipper waives full value in writing, and section 375.201(c) states no dollar figure at all. It directs the reader to the Surface Transportation Board's Released Rates of Motor Carrier Shipments of Household Goods and adds that the rate "may be increased annually by the motor carrier based on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Cost of Living Adjustment". The familiar 60 cents per pound per article does appear in part 375, in the booklet at Appendix A, which describes the second option as "Waiver of Full Value Protection, Released Value of 60 cents per pound per article", and in 375.203(b) and 375.303(a). Read them together and the shape is clear: the waiver buys a very low ceiling, and Appendix A tells the shipper to ask whether that is enough coverage. Items worth more than $100 per pound, which Appendix A calls "high value items", have to be listed in writing, or the mover's liability for them can be limited to $100 per pound per article even where full value was not waived (375.203(b)).
The federal regime reaches less than most people assume. Part 375 applies to a household goods carrier transporting for individual shippers in interstate commerce (375.101). A move entirely within one state is regulated, if at all, by that state, and Appendix A carves out something narrower still: a move that crosses a state line inside a single commercial zone, its example being Brooklyn to Hackensack within the New York City zone, is not subject to FMCSA's household goods regulations even though two states are involved.
The costs that have nothing to do with the truck are the ones people forget to budget. A new tenancy generally wants a security deposit and the first period's rent before the keys move; utilities at the new address may want their own deposit; and rent or mortgage on both homes can overlap by weeks. Ending a lease early can carry a charge of its own. Each of those has its own page here. One tax point belongs on this page only as a consequence: the federal moving expense deduction is suspended, and permanently rather than through 2025, so a self-paid move produces no deduction for most people; the surviving exceptions, for active-duty members of the Armed Forces and for certain intelligence-community personnel, and the mechanics of employer payments are on the relocation package page.
