How we price

The bands-not-quotes rule

Moving prices are set by inventory weight, exact dates, access conditions (stairs, elevators, shuttle trucks), and carrier capacity on the day. No website — this one included — can know those things. So RouteCosted never publishes "your price". We publish typical published bands: the low/typical/high range a given route, home size, and mode usually lands in, based on industry-typical published pricing. The bands exist to make you unscammable in a quote call, not to replace one. The only real price is a binding quote from a mover after a video or in-home survey.

The cost model

Two inputs drive everything: approximate road miles and home size (a proxy for shipment weight):

• Studio ≈ 1,800 lbs typical shipment weight
• 1 bedroom ≈ 2,800 lbs typical shipment weight
• 2 bedrooms ≈ 4,500 lbs typical shipment weight
• 3 bedrooms ≈ 7,000 lbs typical shipment weight
• 4+ bedrooms ≈ 9,500 lbs typical shipment weight

Per mode:

• Full-service movers — local moves (under 100 miles) use flat hourly-crew bands per home size. Long-distance moves use a base + per-mile linehaul band scaled by home size, derived from industry-typical $/lb-mile pricing and calibrated so a 1-bedroom at ≈1,000 miles lands in the ~$1,500–$3,500 band.
• Moving containers — computed as 55–70% of the full-service band (low end ×0.55, high end ×0.70), matching how container pricing typically tracks full-service pricing once you supply the loading labor.
• Truck rental (DIY) — a one-way rental band by distance and truck size, plus an explicit fuel estimate: miles ÷ 8 mpg × $3.60/gallon. Both constants are editable model inputs and shown wherever the estimate renders. Lodging, meals, and your labor are NOT included — which is exactly why the DIY band looks better than it sometimes is.

The typical figure is the midpoint of each band, rounded to the nearest $10.

Distances

Curated route pages use well-known approximate road distances, always rendered with the ≈ mark. The calculator's state-to-state mode uses the haversine (straight-line) distance between state geographic centroids × 1.2 — a standard road-distance approximation — and labels the result as an estimate. Same-state selections are treated as a typical local move (≈60 miles).

Seasonality

May through August is peak season. When you select a peak month, the model multiplies the low end by ×1.15 and the high end by ×1.25 (the typical published 15–25% peak premium), and the result is labeled as peak-adjusted.

Where the numbers come from

Published carrier and rental pricing, container-company rate pages, and industry cost surveys, cross-checked periodically. When published pricing drifts materially, we update the model constants — and every one of the 40 route pages, the calculator, and the scenario guides recompute automatically. Spot a band that looks stale? Tell us.

Compensation and the firewall

RouteCosted earns money two ways: Amazon affiliate commissions on moving supplies, and compensation from moving providers when you ask to be matched through our quote form. Neither touches the model: bands are computed from the documented constants above before any link or partner is attached, and no provider sees, sponsors, or edits a band. Full details in the affiliate disclosure.

Consent and your data

Quote requests are stored only when you submit the form, and they are shared with moving providers only because you checked the consent box that says exactly that. Until matching partners are live for your route, requests are simply stored. What we keep, how it is shared, and how to get it deleted are documented in the privacy policy.