How much does North American Van Lines cost?
Your moving costs will vary depending on the services you opt in for, the size and distance of your move, and other factors like your location and the time of year you’re moving.
If you are planning a small, in-town move that doesn’t need any packing assistance or other third-party services, you can expect to spend a minimum of around $550. Medium-sized households who are moving a moderate distance and would like some light packing assistance should expect to spend a few thousand dollars.
If you’re looking to take advantage of all of North American Van Line’s services and are planning a long-distance move for a much larger home, your costs can reach several thousand dollars.
Keep in mind, these are ballpark figures addressing a few points in the cost spectrum. Most moves will fall somewhere in the middle, but this gives you an idea of what you can expect to spend when moving with North American Van Lines. Scheduling an in-home estimate is the best way to get a reliable figure for your specific needs.
Move.org Moving Grants: The 411
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Let’s walk you through your move
Moving into a new home is no easy task. Planning, packing, loading and unloading the truck, and getting settled into your new house can take a lot of time and effort, and some of us either don’t have time to spare or simply don’t want to go through all of the trouble. If this sounds like you, North American Van Lines can take care of each of these steps while also providing other useful services that might make your moving experience a bit less stressful.
Scheduling an appointment with North American
Like most other full-service movers, North American’s process begins with an in-home estimate to help you decide what services you should take advantage of during your move. You can schedule your estimate by either filling out a simple form online or just giving them a call.
It’s important to understand that North American Van Lines partners with local moving companies—referred to as agents—to help you complete your move. Most agents provide a bulk of the services that North American advertises, but others may not be able to take care of specialized moving tasks like auto transport. Response times and quality of customer service may vary from agent to agent too, so be sure to look at local reviews for your assigned agent to understand what to expect.
In my case, the response time from my agent seemed a bit slow. My confirmation email came around noon—almost immediately after I submitted the online information—but I was still waiting to hear from a representative until late afternoon the next day. I decided to go ahead and call the agent directly and was able to schedule an appointment for a few days after that.
If you’re looking for a convenient way to get the ball rolling and are flexible about how soon you’d like an agent to contact you, scheduling online is the way to go. Calling North American’s customer service representatives is a bit less convenient, but you may end up being able to schedule your in-home estimate sooner.
During the estimate, a dedicated relocation specialist will come to your home and take a visual inventory of all your household items. A major part of pricing your estimate depends on the weight of your move,2 so your relocation specialist may ask if you plan on selling any items before the move date or if there’s anything not currently in your home that would need to be included to get a more accurate picture of what to expect.
The in-home estimate is also a great time to pick your relocation specialist’s brain about what moving services might benefit your unique situation. Overall, I spent about 20 minutes with my specialist, and she was incredibly willing to answer any specific pricing questions I had and even helped me talk through what options and moving services would be best for my move.
North American Van Lines offers a few levels of service when packing your home—providing options to assist everyone from DIY enthusiasts to those who are willing to pay a little extra and prefer a more hands-off approach to packing. Its options include the following:
- Full-service packing
- Fragile-only packing
- Moving boxes and supplies only
Specialty packing services such as appliance disconnection and installation in your new home and custom crate creation for items that won’t fit standard boxes are also available by request.
Depending on the size of your move and the time you have to prepare before moving day comes around, you may opt to go with North American’s full-service packing option. This is offered at an hourly rate, and my estimate listed a price of $60 per hour for one packer and one van. Depending on the size of your home, the amount you need to pack, and how much time you can personally devote to packing, this may or may not be worth the cost.
When I scheduled my estimate, it was for a fairly small move—a two-bedroom condo with an average amount of furniture. My relocation specialist estimated that packing might take around five hours, costing $300. She also mentioned that if I wanted them to pack my TV, it might be an extra $100. I’m unsure why the addition of the TV garnered a $100 increase, but it may have something to do with the boxes and supplies needed to safely pack and transport it.
For a smaller move like mine, I don’t think the cost for full-service packing is worth it. I could easily sacrifice a few hours after work and on the weekends to pack up all of my belongings and have them ready for moving day. Someone with a much larger home or with a much tighter schedule may benefit from having this taken off their plate, however.
If you have the time to do most of the packing yourself but would like some professional help with packing fragile items like mirrors, china, or other breakables, North American Van Lines can help you out.
My moving specialist told me that full-service and fragile-only packing are priced at the same rate, so essentially you’re just saving money in the amount of time it takes to pack your belongings. As you can imagine, even if the packers take the time to carefully pack mirrors and other breakables, they’ll still spend far less time than if they need to pack the entire house.
Moving boxes and supplies only
Having North American’s crew pack your home isn’t a small addition to your final estimate by any means, so if you hope to save some money or prefer to pack your own things, North American offers moving boxes and supplies upon request.
According to my moving specialist, each self-packed household move receives up to 30 used boxes (she was quick to mention this was only while supplies lasted). This may vary by agent, so be sure to ask your local agent if you hope to use their boxes.
North American Van Lines often works with third-party vendors to offer services like disconnecting appliances and connecting them at your new home, so prices will vary. Some agents may be able to work with you directly to get this taken care of, however.
North American includes disassembling and reassembling furniture in the cost of your move. It also makes efforts to protect your upholstered furniture by using stretch wrap to avoid any damage during the move.
North American is one of our top picks for international moving. Like Allied, North American uses one of the largest international networks to offer the widest availability around the world. North American, too, can handle shipping and storage for international moves internally, so you don’t have to worry about coordinating with another company in the country you’re moving to.
Additionally, North American provides some of the best customer service in the industry, available 7 days a week to answer questions from customers.