What your moving estimate actually guarantees

By Eric, KindHow founder · Last reviewed August 2026

Why this is on a tipping site

Moving day ends with two transactions happening within about a minute of each other: settling the invoice, and handing the crew cash. They feel like one event, which is why so much advice tells you to tip a percentage of the bill — and it is the reason a surprise at the door quietly eats the tip of the people who did the carrying.house judgment

So it is worth knowing, before the truck arrives, which of the two kinds of estimate you signed and what it obliges each side to do.

A binding estimate guarantees the total

The federal booklet every interstate mover must give you — 49 CFR Part 375, Appendix A, Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move — defines it in a sentence:sourced

“A written agreement made in advance with your mover. It guarantees the total cost of the move based upon the quantities and services shown on the estimate.”

The load-bearing clause is the last one. The price is guaranteed for the things written on the estimate. Add a room, or discover that the truck cannot park where the estimator assumed it could, and you are outside what was guaranteed.

A non-binding estimate is an opinion, with one hard limit

“What your mover believes the cost will be, based upon the estimated weight of the shipment and the services requested. A non-binding estimate is not binding on the mover.”

That sounds like an open door, and it is not, because of the rule people move house for years without learning: on a non-binding estimate “the mover cannot require you to pay more than 110 percent of the non-binding estimate at the time of delivery.”sourced

The remainder is not forgiven — the mover bills you for it, with payment due 30 days from delivery. But it cannot be demanded on the pavement while your furniture is still on the truck, which is precisely the leverage the rule exists to remove. If you are told at the door that the full overage is payable now, that is the sentence to quote.

None of this moves the tip

Every dollar on that invoice is the carrier’s revenue, including the charges that look like they are for effort: stairs, a long carry, shuttle service, a piano. Those are accessorial services the federal rules define and the company bills for. Under the IRS test separating a tip from a service charge, a mandatory charge you did not set and could not decline is not a tip — so paying it has not tipped anybody, and it does not reduce what the crew should get.sourced

Which is why the mover tip calculator never takes your invoice as an input. It prices the tip the way the labour actually happened — per mover, by hours on a local move and by days on a long-distance one, because on a long move the people who load you are frequently not the people who deliver you.

The practical version: decide the tip from the crew and the day, not from the number on the paperwork. A bill that came in 10% over does not mean the two people who carried your sofa up three flights earned less.house judgment

Sources

• 49 CFR Part 375, Appendix A — Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move — the definitions of both estimate types, the 110 percent limit at delivery, and the 30-day billing of the balance.
• IRS — Tip recordkeeping and reporting (tips vs. service charges) — the test separating a voluntary tip from a mandatory service charge.

Informational only. This guide quotes federal rules that apply to interstate household moves; a local move inside one state is governed by that state’s rules instead, and they differ. It is not legal advice. Last reviewed: August 2026.

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