Terms of Use

What these terms cover

These terms are an agreement about the use of this website: the pages you are reading, the estimate form, and the client portal. Read them as terms for a website, because that is what they are.

They are not the contract for your move. The contract for your move is your written estimate, your Order for Service and your bill of lading, together with the filed tariff those documents refer to. Where this website and that paperwork ever disagree, the paperwork wins.

Accepting these terms

Using this site means accepting these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the site. We may revise them from time to time; the version in force is the one published here, and the date at the top of this page is its date.

A quote request is not an estimate

Submitting the form on this site is a request. It is not an estimate, not a contract, not a booking, and not a reservation of a date.

No price is quoted anywhere on this website, and nothing published here is an offer capable of being accepted. Your date is not held until you have a written estimate and an Order for Service in your hands.

How a written estimate is produced

Federal rules require an estimate for a household goods move to be based on a physical survey of what is being moved — carried out on site, or through a walkthrough with a video component — unless you waive the survey in writing.

A number given over the telephone is not an estimate, because it is neither in writing nor based on a survey. Every estimate we issue is written, and we do not charge you for it.

49 CFR 375.401(a) · 49 CFR 375.405(b)(3)

Binding, non-binding, and not-to-exceed

Your written estimate says on its face which of these it is. The difference matters, and it is worth reading before you sign anything, with us or with anybody else.

Binding estimate

A binding estimate is a guaranteed price for the goods and services listed on it. If you tender items or services that are not listed, the mover has three lawful options and no others: decline to take the shipment, reaffirm the binding estimate as written, or agree a revised binding estimate that you sign before loading begins. A binding estimate does not quietly become non-binding because the day turned out to be harder than expected.

49 CFR 375.403

Non-binding estimate

A non-binding estimate is a careful approximation, not a guarantee. Final charges are based on the services actually performed and on the mover’s tariff. The protection is a ceiling on the day: at delivery the mover may not require payment of more than 110% of the non-binding estimate, and anything above that figure is billed to you afterwards rather than demanded at your door.

49 CFR 375.405 · 49 CFR 375.407

Binding not-to-exceed estimate

A binding not-to-exceed estimate sets a maximum. If the charges calculated from the tariff come out lower than the estimate, you pay the lower amount. They cannot come out higher.

Conditions nobody could have surveyed

Charges for access conditions that could not reasonably have been known at the survey — a street that requires a shuttle, a carry far longer than the one measured — are governed by the impracticable-operations rules. On a binding estimate those rules allow no more than an additional 15% of such charges to be collected at delivery, with the balance billed afterwards. They do not turn a written estimate into an open bill.

49 CFR 375.403(a)(6)

What actually governs your move

Rates, services and liability limits are governed by our filed tariff and by your signed estimate and bill of lading. Federal rules for interstate household goods moves are at 49 CFR Part 375. New Jersey rules for moves inside the state are at N.J.A.C. 13:44D.

The level of liability that applies to your goods is the one you select in writing before the move. The free default and the paid option are different things, and the difference is set out on your estimate and your bill of lading — not on this website.

Licence and insurance

Licence and insurance details are provided in writing with every estimate. Where a building requires a certificate of insurance, it is issued before your move date rather than chased on the morning.

We do not print licence, registration or policy numbers on this website. Any New Jersey mover’s licence can be checked at the State’s public verification portal, and any interstate mover’s federal registration can be checked through the FMCSA. Ours, or anybody else’s. It takes about a minute.

The client portal

The portal is provided as a convenience. It opens from a private link and has no password, which means the link is the key: anybody you send it to can see the move it belongs to. Keep it to yourself, and tell us if you think it has gone astray so we can cancel it and issue another. Links expire.

What you read in the portal is a copy for your convenience. The documents that govern your move are the signed originals, each of which is frozen at the moment it is issued and carries a checksum so you can tell that the version you are reading is the version you signed. Where a portal screen and a signed document differ, the signed document controls.

Your client portal

Once your move is booked we give you access to a client portal, hosted separately from this website, where you can read your estimate, see your documents and your move date, and message the office.

Access is personal to you. Keep your sign-in details to yourself, and tell us straight away if you think somebody else has them.

The information you give us

An estimate is only ever as good as the description it was built from. Tell us about the stairs, the elevator, the piano, the parking restriction, and the certificate of insurance your building will want.

If material facts about the job turn out to be different on move day from what was described, the estimate has to be rewritten and signed before we load. That is exactly what the rules in section 05 provide for, and exactly why we would rather hear it now.

Using this website

Use the site for what it is for. Do not attempt to reach any part of it you were not given access to, do not probe or interfere with it, do not use automated systems to harvest from it or to flood the form, do not submit false information or another person’s details, and do not use the estimate form to send unsolicited advertising.

Content and ownership

The text, photographs, layout and code of this site are owned by us or licensed to us, and may not be copied, republished or reused without permission.

The federal booklets and state materials we link to belong to the agencies that publish them. Those are free to read, free to download and free to share, and we would rather you did.

Links to other sites

We link to government sites so that you can check what we say against the source. We do not control them, and we are not responsible for their content, their accuracy or their availability.

The website is provided as it is

We take care with this site, but we do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, free of every error, or available at any particular moment.

What is published here is general information about how a regulated move works. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace the documents issued for your move. If a rule cited on this site has changed since it was published, the rule as it stands governs, not our description of it.

Limits on our liability for this website

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss arising out of the use of this website, or out of any inability to use it, including loss of data or loss of profit.

This paragraph is about the website. It is not about your move. Read it together with the section that follows, which is the more important of the two.

Nothing here limits our duties as a mover

For the avoidance of any doubt: nothing on this website, and nothing in these terms, limits, waives or alters our obligations as a moving company.

Liability for loss of or damage to your goods on an interstate move is governed by federal law and by the level of liability you select. Liability on a move inside New Jersey is governed by N.J.A.C. 13:44D and by your bill of lading, under which a licensed New Jersey public mover cannot limit its liability below $1.00 per pound per article. Your claim rights, your deadlines and our deadlines come from those rules and from your paperwork, and a website cannot shorten them.

49 U.S.C. 14706 · N.J.A.C. 13:44D-4.6

Changes to these terms

We may revise these terms. The version in force is the one published on this page, under the date at the top of it. A change is not applied backwards to a move already under contract.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The state and federal courts sitting in New Jersey are the venue for any dispute about this website.

Where federal law governs an interstate household goods move, federal law applies to that move regardless of this section. Nothing here waives any right you hold under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, or any other right that cannot be waived by agreement.

If part of these terms fails

If any part of these terms is held unenforceable, that part is severed and the rest continues in force. A right we do not enforce immediately is not a right we have given up.

How to reach us

There is deliberately no telephone number and no email address printed on this site. Send anything you need to send through the estimate form, and write in the notes field what it is about.

It reaches the same place every other request reaches, and it is read the same business day it comes in.