Moving Estimates: Binding, Non-Binding and Not-to-Exceed

“Should I give binding estimates?” has a different answer depending on where the truck is going. A move that crosses a state line is governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s consumer rules for household goods, 49 CFR Part 375, which say exactly what an estimate must be. A move that stays inside one state is governed by that state, and states write very different rules. Know which one you are quoting under before you choose the kind of estimate.

Across a state line: an estimate is required, in writing

Section 375.401 sets the ground rules for every interstate household move:

• Survey first. You must conduct a physical survey of the goods and base the written estimate on it. The definition in 375.103 allows a virtual one, through live or pre-recorded video that lets you clearly identify the goods. The customer may waive the survey, but only in writing, signed before loading, and you keep the waiver with the bill of lading.
• Binding or non-binding, named on the estimate. Before the bill of lading, you give a written estimate of the total charges and say which kind it is.
• Ask about the extras up front. Accessorial services such as elevators and long carries must be determined before you prepare the bill of lading. If you fail to ask and settle those charges before the bill of lading, you must deliver the goods and bill the extra after 30 days.
• Name the payment. The estimate states the forms of payment you will take at delivery.
• Both sign. You and the customer sign the estimate, and the customer gets a dated copy when it is signed. You may amend it before loading if you both agree, never after.

With the estimate, 375.213 requires two federal publications, “Ready to Move?” and “Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move,” as a copy or a link to FMCSA’s web page (with a signed receipt if the customer takes the link). Before the bill of lading the customer also gets a notice that your tariff can be examined, a summary of your arbitration program, and a summary of how you handle complaints. The estimate must also carry the liability election notice from the Surface Transportation Board’s released rates order.

The binding estimate: your number, your risk

A binding estimate “guarantees the total cost of the move based upon the quantities and services shown on your estimate” (375.401). Its face must say that you and the customer are both bound, and that the charges apply only to the services it lists. You may offer one only if your tariff provides for it (375.403), and you may charge for preparing it.

If the customer turns up more goods or wants more services than the estimate lists, 375.403 gives you three choices before loading: reaffirm the estimate, write a new binding one the customer signs, or agree in writing to treat the original as non-binding. Load without doing any of those and you have reaffirmed it. At delivery you collect the estimate, plus services the customer asked for after the bill of lading was issued, plus any charges for impracticable operations up to 15% of everything else due. Keep a copy as part of the bill of lading, which you keep for at least a year (375.505).

The non-binding estimate: capped at 110% on the day

A non-binding estimate is “what you believe the total cost will be,” and the final bill comes from your tariff and the shipment’s actual weight. It must be free, in writing and “reasonably accurate” (375.405). Its face must say it is not binding and that the customer “will not be required to pay more than 110 percent of the non-binding estimate at the time of delivery.” If your estimate is by volume and the rate is by weight, you explain the conversion formula in writing.

Non-binding does not mean open-ended. Under 375.407, once the customer pays up to 110% of the estimate (plus later-requested services and impracticable-operation charges up to 15%), you must hand over the goods. Refusing is a failure to transport with “reasonable dispatch” and opens you to cargo delay claims. Anything above that waits: the federal booklet tells customers that bills for extra charges based on weight come after 30 days from delivery. A non-binding move also needs weight tickets, signed by the weigh master, presented with the invoice. The rule warns you plainly: an inaccurately low estimate may limit what you collect at delivery.

“Not-to-exceed” comes from the states

Section 375.401 names two kinds of interstate estimate, binding and non-binding. Where “not-to-exceed” appears in law, it is usually a state’s rule for moves inside its borders. Two examples show how far states go:

• Texas. Before loading, a household goods carrier gives a written proposal stating “the maximum amount the shipper could be required to pay,” and it must say clearly whether it is a binding or a not-to-exceed proposal (43 Tex. Admin. Code 218.56). A not-to-exceed proposal states the maximum price and may also state a non-binding approximate one (218.2). A proposal on an hourly rate that leaves out the number of hours needs the customer’s written acknowledgment, and it still states the maximum. A quote given by telephone must be followed by a written proposal before loading. Every proposal carries the line “This proposal is for listed items and services only. Additional items and services may result in additional costs,” and added items or services need a written agreement before you do them.
• California. The Bureau of Household Goods and Services sets maximum rates in Maximum Rate Tariff 4. For moves of 100 miles or less, distance or hourly rates may apply; over 100 miles, distance rates. The Agreement for Moving Services must be in the customer’s hands no less than three days before the move (unless the customer’s first contact comes later than that, or the customer waives advance receipt), and before any work starts it carries a Not to Exceed Price: the most you may charge is your quoted rate times the actual hours, “but no higher than the Not to Exceed Price.” Rates above the tariff’s maximums may be charged only on an estimate issued three days or more before the move. The bureau’s consumer guide adds that a visual inspection is required with the estimate for moves within California.

Other states regulate local moves differently, and some through a different agency. Check your state’s transportation or consumer protection agency before you write your first local estimate.

Pricing the hourly local move

The hourly rate starts from what an hour of crew and truck costs you. Your Real Hourly Cost builds the loaded labor rate; add the truck’s cost per working hour, then your margin. Then decide, and write down, what the clock covers. California’s tariff gives one precise answer for its hourly rates: loading time, unloading time, and double the driving time from origin to destination, with start and end times recorded to the minute. Whatever your state allows, the estimate should say when the clock starts and stops and whether a minimum applies; Minimum Charges and Trip Fees covers the floor.

Say a Texas mover quotes a two-bedroom apartment move with two movers and a truck at $140 an hour, expects about five hours, and writes a not-to-exceed proposal at six and a half hours, $910. (The rate here is this example’s, not a benchmark.)

• The move takes 5 hours 15 minutes. The bill is the hours worked, $735.
• The move takes 7 hours 30 minutes. The bill stops at $910. The extra hour is the mover’s cost.
• On the day, the customer adds a garage full of boxes. Before moving them, a written amendment, signed and dated by both, with a new maximum (218.56). Without it, only the original charges may be assessed.

The cushion between expected and maximum hours is the whole pricing decision. Too thin and every slow stairwell comes out of your pocket; too fat and the customer reads the maximum as the price and books someone else. Under a federal binding estimate there is no cushion at all, which is the strongest argument for a careful survey, in person or by the video the federal definition allows. Write additions down before you load them; Change Orders covers the habit.

A website range is not the estimate

Customers want a rough number before anyone walks the apartment, and giving one wins the booking. A range on your website answers that first question, but it does not replace the written, signed estimate these rules require, or the survey behind it. The moving page shows how NapkinPrice™ puts an instant range on a mover’s site for local moves and sends anything crossing a state line down a path that never guesses a price. The estimate still follows, on the rules above.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and vary by state; check with the agency named above or a professional for your situation.