When moving across the country, it’s natural to expect your goods to arrive at the same time you do. Too often, however, instead of settling in, homeowners spend days in an empty house, waiting for their movers to arrive. It’s understandably frustrating, but it usually has nothing to do with laziness, incompetence, or poor planning. Companies that transport household goods have to deal with a number of laws, safety regulations, and logistical challenges that keep them from traveling as quickly as their customers, especially over long distances ‒ creating the impression your movers are behind schedule even when they’re still on track. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at why movers often arrive late, explain why they take longer to reach their destination, and share the steps you can take to ensure on-time service.
For most homeowners, the journey to their new home is tiring, but straightforward. You plan the route, pack some snacks, and hit the road. You and your spouse take turns behind the wheel, enabling you to drive for long stretches without a break. After a day or two in the car, you finally reach your destination, only to discover your mover’s far behind you in another state.
In some cases, the mover may have experienced a problem. A storm, road closure, unexpected traffic, and mechanical issues are common reasons why movers arrive late. However, the reality is that operating a commercial vehicle is a complicated endeavor. There are a number of rules and regulations moving companies need to follow in order to ensure the safety of your belongings, as well as their drivers and other motorists, all of which can affect delivery times. If your movers arrives a few days after you do, it’s most likely due to:
Commercial trucks are up to 26-feet long and can weigh over 80,000 pounds, which makes them difficult to maneuver. Acceleration is harder. Braking takes longer. Turns are slower. As a result, they need to travel at lower speeds in order to prevent accidents, sometimes 10-20 miles under the posted limit. This means that while homeowners can weave in and out of traffic, moving trucks are often stuck in the slow lane.
Truck drivers are employees, subject to health and safety laws that prohibit them from driving more than 11 hours a day. Once they’ve reached the end of a shift, they’re not allowed to start again for at least another ten hours, to ensure they’re rested and alert behind the wheel. For this same reason, drivers are also required to take 30-minute breaks every eight hours. Homeowners are free to power through long days, but commercial drivers cannot.
For commercial vehicles, the most direct route is not always safe. Low bridges, weight limits, and tight turns prevent them from traveling on certain roads. Hills, mountains, and valleys also present significant obstacles. Due to their poor power-to-weight ratios, large trucks cannot maintain high speeds when going uphill. Not to mention that in order to prevent their brakes from overheating, they have to shift to a lower gear when traveling downhill, purposefully traveling at a slower speed to avoid accidents.
While personal vehicles are free to cross state lines, commercial vehicles are often required to stop so they can be weighed and inspected. Regulations vary according to state. California requires every truck to stop, while Delaware and Connecticut have no restrictions. These inspections often take less than fifteen minutes, but can sometimes last over an hour.
In addition to driving regulations, movers are often held up because they’re overseeing multiple deliveries. Shipping goods cross country can be expensive. To manage costs, many homeowners transport their goods in a shared container, so they only have to pay a portion of the total shipping charges.
But while these types of mixed-freight shipping services are certainly affordable, they often increase wait times. Instead of driving directly to your new home, drivers may have to stop at several locations along the way to pick up or unload goods for other clients.
This combination of driving regulations and logistical concerns is why moving companies can’t give you exact delivery time. Instead, they provide you with a delivery window based on the length, complexity, and time of year (traveling during peak moving season normally increases the number of stops your truck needs to make en route), typically ranging from 10-20 business days.
This is why it often feels like something’s gone wrong even though everything’s on schedule. Your mover hasn’t agreed to deliver goods on an exact date but within a timeframe, which they use to organize their deliveries. However, if you’re concerned about your shipment, the best strategy is to:
Moving contracts are legally binding, so if your mover doesn’t fulfill their end of the agreement, you may be entitled to compensation, including housing, inconvenience fees, and per diem rates, charges that accumulate every day past the shipping deadline.
If your movers miss their window without giving you a valid reason, file a complaint with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which oversees interstate moves. Government regulations state that movers have 30 days to deliver your goods after picking them up, so they cannot keep you waiting indefinitely without legal penalties. You may also want to contact a lawyer, in case more serious action needs to be taken.
Because moving cross country involves so many variables, there is no way to truly guarantee on-time service. No matter how carefully you plan, some things (traffic, weather, mechanical issues, etc.) are simply out of your control. However, there are a few steps you can take to improve the odds of on-time delivery.
After a long journey, the last thing you want to do is to sit around waiting for your stuff to catch up with you. But while late deliveries are sometimes unavoidable, customers aren’t powerless. Careful planning, communication, and the right service keeps your relocation moving according to your schedule, not everyone else’s.
Allied’s full-service moving teams work hard to ensure your relocation runs smoothly end to end. From planning to packing to shipping, storage, and final delivery, we schedule and coordinate every aspect of your move. No matter how far you’re going, our professional agents ensure on-the-ground support every step of the way. Contact us today for a free quote!
