Realistic? Buy Container, Load Household, Pay Someone to Drive 2800 mi.

Honestly, the most a coast to coast move will cost is 10 grand using a moving company. Pretty much everyone with any motivation over the age of 30 has more than ten k worth of possessions. Ten grand barely buys a decent dining room set. Add in the living room, family room, bedrooms...and then don't forget the most expensive room in the house, the kitchen. Cookware, dishes and appliances are not cheap.
Selling/ throwing out and starting over is only a practical option for those that only shop at vrap quality walmart and rooms to go.

 

A coast to coast move with a fully loaded 53 ft hhg van is any where between 18-25k. Depends on if you pack all your belongings, what insurance you choose and if you want to go with a binding contract or a by the weight contract. In the moving biz you get what you pay for. I'm sure you could find a broker who will send a driver in a non descript trailer and a rented tractor who picks up 3 bums from the underpass to do it for 10k. Good luck with that

 

I've never hired a moving company. But from the guys i know that have been in that business have discussed with me, one house is not filing a 53 ft moving van. Those boys at United are excellent at packing that trailer up consolidating your whole house into a 20 ft section. But that's not really the point is it?

let's go with the high end 25 grand. I can't replace half the stuff in my house for that, and don't think most families could. When i was 25 and only owned throw away press board furniture, throwing everything out might have been an option. But somewhere along the way i stop blowing my money at the bar 4 nights a week, stayed home and started buying things worth owning.

 

I drove for United for 5 years. "Those Boys" are clowns for the most part. I started out for a company in Chicago who did nothing but million dollar homes. I've done jobs where we have needed 2 fully loaded semis. Rich people have a lot of stuff. It takes years to learn how to load high value hhg in a trailer properly. When I got to United I said to myself, they may be the biggest, but they are far from the best

 

That's absolutely beside the point.

 

If you think so... I'm just trying to help. Have fun with your negative attitude!

 

Freight companies can haul HHG using the "limited service exemption"
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-04-01/pdf/2013-07460.pdf

I'd recommend doing the ABF pup trailer route, you rent it by the foot, assuming you get a decent driver at the pick/drop they can get one of those just about anywhere a fire engine can go. I've loaded many of those for customers and it's a good value if you just need the hauling portion done and don't need the consumer protection, much service, a specific delivery date, etc. They even come with a decent ramp. (well, it's decent if you're parked on nice flat even ground, otherwise it's useless).

The gasman is correct on rough pricing for a 2800 mile move and quality. Don't hire the $10K guy, if you can't afford the $15K HHG company, do it yourself with ABF or a rental.

If you can get Penske to rent you a tractor & trailer you can legally transport your own goods. No specific authority is needed for a not-for-hire load (your own goods) and for everything else you're actually running on penske's DOT /IFTA/etc. They won't rent to everyone however, and if you dont meet certain other credentials they take a $25K deposit.

If I where to move myself and didn't own a moving company, and had a 26' trucks worth of goods I'd rent a penske and do it myself. If it was more than that, penske wouldn't rent me a TT most likely, so I'd either hire a O/O friend of mine and do it under the limited service exemption or use an ABF trailer.

 

It's not a negative attitude, it's being realistic. I've never seen one, and I haul many cans and go to many ports. I've never seen one going down the road OTR. Does your buddy drive OTR? However in the last 5 minutes I've seen 100 dry vans and in my mirror a stepdeck with can locks.

 

If 12700 includes the trucking, loading and unloading of the pods. That's not a bad price at all. I would want nearly that just for the trucking. But i hate the west coast so it cones with a couple grand west coast aggravation surcharge.