Moving Company Tariff Setup: Rates Your CRM Can Price Automatically

Moving company tariff setup means turning your rates and rules into structured tables that software can calculate without a rep doing math. Those rates and rules cover labor, minimums, travel, accessorials, valuation and fuel. This guide is for owners, general managers, sales managers and dispatchers of US moving companies who want every quote priced the same way, every time.

It names each rate component and shows how each one becomes a field a CRM can read. It ends with a test you can run on your own closed jobs before a new rate sheet reaches a customer.

What a Moving Company Tariff Is, and Why It Needs Structure

A moving company tariff is your schedule of rates, charges and the rules that decide when each charge applies. In daily operations, it is the single source every estimate should draw from. Terms used throughout this guide are defined in the moving glossary.

The trouble starts when rates live in several places at once: a spreadsheet, a printed card, and a senior estimator's memory. Two reps can then quote the same job differently. That inconsistency surfaces as move-day disputes and margin that disappears without anyone noticing.

A tariff that software can price has one property a document lacks: every charge has a defined trigger, unit and rate. "Stairs extra" is a note. "Per flight, after the first flight, applied to the goods carried" is a rule a calculator can apply.

The Six Rate Components Every Mover's Tariff Needs

Every complete moving company rate sheet covers six components. Missing any one of them forces a rep to improvise.

1. Base rates: hourly crew-and-truck rates for local work, or a shipment-size rate plus distance for long-distance work.
2. Minimums: the smallest billable job, stated in hours for local moves or in weight or volume for long-distance moves.
3. Travel time: how you charge to reach the job and return to the yard.
4. Accessorials: charges for conditions beyond a standard move, such as stairs, long carry, shuttle, bulky items and packing.
5. Valuation: the coverage options you offer for customers' goods and the charge for each.
6. Fuel surcharge: an adjustment that tracks fuel cost separately from your base rates.

For each component, write down three things: what triggers it, what unit it uses, and what it costs. If you cannot fill in all three, the charge is not ready for automation.

Hourly, Flat Rate and Long-Distance: Structuring Each Pricing Model

Each pricing model needs its own table structure. For a broader look at the trade-offs, see this overview of the pricing models movers use.

Hourly pricing needs a rate table keyed by crew size and truck count. Add three things to that table: a minimum number of hours, a billing increment after the minimum, and a travel rule. Keep increments consistent across crew sizes so the foreman's clock and the invoice agree.

Flat-rate pricing starts from the same hourly table. The software estimates labor hours from the inventory, adds travel and accessorials, and then applies a buffer you define. A flat rate is only as accurate as the inventory it is built on.

Long-distance pricing uses shipment size plus distance. Size is expressed either as weight, often priced per hundredweight (a unit of 100 lbs), or as volume in cubic feet. The cubic feet calculator uses a planning rule of roughly 7 lbs per cubic foot and maps volume to truck-size bands.

If you want to walk your reps through the method, this guide to calculating cubic feet for an estimate covers it step by step. Do not load a volume rate for long-distance jobs until you have confirmed which pricing basis you may charge on for each move type.

Q: What is the difference between hourly and flat rate moving pricing?
A: Hourly pricing bills actual clock time at a crew-and-truck rate, so the customer carries the risk of a slow job. A flat rate fixes the price from the inventory, so the mover carries the risk. In the illustrative example below, an unlisted third-floor walk-up shifts about one hour of labor onto whoever holds that risk.

Worked example: one 2-bedroom job, two pricing models

The figures here are illustrative, not market rates. The job is a 2-bedroom apartment move with a 3-person crew and one truck. The estimate assumes 5 labor hours plus 1 hour of travel. On move day, the crew finds a third-floor walk-up that nobody recorded, and it adds about 1 hour.

The lesson for tariff setup is simple. Under flat rates, accessorials carry the weight. Under hourly rates, you need a written policy that prevents double-charging for the same stairs.

Accessorials: Stairs, Long Carry, Shuttle, Bulky Items and Packing

Moving accessorial charges are fees for conditions that make a job harder than your base rate assumes. Each one needs a one-sentence definition that a customer can understand on the estimate.

• Stair charge: applies when the crew carries goods up or down flights of stairs beyond the number your base rate includes. Set it per flight.
• Long carry charge: applies when the distance from the truck to the door exceeds the free carry distance in your tariff. Set it per additional increment of distance.
• Shuttle charge: applies when the main truck cannot reach the residence, so goods move to a smaller vehicle. Price it per trip or per unit of volume.
• Bulky item charge: applies to items that need extra crew, equipment or time, such as pianos, safes or gym equipment. List each item by name.
• Packing charges: cover packing labor and materials as separate lines. This lets the customer see what they are paying for each.
• Elevator and disassembly charges: apply when the crew must reserve an elevator, wait for one, or take furniture apart and reassemble it.

Long carry and stair charges cause the most move-day arguments. The cause is usually a trigger that was never written down. If your tariff says "long carry applies," the customer will ask "from where?" Answer that question in the tariff, not on the driveway.

Q: What is a long carry charge?
A: A long carry charge applies when the distance between the truck and the residence door exceeds the free carry distance written into your tariff. Record the measured distance on the estimate so the Bill of Lading shows exactly why the charge was added.

Valuation, Fuel and Travel Time: The Three Lines Movers Most Often Underprice

These three lines are easy to set once and then forget. Each one needs a defined rule, and each one needs a scheduled review.

Valuation coverage pricing. Build valuation as a table. Each row holds the option name, how you charge for it, and any declared-value or deductible choices the customer selects. If you offer options such as released value protection or full value protection, take their definitions and terms from the current primary text that governs the move. Do not copy them from memory or from another mover's sheet.

Fuel surcharge for movers. Pick one structure and apply it the same way every time. The common choices are a percentage of the line-haul, a per-mile add, or a flat per-job amount. To make it adjust on a schedule, tie it to a public benchmark: the U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes weekly retail diesel prices. Then define price bands that move the surcharge up or down.

Travel time. Choose one of three methods: a flat trip charge, clock time from the yard and back (portal to portal), or double drive time. Double drive time bills the drive between origin and destination at twice the clock time, as a stand-in for the return trip. Whichever method you use, confirm that it matches the rules for the moves you run.

Turning Your Rate Sheet Into Tables Software Can Price

A tariff rate table in a CRM is just your rate sheet with every rule made explicit. Build it in this order:

1. Collect every rate currently in use. Pull from spreadsheets, old estimates and reps' notes. Flag anything that different people quote differently.
2. Assign each charge a trigger, unit and rate. Remove or rewrite any charge you cannot define in one sentence.
3. Build the base rate table. Key hourly rates by crew size and truck count. Key long-distance rates by shipment-size band and distance. Attach the minimums to each table.
4. Build the accessorial table. Give each accessorial one row: its name, the condition that triggers it, its unit, and its rate.
5. Define valuation and fuel rules. Enter valuation options as selectable rows. Enter fuel as a formula with the index and the date of its last review.
6. Load the tables and link them to inventory fields. Map cubic feet, item flags (piano, safe) and access notes (stairs, carry distance) to the charges they trigger.

Once this structure exists, estimate software that prices from your own tariffs can calculate crew size, truck size, fuel surcharge and valuation when an inventory arrives. The rep reviews the quote instead of building it by hand.

Q: How do I load my rates into a moving CRM so quotes price automatically?
A: Load base rates as a table keyed by crew size and truck count, then add each accessorial as a row with a trigger, unit and rate. When the inventory records cubic feet, the software can price the job and carry the charges into the Bill of Lading without re-entry.

Testing Your Tariff Before It Goes Live: Reprice Ten Closed Jobs

Never let a new tariff price its first job for a real customer. Test it on work you have already finished.

1. Pick ten closed jobs. Include hourly, flat-rate and long-distance jobs, plus at least one job with heavy accessorials.
2. Re-enter each original inventory and access notes. Let the new tables price them with no manual changes.
3. Compare three numbers per job: the original quote, the new tariff's quote, and the final invoice.
4. Investigate every large gap. Most gaps trace back to a missing trigger, a wrong unit, or an accessorial priced twice.
5. Fix the tables, then reprice all ten again. Do not stop after fixing only the job that failed.

Set your own tolerance for acceptable variance before you start. Writing it down first keeps the test honest. Keep the ten test jobs saved, so every future rate change can run through the same set.

What to Confirm With Your Regulator Before Rates Go Live

Rate structure is a commercial decision, but the rules around it are not yours to assume. Before publishing a new tariff, take these questions to the authority that governs each move type you run, whether interstate, intrastate or local:

• Must the tariff be filed, published or made available to customers, and in what form?
• Which pricing basis (hours, weight or volume) may you charge on for this move type?
• Which valuation options must you offer, and how must you describe them?
• What rules apply to binding and non-binding estimates, and to charges added after the estimate?
• Is your travel-time method, including double drive time, allowed as you have written it?

Have the answers reviewed by someone qualified before the rates go live. Record which tariff version priced each job, so you can show which rules applied if a question comes up later.

How Often to Revisit Rates, and What Should Trigger a Change

Put two kinds of review on the calendar. A scheduled review checks the whole tariff before peak season and again after it. An event-driven review happens whenever a cost input changes.

These are the events that should reopen the tariff:

• The fuel index crosses one of your surcharge bands.
• Crew wages or payroll costs change.
• Insurance or truck costs renew at a different level.
• Estimated-versus-actual variance drifts on a specific job type or accessorial.
• A regulator publishes updated rules for a move type you serve.

Every change goes through the ten-job reprice before it goes live.

Five Tariff Mistakes That Quietly Erase Margin

1. Accessorials with no written trigger. Reps skip charges they cannot justify, and customers dispute the ones they can.
2. Minimums that do not cover a truck-day. Moving company minimums exist to protect small jobs that still take a crew off the board.
3. A fuel surcharge frozen at one number. A fixed figure falls out of date as soon as diesel prices move.
4. Unreviewed valuation options. Copied terms create exposure that no rate increase can offset.
5. Editing live rates without re-testing. A single wrong unit, such as per job instead of per flight, can reprice every quote before anyone notices.

Key Takeaways

• A tariff that software can price gives every charge a trigger, a unit and a rate.
• Six components make a complete tariff: base rates, minimums, travel time, accessorials, valuation and fuel.
• Flat-rate pricing depends on accessorials; hourly pricing needs a policy that prevents double-charging.
• The cubic feet calculator's planning rule of roughly 7 lbs per cubic foot links volume to weight for long-distance estimates.
• Reprice ten closed jobs before any new or changed tariff reaches a customer.
• Confirm filing, pricing-basis, valuation and estimate rules with the regulator for each move type you run.

Related Articles

• The Moving Company Sales Process: From Inquiry to Booked Job — How a priced estimate fits into each stage from first inquiry to a booked job.
• How to Build a Sales Commission Plan for Moving Reps — How to structure rep pay so it rewards accurately priced jobs.
• Peak Season Prep: 9 Moves to Make Before Your Busiest Weeks — What to review, including rates, before demand peaks.
• Faster Quote Turnaround for Moving Companies — Why quote speed matters and how structured pricing supports it.

Useful Links

• Moving Estimate Software for Movers
• Moving Cubic Feet Calculator
• AI Estimating Software for Movers
• Moving Company CRM Software
• Moving Glossary — Key Moving & Storage Terms

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