Guide

Protect Your Move: your federal rights in an interstate move

Last updated 2026-08-05

Protect Your Move is FMCSA's consumer campaign for people hiring interstate movers. Behind it sits something more useful than a campaign: a body of federal regulation that gives you specific, enforceable rights on any household goods move that crosses a state line. Most people never find out these exist until something has already gone wrong.

This page summarises them in plain language and links to FMCSA for the authoritative version. It is not legal advice.

Before you book

You are entitled to the booklet

Interstate movers must provide FMCSA's Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move booklet, along with information about their complaint and dispute-settlement process. A mover who has never mentioned it is a mover who hasn't done the first thing the rules require of them.

You are entitled to an estimate based on an actual survey

Estimates are meant to be grounded in what you actually own, assessed in person or by a virtual survey — not guessed from a phone call. You should be told clearly whether the estimate is binding (the price is fixed for the listed goods and services) or non-binding (a good-faith estimate that may change), and it should be in writing. Check an estimate you have already been given against this and the other rules on this page.

You are entitled to know who is actually moving you

Brokers arrange moves; carriers perform them. Both are legitimate, and brokers are separately regulated, but they are not the same thing and a broker's quote does not bind the carrier who arrives. Ask which USDOT number will be on the truck, then check that carrier's record — not the broker's.

During the move

The bill of lading is your contract

The mover must give you one, and it must be issued before your goods are transported. It is simultaneously the contract, the receipt and the document every later dispute is decided on. Read it, keep it, and never sign it blank.

Valuation is your choice, and it is not insurance

You must be offered at least two levels of liability coverage: Released Value Protection, which is free and calculated by weight, and Full Value Protection, which costs extra and covers replacement value. If you don't actively choose, you generally have the by-weight option — which pays very little for light, expensive things. The difference, in detail.

The 110% rule

On a non-binding estimate, the mover must deliver your goods on payment of no more than 110% of the estimated charges, and bill you for any legitimate balance afterwards. This is the single most important protection to know, because it is precisely the rule that gets ignored when a price mysteriously doubles in transit. Charges for services you genuinely requested after the estimate are treated separately.

When it goes wrong

If a mover refuses to deliver

Holding a shipment to extract payment beyond what is owed is not a billing dispute. It has a federal complaint channel and a hotline, and there are steps worth taking in a specific order. Start here rather than paying.

Filing a complaint

Complaints against interstate movers go to FMCSA's National Consumer Complaint Database. File under the carrier's USDOT number so it lands on the right record — a complaint filed against a trading name may not attach to the carrier at all. Complaints are also how patterns become visible to investigators, so filing matters even when your own situation is already resolved.

Loss and damage claims are a separate track, made directly to the mover under the terms on your bill of lading, with time limits that are shorter than people expect. Read those terms early, not when you need them.

Keep these documents

• The written estimate, and any revised estimate.
• The bill of lading and the inventory sheets.
• Every receipt for payments, and the method each was paid by.
• Written communication — texts and emails, not recollections of calls.
• Photographs of high-value items before they were packed.
• The carrier's USDOT number.

The part this site helps with

Everything above assumes you're dealing with a company that is registered, insured, and permitted to be doing this work at all. That specific question is answerable in a couple of minutes from public federal records, and it is what this site is for — search by USDOT number, read the authority status, and check whether an out-of-service order is in force. The five-minute check is the short version.