2021 Long Distance Moving Review: Should I Move With northAmerican?

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North American Moving Services, also known as “northAmerican” or “North American Van Lines“, is a full-service moving company with experience and a breadth of services, but it also offers the personal touches and ability to negotiate, typical of a small business.

Like its competitors, Mayflower and Allied, it now provides a pick-and-choose menu of options to help you plan your long distance move. Yet overall, it remains known for its full-service package. The crew packs your stuff, dismantles furniture, puts it on the truck, takes it to your final destination, puts back together furniture, and unloads your boxes into the appropriate rooms in your new home. Phew! Not too shabby! (Have you read our picks for best moving companies?)


Does North American Van Lines operate during COVID?

North American Van Lines is not only operating during the coronavirus crisis, it is busy, even in the traditionally slower winter months. In fact, you’ll have to call as early as possible to get on the schedule for both your estimate and move. In the meantime, you can learn about the new safety precautions North American has put in place to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. For instance, at this time, you can only get an estimate through online, video, and virtual estimates to ensure proper social distancing.


PROS

  • Get a lower price with a little conversation and flexibility
  • 88 years of experience and a reputation of reliability
  • Widespread availability
  • Great customer service

CONS

  • You can still end up with empty pockets
  • Getting a base estimate is a hassle
  • Experience varies by location

Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of North American interstate moving services, based on my first-hand experience. 

What Types of Moves Does North American Van Lines Do?

    • Household Moving 
    • Corporate Relocation
    • International Moving
    • Moving Resources
    • Moving Services
    • Local Moves
    • Interstate Moves

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What Other Services Besides Moving Does North American Van Lines Do? 

Here’s the whole menu, from their website:

  • Local, Interstate, and International Moving
  • Full-Service Packing
  • Fragile-Only Packing
  • Assistance with Self-Packing (such as determining quantity and type of boxes and supplies)
  • Boxes and Moving Supplies
  • Appliance Disconnection and Reconnection
  • Loading and Unloading
  • Storage
  • Auto Transport
  • Custom Crates
  • Crane Vans for Large Items
  • Transportation and Shipment Tracking

You can pick and choose from these options to fit your needs and budget. (You might not need services like appliance disconnection and reconnection.) But the company is best known for its full-service package, which also includes the packing, loading, unloading, and transportation. 

northamerican van lines

What Insurance Does North American Offer? 

For the protection of your stuff, North American has four options: 

  • Maximum Value Protection (MVP) with $0 deductible 
  • MVP with $250 deductible 
  • MVP with $500 deductible 
  • Basic Coverage

Your homeowner’s or rental insurance may cover your move, but if not, you can turn to one of the options offered by North American. The basic coverage is only for $0.60 per pound per article if something is lost or damaged while moving. This means you could get a bad deal if say, something expensive like a personal computer gets broken in transit. With full MVP, anything lost or destroyed would be repaired or replaced. 

“For an interstate move of a 3-bedroom home in early December with all (my) stuff, my cost was $8,700…”

If that’s not possible – like if Grandma’s serving platter is no longer for sale anywhere – you’d get a cash settlement for the current market replacement value. “The cost of full value may be subject to various deductible levels of liability that may reduce your cost,” according to the website. You can ask your moving coordinator for more specifics. 

How Much Does North American Cost? 

“northAmerican Moving Services” encompasses all their different offerings

Interstate or long-distance moves tend to cost between $2,000 and $5,000 per move, according to HomeAdvisor.com, and that’s roughly what you can expect to pay. North American’s prices are on par with competitors, which means its full-service package can be break-the-bank expensive. 

Here’s what is taken into consideration when you are given an estimate: 

  • Distance of your move – How far does the driver have to go to get your stuff to the final destination? 
  • Amount of packing – How much stuff will the staff have to box for you? How much loading and unloading will staff have to do at both destinations? 
  • Weight of your stuff – How much will the entire load weigh? 
  • Miscellaneous – Will you need add-ons like auto transport? Will you need van transport because a big truck can’t be parked on your street? 
  • Insurance coverage – Additional coverage will cost you more.
  • When you are moving – A move in the summer, which is peak season, is going to cost more than a move in the winter, which is usually slow for those in the moving industry.  

Quotes will be different based on the pricing set by your local agent, and the size (weight) and distance of your move. Full-package estimates from northAmerican will always include:

  • Labor and Transportation
  • Packing
  • Valuation
  • Miscellaneous

What’s “miscellaneous”? It refers to a lot of things, including upsells and fees. You can control what kinds of miscellaneous services or overcharges fall into that category if you plan well. 

Ultimately, flexibility regarding when you move and a willingness to take on some of the chores yourself could significantly bring down the price. In addition, should your stuff weigh less than the estimate, northAmerican van line will go with the lowest cost.

How My North American Van Lines Estimate Went

To minimize the spread of the coronavirus, I signed up for a virtual home tour with my local North American agent, which is called Beltmann Relocation Group and is the company’s largest location. 

Their pledge is to “Be the customer by striving to understand customer expectations and meeting them consistently.” I definitely got the sense that the rep with whom I spoke was trying to fulfill the promise. He was courteous, provided a detailed explanation of the estimate, and tried to help me get a lower price. 

“Ultimately, flexibility regarding when you move and a willingness to take on some of the chores yourself could significantly bring down the price.”

We conducted the tour over What’sApp Duo, but we could have done it on Zoom (It’ll be up to you). I could have also provided a video if a live online call was not possible. 

Quickly, we got into the weeds…literally. I brought my phone outside to my front yard to show him the entrance and parking area. Knowing that my town is very much a city, he was simply confirming that parking would be a problem. He’s right, but he had solutions for getting around it (a smaller truck that would make more trips) and had experience with this kind of situation. He also took note of the size of the home. I was able to get a price – and less sticker shock – by the call’s end. 

My own northAmerican estimates for full-service packages included: 

  • Weight of the load
  • Packing and unpacking
  • Assembly and disassembly of furniture
  • Loading and unloading
  • Transportation
  • Liability coverage (MVP with $0 deductible) with maximum protection of $50,000 
  • Miscellaneous

For an interstate move of a 3-bedroom home in early December with all that stuff, my cost was $8,700, which is more or less in line with their competitor’s prices.

The rep brought the cost down by $400 by offering me a limited-time discount. If I was willing to move in January instead, I could bring down the cost another $300, so my grand total would be about $8,000. If I opted for the basic coverage instead of the MVP with $0 deductible that the rep automatically includes in the estimate, then I would bring down the cost to about $7,960. This was all based on transporting 8,000 pounds of stuff. 

The ability to bring down the cost that much was a huge relief. I know it’s still a lot of money, but it’s less than it could have been and less than some competitors. Also, I still would be doing little more than overseeing the move and labeling boxes. That’s not too shabby if you ask me. 

Pros of Moving with North American

Some northAmerican vans have doors on the back and the side. beltmann.com

They give you room to bring down the cost of your move. 

The representative who conducted the home tour was helpful and willing to work with me to reduce the price. He kept saying he wanted to help and win my business. Then, he actually unlocked a discount to decrease the price by $400! With added flexibility you can also save. Ask and ye shall receive, especially if you can move at a different time and there are deals available. 

With 500 locations (!), you can probably find an agent near both destinations. 

North American has widespread reach, so you should be able to find an agent near your starting and ending points. 

Great customer service.

Moving is not always pleasant. But when you can rely on the customer service representatives and the staff with whom you are working, it eases some of the tension. My rep helped me lower the cost and was willing to go the extra mile to win my business. He also answered all my questions and tried to address any concerns that I had. That is a great way to get an edge on the competition.

Cons of Moving with North American

You might break the bank. 

No matter how you look at it, full-service moving packages are expensive. Even the cheapest route offered by North American has me paying in the neighborhood of $8,000. That’s super expensive. If you have the money, however, it’s a worthy luxury. After all, you save your back and your heart by reducing stress levels. 

The timeline to get an estimate is a turn-off. 

You have to jump through hoops with scheduling a date for a home tour and then go through with it. Then, you sometimes even have to wait for the written estimate to be certain of the breakdown. In a world where we’ve become used to immediate, easy answers, this is a hard pill to swallow.  

Experience varies by location

You will have to do your homework. Each North American location is run by a different company. With agents all over the country, you will find the experience will vary from place to place. Check out reviews about your local agent to find out what your experience might be like.  

Should You Choose North American to Move?

A full-service move is a big investment. It’s worth it if you can afford it. After all, who wants to lose days of their lives packing and unpacking? And North American offers competitive prices for full-service packages. 

Are they better than other long distance movers? You have to consider the cost and the drive of the local North American agent working with you. In my case, the agent was the largest among North American’s roster, which made them skillful at dealing with multiple clients at a time. Your (literal) mileage may vary.

You also need to be about six weeks away from your move date to consider hiring North American right now because the company is super busy. You will need time both for getting an estimate and scheduling your actual move. 

Obviously, choosing one company over another is a personal decision. But if you can afford a full-service move and have a reputable North American agent to work with, they may be willing to undercut other van line quotes in your areas.


 For more info, check out Moving101 and our picks of long distance moving companies.

Every Major Moving Report of 2017 Analyzed: Where Is Everybody Going?

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Migration reports are out in full force, including the famous United Van Lines yearly report.

But while United handles more moves annually than any other mover network in the country, their numbers are not definitive across the industry board.

North American, Atlas and Allied all see slightly – and in some cases, wildly – different results in their migration study results. Not a surprise, because as a Full Service move provider, United handles a somewhat different clientele compared to companies like ABF, U-Haul and PODS – companies whose numbers might look a lot different. Then there’s that little thing called the Census.

Yep, the state-to-state migration numbers for 2017 are out – and folks, we have new inbound state championsHere are the results:

United Van Lines

Vermont Takes United 2017 Inbound Crown

In 2015 they came in at third on the inbound rankings. In 2016 they inched their way up to number two. Now, this tiny state known mainly for skiing and maple syrup has captured the coveted top inbound spot on United’s 2017 National Movers Study.

Yes, the champagne is indeed flowing like syrup in Stowe, Killington and Montpelier as Vermont looks back on a year that saw a whopping 68% of their interstate moves coming in. 

Reasons

According to United’s survey, “family” was the most common reason respondents gave for relocating to the Green Mountain State. Retirement, lifestyle and job also figured fairly evenly into the equation.

On the other hand, a full 75% of people moving out of state gave employment as their reason. This helps explain why half of all outbounders fell into the Under-35 age category – and another 25% were between 35 and 45 – while 40% of those moving into the state were 65 or older.

Those mountains may be green, but with those unemployment numbers, it looks like the valleys are starting to turn gray.

But before we start replacing all those ski lifts with wheelchair-friendly escalators, let’s take a step back and look a little closer at where the stats behind Vermont’s inbound crown come from. Keep in mind we don’t know how many moves Vermont actually saw by their report. (68% can be broken down to 17 inbound moves and 8 outbound moves – which hardly amounts to a mass migration to this land of wooden bridges and Bernie Sanders.)

Inbound:

1. Vermont
2. Oregon
3. Idaho
4. Nevada
5. South Dakota
6. Washington
7. South Carolina
8. North Carolina
9. Colorado
10. Alabama

This past year saw some familiar names on United’s Top Ten Inbound States list. Oregon, Nevada and North Carolina are all there, as they have been every year since 2011. Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, South Carolina and Arizona are also back after making 2016’s inbound list. Newcomers include Alabama and Colorado. Meanwhile, Florida has dropped off the inbound list after a strong three-year run.

This past year’s top inbound states are also fairly spread out around the country. The same cannot be said about United’s outbound states.

Outbound:

1. Illinois
2. New Jersey
3. New York
4. Connecticut
5. Kansas
6. Massachusetts
7. Ohio
8. Kentucky
9. Utah
10. Wisconsin

As with the previous few years, the major exodus seems to be coming out of the Northeast and the Midwest, with Utah adding a little “outbound yellow” to the otherwise blue western region on United’s interactive migration map.

Perennial outbound states New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois have been the most unfortunate ones; we’d have to go back to 2010 to see any of them as balanced. (New York and Connecticut were both spared the shame that year).

North American Moving Services

northamerican.com

Arizona Takes North Americans 2017 Inbound Crown

North American’s inbound champ is Arizona, with 67% of their interstate moves coming into the Grand Canyon State. Other top inbounders not on United’s list include Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and Texas – all south and southeast states. (Those North American drivers must really love the south.)

Inbound:

  1. Arizona
  2. Idaho
  3. North Carolina
  4. South Carolina
  5. Tennessee

Outbound:

  1. Illinois
  2. Connecticut
  3. New Jersey
  4. California
  5. Michigan

Like United, North American has Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut at the top of their outbound list (with New York a notable #8). But the rest of their top outbounders – California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Maryland (#4-8 on the map) aren’t even on United’s radar.

Interestingly, North American’s #10 outbounder is Washington, which ranks #6 on United’s inbound list.

In accounting for these discrepancies, it is worth noting what North American says of their report’s methodology:

We define the top inbound and outbound states as those that have the highest proportion of moves where the absolute value difference of inbound and outbound moves is greater than or equal to 400. This weeds out states that had a small number of moves but would have a high ratio of inbound/outbound moves.”

This may explain why United’s 2017 champ Vermont and #5 South Dakota (United’s #1 in 2016 by the way) aren’t anywhere on North American’s Top Ten.

Atlas Van Lines

atlasvanlines.com

Washington Takes Atlas 2017 Inbound Crown

Atlas Van Lines offers some relative surprises too. Idaho, Washington and Nevada as their top three inbounders may not raise any eyebrows. But Alaska, Maine and New Hampshire at #5, #6 and #10? Oregon is a familiar name, but seeing them at #8 seems in contrast to their recent United Van Lines inbound championships.

Atlas’s top outbounder, meanwhile, is Illinois (same as both United and North American – those Fighting Illini have a real stranglehold on that top spot!). And their #2, West Virginia, was a strong outbounder for United for six years straight before balancing out in 2017.

But Nebraska at #3? Nebraska has been balanced for United since 2001! And #4 outbounder South Dakota has been an inbound darling for United the past three years.

Rounding out the Atlas top outbound list are Hawaii, Indiana, Delaware and Louisiana, all of them somewhat surprising since three of them have spent the last ten years on United’s “balanced” register. Only Indiana has managed to make a blip on United’s outbound radar in that time frame.

Inbound:

  1. Idaho
  2. Washington
  3. Nevada
  4. Tennessee
  5. Alaska
  6. Maine
  7. North Carolina
  8. Oregon
  9. Alabama
  10. New Hampshire

Outbound:

  1. Illinois
  2. West Virginia
  3. Nebraska
  4. South Dakota
  5. Hawaii
  6. Indiana
  7. Delaware
  8. New York
  9. Louisiana
  10. Kansas

In contrast to the percentages United and North American provide, Atlas gives actual numbers of inbound and outbound moves for each state. Here we see that Vermont has seen just a fraction of the moves so many other states see, so it’s easy to imagine why they wouldn’t have made it onto North American’s list. (Meanwhile, once again, Canada’s Yukon Territory has seen zero moves. We’ll blame it on the roads.)

Allied Van Lines

allied.com

Florida Takes Allied 2017 Inbound Crown

Allied Van Lines keeps it all very short and sweet. They report only their top fives:

Inbound:

  1. Florida
  2. Arizona
  3. North Carolina
  4. South Carolina
  5. Texas

Outbound:

  1. California
  2. Illinois
  3. Pennsylvania
  4. New Jersey
  5. Michigan

Based on this limited report, we’re able to come to at least one solid conclusion: Allied’s drivers love moving people south even more than North American’s do.

U-Haul

Texas Takes U-Haul 2017 Inbound Crown

Because news outlets predominately focus on Full Service van lines, it can easily be argued this eliminates an entire sector of the migrating public. (In fact, Full Service van lines actually conduct less than half of all moves performed in the US every year.)

Do U-Haul’s numbers reflect what the van lines suggest are moving trends?

Nope.

Inbound:

  1. Texas
  2. Florida
  3. Arkansas
  4. South Carolina
  5. Tennessee
  6. Washington
  7. North Carolina
  8. Connecticut
  9. Colorado
  10. Vermont

Outbound:

  1. California
  2. Illinois
  3. Pennsylvania
  4. Michigan
  5. Massachusetts
  6. New Jersey
  7. New York
  8. Arizona
  9. Maryland
  10. Georgia

Texas tops U-Haul’s 2017 Growth States list. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, as Texas has fared well recently in the inbound-outbound game. In 2017 their inbound percentages with United, North American and Atlas were 54, 53 and 53, while Allied put Texas down as their fifth biggest inbound state.

Oddly, Texas won U-Haul’s Growth State crown by bringing in – get this – a whopping 50.3% of all one-way truck rental traffic crossing Texas’s borders. That’s right. Fifty. Point. Three.

This hardly lends a whole lot more understanding to the migration trends we’re trying to dissect. But here we are, so let’s keep moving.

U-Haul rounds out its top five Growth States with Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee. Yes, Arkansas – which has been balanced on United’s report 37 of the last 40 years. Then again, Arkansas remained balanced in 2017 on United’s ledger with a 54% outbound rate, so that they are U-Haul’s #3 Growth State is rather surprising no matter how minuscule their positive U-Haul balance might have been.

And who comes in at #8 on U-Haul’s list? That big loser with United and North American (but not with Atlas), Connecticut.

On the flip side, U-Haul has Colorado at #9 – exactly where United and North American have them.

United States Census Bureau

Idaho Takes United States Census Bureau 2017 Inbound Crown

Yes, the Bureau has all the moving numbers we could possibly want. So many, in fact, that it could take until next January to weed through them all.

But thanks to Business Insider we don’t have to.

In this piece with the strangely long title: While the Bureau considers “a variety of components” in determining what’s happening among the more than 325 million people who make up the US population, Business Insider brings us what we need: domestic migration.

Here we see the net population gain or loss for each state for 2017. Births, deaths and international immigration are not counted; this is simply and strictly an account of how many people moved into or out of each state. (Again, not moves, but individual people.)

Inbound:

  1. Idaho
  2. Nevada
  3. South Carolina
  4. Oregon
  5. Arizona
  6. Washington
  7. Montana
  8. Florida
  9. Colorado
  10. North Carolina

And in this, the winner is Idaho, with a net domestic migration gain of 14.6 people per 1,000 residents. In second place comes Nevada, with South Carolina, Oregon and Arizona rounding out the top five. The second half of the big ten winners are Washington, Montana, Florida, Colorado and North Carolina.

These results actually mirror the van lines’ findings to a striking degree. Only Arizona, Montana and Florida don’t show up in United’s top ten. Seven of the Census top ten are also on North American’s top ten. Unbelievably, Colorado is #9 on all three lists.

As for the Net Domestic Migration losers? Yes, Illinois is up there, but at #5, maybe this is the survey they should be talking about in Chicago.

Outbound:

  1. Wyoming
  2. Alaska
  3. New York
  4. Hawaii
  5. Illinois
  6. North Dakota
  7. New Jersey
  8. Connecticut
  9. Louisiana
  10. West Virginia

The big loser in the 2017 migration tournament is Wyoming, a surprise since the Equality State doesn’t show up on any van line outbound lists – or inbound for that matter. United had them at 53% inbound for 2017. North American had them at 54% in. Only Atlas has them as outbound – based on a grand total of 330 moves.

The Bureau’s next three biggest net migration losers are Alaska, New York and Hawaii. Alaska and Hawaii, neither of which show up anywhere for United or North American, are Atlas’s #5 inbound and #5 outbound, respectively. North Dakota, New Jersey, Connecticut, Louisiana and West Virginia complete the Bureau’s top ten.

Again, while there are outbound wild cards, we still see some consistency between the Bureau and the van lines. Atlas and the Bureau actually have seven migration losers in common between their top tens. Looking at the US Census Bureau’s Net Domestic Migration map we can clearly see the winners clustered in the south and west with the losers dominating the northeast and midwest.

What’s The Takeaway?

Remember, the numbers put together by each of the van lines represent the migration trends among the customers they’ve served. Van lines count moves, the Bureau counts people.

This may not account for the reason United’s inbound champion Vermont is somehow a net loser according to the Census Bureau’s numbers, but it does suggest that, despite the discrepancies, the van lines and the Census Bureau can give a decent overall on what is going on out there.

But in the cases where data remains too contradictory to be meaningful, evaluating regions rather than individual states might give us a slightly more reliable picture of the migration trends playing out across the US. At the end of the day, we are only looking at a mere slice of the American migratory pie.

There’s More Realistic Data Out There

We need another, more encompassing way to look at where America is moving to and from.

DIY Moves and Hybrid Moves (besides U-Haul), which by far and away are the more common ways to move, are sorely misrepresented. When you move, do you routinely call up $2,000+ movers? Have you ever saved money by having your friends move you? What are these Full Service reports actually reflecting?

That’s something to keep in mind when the local news sounds off on “moving trends” based off a single Full Service Moving company’s report. 

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