There are many reasons why American families move every day. Some people relocate in order to stay close to their family, while others move to a new place in order to pursue new job opportunities or to make the most of their money.
Regardless of the reason why you are relocating, you are certainly trying to find the ideal mover. While it is kind of hard to estimate how many companies you can hire in America, we can assure you that this task can be quite overwhelming! Lots of companies offer the same services, but the problem is that the quality of their services is not always the same.
“Tip: Due Diligence is Crucial.
For example, Colonial Van Lines in a mover and a moving broker. While they can physically move you with their own trucks in Texas and Florida, everywhere else the moving job will be outsourced to 3-d party movers.”
Because we are sure that you want to hire the best and most affordable company, we are here to help you with that by introducing you to Colonial Van Lines — here is everything you need to know about this mover!
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Colonial Van Lines
Colonial Van Lines is one of the oldest and most reliable moving companies in the United States. With over 50 years of experience helping families move all across the country, this company has earned the title of one of the nation’s top movers.
What started out as a family-owned and operated small business is now a large moving company with over 200 agents working for Colonial Van Lines all over the country. With so many agents, Colonial Van Lines operates across 48 states, including Florida, Arizona, Minnesota, Washington, California, the Dakotas, the Carolinas, and the Virginias, among other states.
Colonial Van Lines offers all the moving services that you may need, from full-service moving to storage services. Former clients have praised Colonial Van Lines for their outstanding customer service, as well as for having skilled staff who are careful with transporting fragile items, such as statues, glass, art pieces, and such.
How Much Does It Cost To Hire Colonial Van Lines?
One of the biggest concerns related to the moving process is how much it is going to cost. Moving can be quite expensive, depending on where you are moving from and to, but also on the services that you hire.
However, moving companies calculate their moving costs estimates based mainly on the distance between two places. Once they do that, they start adding the additional costs that we will talk about in the next section.
Below, we’ll show you the moving costs of hiring Colonial Van Lines.
Tip: While our estimates were calculated based on moving from Florida to other states, you can use our free moving costs calculator to receive moving estimates based on your real location and where you are planning to move to.
Interstate Moving with Colonial Van Lines
When you need to relocate from one state to another, you need to hire interstate movers. These movers are especially helpful when you need to relocate between states that border one another. Colonial Van Lines is a full-service mover that offers interstate moving services.
For instance, if you were to hire Colonial Van Lines to move from Tallahassee, Florida to Montgomery, Alabama, you would have to spend somewhere between $1158 to $2300. However, this is only a ballpark estimate, which means that the final price of hiring Colonial Van Lines to make an interstate move can change.
Long-Distance Moving with Colonial Van Lines
Now, if you have to make a long-distance move with Colonial Van Lines, the moving costs will obviously increase. The longer the distance, the higher the costs to move. Even still, Colonial Van Lines offers competitive prices regardless of the distance.
While each moving company determines the distance that they consider “long-distance”, the general rule of thumb is that any distance over 400 miles is considered long-distance moving.
So, if you were moving from Tallahassee, Florida to Richmond, Virginia, it would be considered a long-distance move because these cities are approximately 760 miles apart. If you make a long-distance move with Colonial Van Lines, you can expect to pay an estimated moving cost of $1609 to $3100 (moving from Tallahassee to Richmond).
Cross-Country Moving with Colonial Van Lines
The other type of moving that you can hire is cross-country moving. Colonial Van Lines are experts in cross-country moving and can help you relocate from coast to coast with no major issues.
This type of moving service is often the most expensive, which makes sense considering the distance between cities that are across the country from one another. For instance, if you hire Colonial Van Lines to move from Tallahassee, Florida to Seattle, Washington, you can expect to pay anywhere between $2767 to $5400.
Are There Any Additional Costs When Hiring Colonial Van Lines?
As we mentioned previously, when you hire a moving company, the final moving costs are calculated based on a series of factors, which include not only distance and type of move you’re making but also the types of moving services that you need to hire.
For instance, if you have a piano that needs to be relocated to your new area, you will need to hire a specific moving service, but not all companies offer this service — which is why we advise you to read about the different moving services you can hire before you go and hire a mover.
While moving companies give you ballpark moving estimates for the traditional moving services (such as furniture transportation or residential moving) that they offer, you may have to pay additional costs for special services.
Below we’ll briefly talk about the additional services you can hire from Colonial Van Lines.
Moving Insurance
When you hire a full-service mover like Colonial Van Lines, you have the option of choosing from different moving packages.
Depending on the type of moving package you hire, it may or may not include moving insurance.
There are different types of moving insurance to choose from, but the bottom line is that you should try to get the insurance that will cover all of your expenses should anything happen to your belongings in the moving process.
When you contact Colonial Van Lines, an agent will help you with the process of choosing a moving package that includes insurance.
Piano Moving
One of the biggest concerns of pianists is whether they are able to relocate their piano to their new area. Pianos can be quite heavy, even the smallest ones — but that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to find a mover to help you with this.
In case you need to hire this particular service, you’ll be more than glad to know that Colonial Van Lines offers piano moving services. This service may come at an additional cost, but the quality of their service makes it worth it.
Hot Tub Moving
There are three characteristics that define hot tubs: they’re heavy, they’re large, and they are rather expensive. Even the smallest hot tubs won’t cost you less than a couple of thousand dollars.
The thing with hot tubs is that it isn’t always worth it to sell them because most people won’t pay you enough for you to get yourself a new hot tub in your new location. And that’s where moving a hot tub with Colonial Van Lines comes in.
More often than not, it is cheaper to relocate a hot tub to your new area rather than selling the one you have so you can purchase a new one.
Pool Table Moving
Similar to moving a hot tub, you can easily relocate a pool table — as long as you have the right mover. Moving these items is not always easy because they require more attention and even special equipment.
If you have a pool table and you want to transport it, you can count on Colonial Van Lines to move a pool table to anywhere in the country! All you have to do is contact one of their agents and talk about moving costs estimates.
Moving Bulky Items
Some items in our homes are quite heavy and large, which makes a lot of people wonder how they are going to move these items to a new location, especially when this location is far from where they currently reside.
When you hire a moving company, you are giving them the responsibility of transporting your house’s bulky items. It is their job to figure out how to relocate bulky items. But you have to keep in mind that, because they take up a lot of space in moving trucks, moving bulky items will affect greatly your moving costs.
What Services Does Colonial Van Lines Offer?
If you want to hire Colonial Van Lines, you need to first take a look at the moving services they offer. Like every other moving company, Colonial doesn’t offer all of the services that exist in this industry, but they do offer the most essential ones, such as packing services and long-distance moving services.
While we recommend that you contact a Colonial Van Lines agent to learn more about their services, below we will briefly describe some of the moving services you can hire from Colonial.
Cross-Country and Long-Distance Moving
With over 200 agents operating across 48 states, you can easily make a long-distance or cross-country relocation with Colonial Van Lines.
To start the moving process, you need to get in contact with an agent and give them your moving details (size of your house, the date you plan on moving, where you are moving from and to, and such).
After that, you’ll receive a moving quote and then you can sign any contracts.
Packing and Unpacking
When it comes to moving, the truth is that you don’t really have to do much. If you want (and if you have the financial means), you can pay a mover to organize your entire moving process — including the packing and unpacking of your belongings!
Packing is an exhausting process, especially if you live in a big house/apartment and own lots of items. In case you don’t have a lot of time on your hands and you are in need of hiring packing services, Colonial Van Lines are experts in packing and can help you a great deal.
Colonial offers flexible packages when it comes to packing services. This means that you don’t have to hire them to pack all of your belongings (though you do have that option). If you have already started packing but you can’t figure out how to pack some of your belongings, you can hire their single item packing service.
In case you are unsure about how to properly pack the items in your kitchen (kitchenware is either too fragile or too bulky), you can hire Colonial Van Lines to pack your kitchen! But if you are simply not down to packing anything in your household, you can hire Colonial to do a full pack!
Moving Supplies
While Colonial offers packing services, you don’t necessarily have to hire them for this stage of the moving process. In case you are running on a tight budget and can’t spend much, you can simply buy moving supplies from Colonial Van Lines, including mirror boxes, TV boxes, mattress covers, tape, moving blankets, and more.
Whether you need to buy moving boxes or bubble wrap, all you have to do is contact a Colonial Van Lines agent and they’ll provide any moving supply you need. In addition to getting to buy supplies individually, you can also get amazing discounts on box bundles.
Storage Services
Let’s say that maybe you will have to leave your current house or apartment sooner than your moving date, which means that you will certainly need a place to store your belongings. In this case, you can count on Colonial because, in addition to offering moving services and packing services, Colonial Van Lines offers storage services as well.
This mover offers both long-term and short-term storage services, and its storage facility is climate-controlled, making it ideal for valuable items.
Colonial’s storage services are divided into three categories (full-service storage), storage in transit, and commercial storage. But they also offer customized storage options at competitive prices.
Office Relocation (Commercial Moving)
In the moving industry, there are two main types of moving: residential moving and commercial moving. As the names suggest, you make a residential move when you are relocating the items from your house or apartment, and you make a commercial move when you are relocating an office or a business.
Colonial Van Lines offers both residential moving and commercial moving services. In case you want to move an office, they will assign you a specialist that will listen to your instructions and get your commercial moving process started.
After this specialist has collected enough information, Colonial will then design a customized plan based on your preferences so that your commercial moving process can go as smoothly as possible.
Should I Move With Colonial Van Lines Or Not?
There are thousands of moving companies that can help you relocate within the United States, and many of these companies claim to be the nation’s top companies. The issue with these claims is that they’re often unfounded and these companies turn out to offer low-quality moving services.
Because of that, lots of families looking into relocating take their time to find the ideal moving company. The more you do research about a specific mover, the higher your chances of making a successful, stress-free move.
If you are thinking of hiring Colonial Van Lines to relocate within the United States, we can help you reach a final decision. Here are 4 reasons why you should and shouldn’t hire Colonial Van Lines!
| FACTORS | WHY SHOULD I MOVE WITH COLONIAL VAN LINES? | WHY SHOULDN’T I MOVE WITH COLONIAL VAN LINES? |
| Full-service moving | Colonial Van Lines offers full-service moving options for long-distance and cross-country moves. | This company doesn’t offer local moving options, which means that you can’t hire them to relocate within your current state. |
| Moving services | Colonial offers a wide range of moving services, from packing services to storage services. | Colonial Van Lines doesn’t offer special moving services, such as international moving or moving to U.S. territories outside of the mainland. |
| Expert movers | Colonial’s movers are skilled (and trained) professionals that can help you relocate bulky items and fragile items. | While this company’s staff are professionals, former customers allegedly lost some of their belongings in the moving process due to damage. |
| Free quotes | You can get free moving quotes directly from Colonial Van Lines’s official website. | While you can get moving quotes online, Colonial gives you a ballpark estimate only. If you want accurate estimates, you have to call one of their agents. |
What Are The Alternatives to Hiring Colonial Van Lines?
While Colonial Van Lines is a great option if you want to hire a high-quality, top-rated mover, you obviously have the option of pursuing other options when it comes to moving. In fact, you don’t even have to hire a mover at all!
If you want to take a hands-on approach to the moving process, you should certainly look into other options, such as renting a moving truck or renting a moving container. These alternative options can save you money in the moving process — though they can also give you quite the headache.
Here are 3 alternatives to hiring Colonial Van Lines!
PODS
PODS is one of the top companies for moving containers in the country. Whether you’re moving to a different neighborhood in your city or if you’re moving to a new city across the country, they can help you with their multiple moving services.
When you hire this company, they will have a driver drop a moving container outside your house. Once they do that, you just have to load the container within 3 days (or more days, depending on the services package you purchased) before PODS sends a truck and movers to transport the container to your new location.
Alternatively, you can hire their full-service moving package and not have to worry about loading your belongings into the container, as the company’s movers will do it for you.
Truck Rentals
Another option that you have when it comes to moving is to rent a moving truck. This method is certainly the most hands-on that you can possibly choose, for you’ll be in charge not only of packing your belongings and loading them into the truck, but you will also be responsible for driving the truck to your new location.
Having so many responsibilities in the moving process is appealing to those who like to keep control of things to make sure that everything works out fine. But renting a moving truck can also be a burden because you’ll have to deal with extra expenses, such as hiring moving insurance independently, paying for gas expenses, and dealing with any necessary repairs.
U-Haul
The third option we are going to present you is to hire U-Haul. This company is one of the leading movers in the country, and they offer a wide range of moving and storage services. When you contact U-Haul, you have the option of renting a truck or a trailer — or even a container.
While you will also be in charge of lots of things in the moving process (including driving the truck in most cases), hiring U-Haul is a better option than renting a moving truck independently. That’s because U-Haul offers many benefits, including insurance, movers to help you load the truck, as well as giving you the option of renting trucks of any size.
Tip: In case you are still not sure if you should hire Colonial Van Lines or choose one of the alternatives, you can hire a moving broker to help you. These professionals will help you find the best solution based on your needs, preferences, and budget.
Are There Any Similar Companies to Colonial Van Lines?
Colonial Van Lines is one of the largest moving companies in the country, so there should be no problems in finding their official website and contact information. However, you have to be aware that there are other companies with similar names, such as Colonial Van & Storage and Colonial Moving & Storage.
While Colonial Van Lines is a nationwide company headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida, and has agents operating all over the nation. On the other hand, Colonial Van & Storage has headquarters in California and Nevada and operates only in that region of the country. The other company, Colonial Moving & Storage, is a family-operated business headquartered in Connecticut.