Rates, crew sizes, truck counts and hour minimums from a carrier that owns the trucks and employs the crews.
As of August 2026, Ontrack Moving® charges from $175 per hour for two movers and a truck in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Phoenix Metro. Three movers start at $235 per hour in the Bay Area and $225 in Phoenix. Four movers start at $295 and $275. Those are starting rates, not caps.
A studio at the Bay Area minimum lands at $525. A two bedroom runs $1,175 to $1,645. A three bedroom runs $1,770 to $2,360. Four bedrooms and larger are a two truck job and are priced after a walkthrough. The full table is below, including the two columns nobody else publishes: how many trucks your home needs, and the square footage where that changes.
These are residential rates. Office, commercial and laboratory relocations are scoped and priced differently, by project rather than by the hour: see commercial moving.
Ontrack Moving® is an asset-based carrier under USDOT #2551548 and California license CAL-T190721. We own the trucks and employ the crews, so these are the numbers we bill rather than an average of somebody else's.
| Crew | Bay Area | Phoenix Metro | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 truck | 2 trucks | 1 truck | 2 trucks | |
| 2 movers | $175 | n/a | $175 | n/a |
| 3 movers | $235 | n/a | $225 | n/a |
| 4 movers | $295 | $345 | $275 | $325 |
| 5 movers | $355 | $405 | $325 | $375 |
| 6 movers | $415 | $465 | $375 | $425 |
| 7 movers | $475 | $525 | $425 | $475 |
| 8 movers | $535 | $585 | $475 | $525 |
Per hour, starting rates. A second truck adds $50 per hour and each mover beyond two adds $60 in the Bay Area and $50 in Phoenix. Crews of two and three run one truck; a second truck starts to make sense at four movers and up.
Local work is billed hourly against a minimum: 3 hours in the Bay Area for a two or three mover crew, 4 hours for crews of four or more, and 2 hours in Phoenix Metro. Time runs in 15 minute increments after the minimum.
This is the table most sites publish. Two columns are missing from all of them, and they are the two that decide the number: how many trucks the load actually needs, and the square footage where a second truck becomes likely.
| Home size | Typical sq ft | Crew | Trucks | Hours | Bay Area | Phoenix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | up to 600 | 2 movers | 1 | 3 (minimum) | $525 | $350 |
| 1 bedroom | 600 to 900 | 2 movers | 1 | 3 to 5 | $525 to $875 | $525 to $875 |
| 2 bedroom | 900 to 1,400 | 3 movers | 1 | 5 to 7 | $1,175 to $1,645 | $1,125 to $1,575 |
| 3 bedroom | 1,400 to 1,800 | 4 movers | 1 | 6 to 8 | $1,770 to $2,360 | $1,650 to $2,200 |
| 4 bedroom | 1,800 and up | 4 to 8 movers | 1 to 2 | 8 to 10 | $2,360 to $5,850 | $2,200 to $5,250 |
The four bedroom row is wide on purpose, because four bedrooms is where homes stop resembling each other. A lightly furnished one goes with four movers and a single truck. A large, densely furnished one takes eight movers and two trucks, and the crew grows step by step in between: five and one truck, five and two, and so on. Square footage and how full the house is decide it, not the bedroom count on the listing.
Figures are labor at the published starting rates. Materials, valuation above the basic level, permits and specialist handling are separate and itemized on your estimate.
Materials are billed for what the crew actually uses, not as a flat package bolted onto every job. If you pack your own boxes and we only wrap and pad the furniture, you land at the bottom of these ranges or below them.
| Home size | Typical materials | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | $150 to $250 | Boxes, tape, paper, mattress bag, shrink wrap |
| 2 bedroom | $250 to $400 | The above plus dish barrels, wardrobe boxes, extra padding |
| 3 bedroom | $350 to $600 | Full house set, including glassware and picture cartons |
| 4 bedroom | $600 to $900 | Full house set plus protection for larger and awkward pieces |
Two things move materials more than home size does. How much you pack yourself before the crew arrives, and how many items need real protection rather than a blanket: glass tops, mirrors, artwork, stone, and anything that wants a soft crate built around it. Crating is quoted per item because a crate is built to fit.
Storage runs separately again, at $80 to $120 per vault per month in our own warehouses. Loading out of Ontrack storage uses no new materials, because your things were already wrapped on the way in and stay wrapped until delivery.
The load decides, not the bedroom count. Our rule is simple enough to say out loud:
That last one is the reason the crew ladder exists. A bigger crew carries a higher hourly rate and finishes in fewer hours, and the totals land close together. A two bedroom that takes three movers seven hours bills $1,645 in the Bay Area. The same home with four movers often loads in six and bills $1,770. The crew grows so the day does not.
It also explains why a four bedroom quoted as a four mover, one truck job is a number to be careful with. One 26 foot truck does not hold a four bedroom house. Either the day runs to 12 or 13 hours, or the truck goes back for a second trip. Both show up on the final invoice.
Because most of them are not written by movers.
The cost pages that rank for this question belong to listing sites, storage brands and lead brokers. Several quote $80 to $100 per hour for two movers and a truck. No licensed carrier that owns its trucks and employs its crews works at that number in the Bay Area or Phoenix in 2026. One of the most widely cited moving cost pages on the internet was last updated in 2019 and still carries its original figures.
That gap is where bill shock comes from. The published number was never a carrier's number, so the real quote arrives looking like a markup when it is simply the first honest figure the customer has seen. We would rather publish ours and explain it.
Yes, and the two markets do it differently.
On local hourly moves in California, the drive from your old address to your new one is billed at double the clock time. Thirty minutes of driving bills as sixty. That is the standard method for California local moves, it applies to hourly work rather than long distance, and it appears on your estimate rather than arriving as a surprise on the invoice.
Arizona works differently. There is no double drive time there, so we bill a stated trip fee instead: one line, the same across the Phoenix metro, rather than a meter that charges you more for living further out.
Long distance moves are quoted flat rate by truck, so neither method applies to them.
Access and contents, far more than the address on the estimate. The items that move the clock:
This is exactly why California requires a visual inspection before a written estimate, and why a walkthrough sets the crew size instead of the customer guessing. A number produced without seeing your stairs is a guess wearing a suit.
The truck, fuel, dollies and hand trucks, moving blankets, shrink wrap on upholstered pieces, floor runners and doorway protection, disassembly and reassembly of standard furniture, and the crew. Every move carries basic $0.60 per pound per article cargo liability, the federal minimum, with additional valuation available for purchase. Buildings and premises are covered separately by a $10,000,000 Combined Protection Tower, which protects the property, floors, elevators and structures rather than the contents of your boxes.
Packing materials are billed for what the crew actually uses. Long distance moves are quoted flat rate by truck rather than hourly, so none of the hourly figures above apply to them.
