What This Page Covers
Most moving companies promise satisfaction. This page does something more useful. It lists what is included on every Big Apple Moving move, in plain terms, and it explains the coverage rules that apply to your belongings while they are in our care, including the parts of those rules that work against you if nobody tells you about them.
Big Apple Moving & Storage has worked under the same name and the same USDOT number, 382368, since 1979, and has completed more than 220,000 moves in that time. The way to judge a mover is not the adjectives on its website but what it puts in writing and what you can check, and both are below.
Quick answer: A trustworthy New York mover puts what is included in writing before the truck is booked, and tells you what the law gives you on top. On a Big Apple Moving quote that means: hourly work with no minimum hours, or a binding estimate, which fixes the price for the work quoted; blankets, shrink wrap, TV boxes and picture bins included; fuel and tolls in the price; a certificate of insurance for your building at no charge; and basic valuation coverage on every shipment. If something is damaged, a claims department handles it rather than a general inbox. One thing most pages get wrong: a move inside New York State runs on NYSDOT’s rules, not the federal 60-cents-a-pound figure, and the coverage level that applies to your shipment is recorded on your bill of lading before anything is loaded.
What Is Included on Every Move
Hourly, with no minimum hours
Hourly work has no minimum number of hours and no surcharge for stairs, an elevator or a long carry. Those take longer, and the time is what you pay for; a short job is billed as a short job.
Or a binding estimate
A binding estimate is built from your item list and both addresses and fixes the price for the work quoted, with stairs, elevators and any long carry priced in and itemised. A video walkthrough is available if you would rather show us than list it; it is not required.
Wrapping and materials
Blankets, tape and shrink wrap on every piece of furniture, with TV boxes and picture bins, are part of the job rather than a line on the bill.
Fuel and tolls
Fuel and tolls for the route are in the quoted price.
Taken apart and put back together
Beds, dining tables, cribs and sectionals come apart at the old address and go back together at the new one, as part of the move.
Your building’s certificate of insurance
A certificate of insurance naming your building and its managing agent is issued at no charge. Details on our certificate of insurance movers page.
What “Basic Insurance” Means on a Move, and What It Does Not
Every quote includes basic coverage. Across the moving industry the correct name for it is valuation, and the distinction matters. Valuation is the mover’s own liability for your goods while they are in its care, at the level recorded on your paperwork. Insurance is a separate contract with an insurer, which pays according to its policy regardless of who was at fault. A mover is not an insurance company, and a page that uses the two words interchangeably is already leaving something out.
Valuation comes in two levels. Released value, usually called basic coverage, costs nothing extra and pays by weight rather than by what the item is worth. Full value protection makes the mover responsible for repairing the item, replacing it with a like item, or paying its current market value, and it is priced from the value declared for the shipment. Which rulebook sets those levels depends on one thing: whether your move crosses a state line.
Coverage on a move, by who provides it and what it pays:
| Coverage type | Who provides it | What it pays if something is damaged | What it costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released value, move to another state | The mover, under federal (FMCSA) rules | No more than 60 cents per pound per article — a 25-pound TV is $15 | Nothing extra; you sign for it on the bill of lading |
| Released value, move inside New York | The mover, under the NYSDOT household goods tariff | The level recorded on your bill of lading — by weight unless a value is declared | No charge at the released level; a valuation charge applies to a declared value |
| Full value protection | The mover | Repair, replacement with a like item, or current market value, less any deductible | Priced from the declared value, under the mover’s tariff |
| Transit insurance | An insurer you choose | What the policy says, regardless of fault | Set by the insurer |
Regulatory levels from the FMCSA (interstate) and the NYSDOT household goods tariff (within New York State). The level that applies to your shipment is recorded on your bill of lading before anything is loaded.
Two Rulebooks: Inside New York, and Across a State Line
Moving within New York State
A move from Brooklyn to Queens, or from Manhattan to Westchester, is an intrastate move governed by the New York State Department of Transportation, not by the federal rules most websites quote. NYSDOT requires every mover to file a tariff and to give you its Summary of Information before the move. Under that framework the order for service is prepared before your goods are loaded and signed by both sides with a copy to you; an hourly-rated bill may not exceed the written probable cost by more than 25 percent without the mover delivering on payment of that amount and allowing 15 business days for the balance; and it is illegal for a New York mover to offer you a discount from its filed tariff rates. Every one of those is a thing you can check.
Moving to another state
Cross a state line and the move is interstate, regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The mover must offer you both full value protection and released value, must give you the booklet Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move, and must take part in an arbitration program for loss and damage claims. Items worth more than $100 a pound are “extraordinary value” and must be listed on the shipping documents to be covered at their value. You have nine months from delivery to file a written claim. Our long distance movers page covers how those moves run.
If Something Is Damaged: What Happens, Step by Step
Tell the crew leader on the day, and write the damage on the delivery receipt in specific words: which item, what damage. A receipt signed clean is the first thing any mover’s claims team reads.
Photos of the damage and of the whole item, plus anything that shows what it cost. Do not repair or discard the piece until the claim is settled.
Report it to the crew leader or to the office and it goes to our claims department, which handles it from there. You are not writing to a general inbox and hoping.
What a mover owes follows the level on the bill of lading: by weight under released value; repair, replacement or current market value under full value protection.
The law sets a clock as well, and it is worth knowing whose. For a move to another state, federal rules require a mover to acknowledge a written claim within 30 days and to pay, decline or make a firm offer within 120 days, with a written status update every 60 days after that if it takes longer. For a move inside New York State, NYSDOT’s Summary of Information gives you 90 days from delivery to file, requires the mover to acknowledge within 30 days and to pay, decline or make an offer within 90 days, and makes a court judgment payable within 60 days. Those are the regulators’ figures. Our own terms are in the Company Terms and Conditions.
What Limits Any Mover’s Liability, Ours Included
Boxes you packed yourself
If you pack a carton and the contents break, it is harder to establish the mover’s responsibility, because nobody saw how it was packed. That is true of every mover, and it is the main reason people pay for packing.
Items of extraordinary value
Anything worth more than $100 a pound — jewelry, art, collectibles, furs, some electronics — has to be declared in writing before the move to be covered at its value. Undeclared, it falls back to the weight-based level.
Cash, jewelry, documents
Valuables, securities and papers are excluded under our terms and under most movers’. They travel with you, not on the truck.
Perishables and plants
Food and plants are excluded from basic coverage. We do move plants; under our terms they are not covered.
Signing a release
A delivery receipt that releases the mover from liability, signed without noting any damage, is the most common reason a valid claim fails. Strike that language and write what you see.
Reporting late
Every rulebook has a clock. Report damage on the day if you can, and in writing as soon as you can after. The sooner it is on paper, the shorter the argument.
Protecting High-Value Pieces Before Moving Day
Three things change the outcome for anything you would be upset to lose. Declare it: an itemised list with values, sent before the day, so the pieces are on the shipping documents rather than in your memory. Protect it: crating for art, mirrors and glass, and a dedicated team for pianos and antiques, both arranged in advance rather than improvised on the sidewalk. Cover it: full value protection is priced from the value you declare, and a transit policy from an insurer of your choice covers events that are nobody’s fault.
The one thing not to do is assume. Under released value, a ten-pound painting is worth ten pounds, not whatever you paid for it. If that is not acceptable to you, the time to say so is before the truck is booked, when the coverage level is still a choice. Our fine art movers and white glove movers pages describe the handling side.
Verify Us Before You Book
USDOT 382368
Our federal registration, unchanged since 1979. Look it up on the FMCSA SAFER system yourself: active, authorised for household goods.
Since 1979
More than 220,000 moves under the same name. The crews are ours and so are the trucks, which is why the people who wrap your sofa in Brooklyn are the people who carry it in at the other end.
5.0 stars on Google, 2,300+ reviews
Read them rather than take our word for it. The one-star reviews are as public as the rest.
Licence numbers, what “licensed and insured” actually means in New York, and how to verify any mover are on our licensed and insured movers page.
Big Apple Guarantee — Frequently Asked Questions
Hourly pricing with no minimum hours, or a binding estimate that fixes the price for the work quoted; blankets, shrink wrap, TV boxes and picture bins; fuel and tolls; basic disassembly and reassembly of furniture; a certificate of insurance for your building at no charge; and basic valuation coverage on the shipment. If something is damaged, a claims department handles it.
Basic coverage is included on every move at no extra charge. Strictly it is valuation rather than insurance: the mover’s own liability for your goods while they are in our care, at the level recorded on your bill of lading. Full value protection is priced from the value declared for the shipment, and a transit policy from an insurer of your choice is a separate option.
Valuation is the moving company’s liability for your goods, set by regulation and recorded on the bill of lading; the mover pays it. Insurance is a separate policy from an insurer that pays according to its terms regardless of who was at fault. Movers are not insurance companies, which is why a mover’s “basic insurance” is really basic valuation, and why a third-party transit policy is the only product that covers you for events that are nobody’s fault.
Not automatically. Sixty cents per pound per article is the federal released-value level for moves between states. A move inside New York State is governed by the NYSDOT household goods tariff, which treats hourly-rate and weight-rated shipments differently. The level that applies to your move is written on your bill of lading before anything is loaded, which is the document to read.
Yes, within the level of liability recorded on the paperwork. Under released value that liability is by weight; under full value protection it is repair, replacement or current market value. Liability is limited for boxes you packed yourself, for items of extraordinary value that were not declared, and for cash, jewelry, documents, perishables and plants. Those limits apply to every mover, including us.
Tell the crew leader before they leave and write the specific damage on the delivery receipt. Photograph the damage and the whole item, keep the piece as it is, and report it to the office. It goes to our claims department, which handles it from there under the coverage level on your bill of lading.
For a move inside New York State, NYSDOT’s Summary of Information gives you 90 days from delivery to file a written claim, and requires the mover to acknowledge it within 30 days and to pay, decline or make an offer within 90 days. For a move to another state, federal rules allow nine months to file, with acknowledgement within 30 days and a decision within 120 days. Report damage on the day wherever you can; a claim is easier to settle while the facts are fresh.
Two routes exist. Full value protection comes from the mover, is priced from the value you declare for the shipment, and makes the mover responsible for repair, replacement or current market value rather than a weight-based figure. A transit policy from an insurer of your choice covers events that are nobody’s fault. Whichever you choose, declare anything worth more than $100 a pound in writing before moving day, and read the level printed on the bill of lading.
A binding estimate fixes the price for the work quoted. What changes it is the work changing: items that were not on the list, a second stop, or access that is different from what was described, such as a freight elevator that turns out to be unavailable. New York’s rules also set a ceiling on how far any bill may differ from a written estimate: 25 percent on an hourly-rated move, 10 percent on a weight-rated or binding-estimate move, with the mover required to deliver on payment of that amount.
Yes. Goods in storage with us are under the same basic coverage as goods on a move, as the Company Terms and Conditions set out, and the storage is climate-controlled and fully managed. Long-distance moves run under the federal rulebook described above, with full value protection and released value offered as the regulations require, and the same claims department is where a problem goes.
