Choosing the right moving company isn’t just about finding the lowest price—it’s about understanding what you’re looking for and how well a company’s services align with those specific needs. Factors like service options, coverage areas, customer experience, and overall reliability all play an important role in determining which moving company is right for your move. In this post, we’ll compare North American Van Lines Moving and Storage and UniMovers across these key categories and examine how these two companies differ.
Table of Contents
North American Van Lines Moving and Storage
North American Van Lines is a long-established, full-service moving company that specializes primarily in long-distance and international relocations. The company operates through an expansive network of local agents, allowing them to handle moves of varying sizes and complexity across state lines and even overseas.
Services
As a full-service moving company, North American Van Lines can manage nearly every aspect of the moving process, from initial planning to final delivery. Its services are commonly used for interstate, cross-country, and international moves, as well as large-scale household relocations.
North American Van Lines’ core services include:
Because North American Van Lines operates through a network of local agents, what services are available may vary between locations, but they maintain consistent standards and offer signature moving services for retirees and military moves.
Locations
North American Van Lines Moving and Storage is widely accessible. It has a presence in all fifty states and over 130 countries across the world. It serves most major cities, suburban areas, and many smaller communities. For customers relocating across state lines or overseas, the company’s nationwide and international reach is one of its primary advantages.
Rates
Rather than relying on hourly rates, North American Van Line’s pricing is typically based on factors such as distance, shipment weight, and any additional options selected. This approach is more common for interstate and cross-country moves, where transportation costs can vary significantly and make up a large portion of the final price.
Because of this, North American Van Lines may be more complicated than necessary when dealing with smaller, local moves, and they were unwilling to divulge any information about their pricing system to me beyond that.
They offer several different types of price structures: bottom-line pricing (as in, the guaranteed final cost), not-to-exceed pricing, and customized pricing, in which the services are tailored to your specific needs.
Local, uncomplicated moves average around $1,450 with a range of $800-2,500, depending on the weight of items transported, whereas long-distance moves can cost several thousand, but they were unable to provide a custom quote for the purpose of comparison.
Customer Satisfaction
Because they operate through such a large network of locally-operated agents, customer experiences and reviews for North American Van Lines can vary drastically from location to location. However, they are a long-established and overall reliable company with an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau. Consumer Affairs has them rated at 3.9/5 stars. Across all of North American Van Lines’ reviews, many customers highlight the skill and professionalism of their moving crews, while communication is often the sticking point.
Getting a quote, both your initial estimate and finalized price estimate, can be difficult and requires multiple points of contact, often needing a walk-through or detailed video call to get a true price guarantee.
UniMovers
UniMovers is a regional moving company that focuses on providing hourly moving labor, operating in select service areas. This allows it to maintain a more consistent, streamlined operation, often with far lower rates. As a labor-only moving company, it’s broadly more flexible and affordable than full-service moving companies.
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Services
UniMovers is a labor-only moving company that offers a focused set of services designed to cover the essentials of moving while keeping things simple and affordable. This way, you don’t end up paying for additional services you don’t need. Their core services include:
- Local moves, both commercial and residential
- Packing and unpacking assistance
- Loading and unloading for trucks/PODs
- Hourly labor and temp staffing services
- Furniture disassembly and reassembly
Locations
UniMovers primarily operates in major cities and their surrounding areas across a few select regions, focusing on areas where they can provide consistent, reliable service. Namely, UniMovers has locations in:
- Florida: Boca Raton, Orlando, Tampa
- Iowa: Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Dubuque, Forest City, Iowa City
- North Carolina: Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Cary, Durham, Raleigh, Wilmington
- South Carolina: Charleston, Columbia, Rock Hill, Summerville
- Texas: Austin, Lubbock, San Antonio
Their service footprint isn’t as expansive as North American Van Lines, but they’re a viable option for those living within these coverage locations.
Rates
UniMovers uses a flat hourly rate model for their labor and moving services. You pay based on the number of movers and the hours worked, and that’s that. There are no hidden fees to worry about popping up on your final receipt. UniMovers operates with a two-hour, two-mover minimum, with most locations charging $60/hr/mover, but you can hire more movers as needed for larger moves. Another big draw is their transparency. Before even scheduling a quote with a representative, you can get an estimate for how many hours your move will take with their move calculator and an estimate for how much the travel fee will cost (if there will be one).
UniMovers quoted me at $240 for a simple, one-bedroom apartment move with loading and unloading, or around $1,200 for a more complex move for a larger, three-bedroom house with a study, based on the hours and number of workers booked. Because both these moves were within the same general area, neither incurred a travel fee.
Customer Satisfaction
As with North American Van Lines, UniMovers’ customer reviews vary significantly by location and by team. Overall, however, customer ratings are overwhelmingly positive! UniMovers presently has an A-rating by the Better Business Bureau and consistently positive reviews from customers across various platforms at each of their locations. Customer feedback highlights that they’re easy to work with, communicative, and flexible.
How They Compare
North American Van Lines excels at full-service, long-distance, and international moves. UniMovers, by contrast, focuses primarily on moving labor. If you need a comprehensive, hands-off moving experience, North American Van Lines is better suited, but for moves within their service area where the primary support you’ll need is help with packing and heavy lifting, UniMovers is ideal and much more transparent to work with.
North American Van Lines offers nationwide and international coverage, whereas UniMovers operates in select regional markets. Customers with moves outside these regions will need to look elsewhere, while those inside the service zones benefit from a more accessible operation.
North American Van Lines uses a customized pricing model based on distance, weight, and service level, which can make it more expensive out of the gate. UniMovers’ pricing model is more straightforward and transparent, and it is often a budget-friendly choice.
Both companies have overall positive reputations and customer ratings. Customer reviews note that North American Van Lines is older and more established, whereas UniMovers is newer, centered around its core communities.
Conclusion
Comparing moving companies can often come down to comparing apples and oranges. Though they serve similar purposes, North American Van Lines Moving and Storage and UniMovers cater to very different moving needs. If you’re tackling a long-distance or large-scale relocation, North American Van Lines’ experience and breadth of services may justify the higher cost. If your move is within their region of coverage, and you value flexibility, simplicity, and affordability, UniMovers is the better choice.
FAQs
How do I know whether UniMovers or North American Van Lines is right for me?
Consider the size and distance of your move, what services you need, and your budget. If you’re moving long-distance or require full-service support, North American Van Lines is likely the better fit. If you want an efficient, cost-conscious solution, UniMovers is a strong option.
Is full-service or labor-only better for my move?
When moving, your options are often full-service, labor-only, or DIY (as in, you don’t hire help, and you handle all the heavy lifting yourself). Many factors influence which of these options is best for you, like your time frame, budget, physical capabilities, and personal preferences. A good place to start is sitting down and making a mental inventory of what you need and what you don’t. Do you need a truck? Can you pack your things yourself? Are you able to do some heavy lifting on your own, or with friend and family volunteers?
J. Dailey has an English degree with a focus in technical writing. When not busy blogging, find J. Dailey hiking, playing tabletop games, or spending time with cats.
