Long distance moving

Long distance movers in Pennsylvania

Philadelphia will not reserve you a curb at short notice: a Temporary No Parking permit must be applied for at least four business days ahead. That, and row streets narrower than they look, are both settled before we give you a date.

  • One carrier door to door
  • 7–12 days west coast lanes
  • 30 days storage included
  • USDOT 2138595 · MC-744411 checkable on FMCSA SAFER
A full moon rising beside the Philadelphia skyline at dusk

Licensed interstate carrier

Our authority is public record — and so are our reviews. FMCSA register

PA PUC approves rates
stricter than licensing
West coast lanes
7–12 days driving days once loaded
Midwest lanes
3–6 days typical spread
Storage in transit
30 days included
Authority
USDOT 2138595 licensed carrier

The same window applies in both directions: a lane is as long one way as the other. Transit is driving days from the load date, not calendar days from booking, and both ends of the spread go on your bill of lading.

What changes here

What a move in or out of Pennsylvania involves

We are movers, not a relocation guide, so this is the version from the truck: what actually decides a Pennsylvania move, whichever way you are going.

Philadelphia's City Hall tower among the surrounding skyscrapers

4 business days the minimum notice on a TNP permit

Row streets, and a permit with a floor under it

Reserving curb space in Philadelphia means a Temporary No Parking permit from the Streets Department, and the city is explicit: you must apply at least four business days before you need it. That is a floor rather than a target, so a genuinely last-minute Philadelphia move cannot be done legally on the street at all. The application asks for the length of the moving truck, which tells you what the city is really deciding, and on much of this nineteenth-century row-house grid the honest answer is that a 53-foot trailer has nowhere to stop, so the permit is for the shuttle instead.

The Philadelphia skyline reflected in the river at sunrise

Eds and meds, and where they put you

Philadelphia's largest private employers are a university health system, a second university health system and a children's hospital: Penn, Jefferson and CHOP. That concentration puts a lot of arrivals into University City, Center City and the blocks around those campuses, which is exactly where curb space is the binding constraint and a Temporary No Parking permit is not optional. Suburban Montgomery and Chester County deliveries are the easy half of our Pennsylvania work.

The Schuylkill and the expressway running past the Philadelphia skyline

Winter, on the Turnpike and on the row streets

Two separate winter problems here. Westbound and central Pennsylvania is genuine mountain driving and the Turnpike takes weather that Philadelphia does not. And in the city, a snowbanked row street removes the one legal place a shuttle was going to park. The first widens the transit spread; the second is why we would rather move a Philadelphia date by a day than run a crew at it in the wrong week.

The Philadelphia skyline lit at dusk and reflected in the river

1 metro we crew regularly

We are in the state every month

We run into Philadelphia on a repeating basis, not on demand. That is what makes a delivery spread a spread of days rather than of weeks, and it is why we can tell you at survey which vehicle can physically reach your door.

Figures shown are ours: metros we crew, and the transit spreads our dispatch works to. Where we have no sourced number for a claim, we have not printed one.

What it costs

What it costs to move out of Pennsylvania

Weight and distance set the price before anything else. On the market data below, a two-to-three-bedroom household runs $4,020 – $8,170 to California and $2,460 – $5,940 to Illinois. Ours is one number, in writing, after a survey.

Home size Typical weight To California To Illinois
Studio or 1 bed one bedroom of contents 2,000 – 3,500 lb $1,390 – $5,920 $1,220 – $4,340
2 – 3 bedrooms the most common interstate move 4,000 – 9,000 lb $4,020 – $8,170 $2,460 – $5,940
4+ bedrooms often needs a trailer to itself 10,000 – 14,000 lb $8,350 – $12,650 $4,380 – $8,590

The dollar ranges are the MARKET rate for these lanes, not our quote: Pennsylvania to California and Pennsylvania to Illinois. moveBuddha's monthly dataset of live quotes across vetted movers, last updated 31 August 2026, full-service movers column. Weights are the industry rule of thumb. We price your move from a survey of your actual inventory and give you one binding number.

Get a binding price

Included and extra

What your final price includes

The complaint in this industry is always the bill that grew. This is the line between included and extra, before you have to ask.

  • Included One truck, one crew The crew that loads you is the crew that unloads you.
  • Included Storage for 30 days Useful when a closing slips.
  • Included Basic cover 60 cents for every pound an item weighs.
  • Extra Full cover Pays to repair or replace what we list together.
  • Extra Packing and crates Up to 15 boxes is partial, more than that is full.
  • Extra Car shipping Open or enclosed.

How the price is built

Long distance moving routes from Pennsylvania

Road distance and the transit window we plan against on the lanes we run most out of Pennsylvania.

All routes

Where we crew

The Pennsylvania cities we crew

We move anywhere in Pennsylvania. These are the places we run often enough to know the access before we arrive; each one opens a page on what a move out of it involves.

  • Broad Street in Philadelphia at night, traffic drawn out in light trails toward City Hall Philadelphia Philadelphia will not process a no-parking permit requested less than three business days out…

On the day

What arrives at your door in Pennsylvania

On a Philadelphia row street a 53-foot trailer usually has nowhere to stop, so the normal plan is a 26-foot shuttle running from a wider street nearby. Add the stair carry of a three-storey row house and you have the two cost variables.

A mover holding a strapped carton beside a yellow van
53 ft
trailer, the long haul standard
26 ft
shuttle where a trailer cannot go
7–12 days
west coast lanes
30 days
storage in transit, included

Delivery and unload. The same company that loaded you in your old state unloads you in Pennsylvania: no handover to a carrier you did not choose.

How a long distance move runs

After the truck is loaded

The part most movers do not put in writing. These are your rights and our obligations on an interstate move in or out of Pennsylvania, in the order they happen.

  1. You get a spread, not a date

    Your bill of lading carries a delivery window, 7–12 days in driving days on West coast lanes. A single promised date on an interstate move is a date somebody intends to miss.

  2. The driver calls ahead

    You get 24 hours of notice before delivery so somebody can be at the property. If the new place is not ready, the shipment goes into storage in transit rather than onto your driveway.

  3. Check it before you sign

    Walk the inventory against the sheet at delivery and note anything damaged on the paperwork before signing. That note is what makes a later claim straightforward instead of contested.

  4. You have nine months to claim

    Federal rules give you nine months from delivery to file a written claim on an interstate move. We acknowledge within 30 days and settle, deny or make an offer within 120.

Where to go next

Every Pennsylvania move is one or more of these, and these are the two lanes we run most out of the state. Storage is included for thirty days whether you plan to use it or not.

Reviews from customers on our long-distance lanes

“The movers from this company were there to assist me at both the origin and destination of my move, which was incredibly helpful.”

Moving in and out of Pennsylvania: the practical part

We run into and out of Pennsylvania every month, most often Philadelphia. We run into Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York on the same crews. The move itself is the predictable part: a survey fixes the inventory and the weight, the weight and the mileage fix the price, and the price goes on the paperwork before anything is loaded.

Why a shuttle is the normal answer here

On a Philadelphia row street the plan is usually a 26-foot shuttle running between your door and the trailer parked legally on a wider street nearby. That is not a downgrade or an upsell: it is the only vehicle that physically fits, and establishing it at survey is what keeps it on the estimate instead of on the invoice. Add the stair carry that comes with a three-storey row house and you have the two variables that decide what a Philadelphia move costs. Both are answerable from the address before you book.

One lane out of Philadelphia is short; the other is a crossing

Chicago is 758 miles from Philadelphia and runs in three to six days; Los Angeles is 2,741 and seven to twelve. The Illinois and California columns above are those two moves priced by home size, and the gap between them at every row is line-haul, not service: the crew and the paperwork are the same in both directions.

Moving a Philadelphia date moves the paperwork with it

A re-dated move re-files the no-parking permit, and the four-business-day floor applies to the new date as firmly as the first. Decide the date as late as you like. But once the signs are ordered, a change inside the final week can leave the truck without its reserved curb. Everything else about a Philadelphia move takes a new date in stride; the curb outside your own door has to be re-booked.

What we need from you on the first call

Two ZIP codes, a date you are working towards, and roughly how many rooms. That is enough for a coordinator to tell you which lane you are on, what the realistic spread is, and whether anything about either address is going to need a shuttle or a permit. Everything after that is the survey.

Common questions about moving to and from Pennsylvania

323-379-1382 All moving questions
How long does a move to or from Pennsylvania take?

Philadelphia to Los Angeles is 2,741 mi and runs 7–12 days once loaded; Philadelphia to Chicago is 758 mi and 3–6 days, the same numbers as the route table on this page. A lane is as long one way as the other, so those windows hold in both directions. You get the spread in writing on the bill of lading rather than a single date we might miss.

Can you do a move in Philadelphia at short notice?

Legally on the street, not really. The city requires a Temporary No Parking permit applied for at least four business days ahead, and that is a floor rather than a target: it is one of the few places we will tell you a date is not possible instead of taking the booking. With a week's notice it is straightforward, and we apply for the permit as part of the job rather than leaving it to you.

Do you serve the whole of Pennsylvania?

We deliver anywhere in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia is the metro we crew regularly: the places we know the access before we arrive. Everywhere else starts with the destination ZIP: a coordinator confirms shuttle, permit and access questions before the price is set.

What does a move out of Pennsylvania cost?

Weight and mileage set the base, then access. On the market data above, a studio or one-bed to California runs $1,390 – $5,920, and a four-plus-bedroom house to Illinois runs $4,380 – $8,590. Those are third-party rates to sanity-check any estimate against, including ours. A binding price needs a survey, and anybody quoting a firm number off a phone call is guessing.

Can you store my shipment until my place is ready?

Thirty days of storage in transit is included on long distance moves, in a facility we control, going out on a date you set.

Are you a carrier or a broker?

A carrier. We hold our own operating authority, USDOT 2138595 and MC-744411, and our own crews and trucks run the move end to end. You can check both in the FMCSA SAFER database without asking us.

Moving to or from Pennsylvania?

Two ZIP codes and a date. A coordinator will call you back with the lane, the spread and what the survey needs to look at.

Get a price for your move from Pennsylvania

Two ZIP codes and a date is enough to start. A coordinator confirms the lane, the access at both ends and what the survey needs to look at before anything is booked.