Best Long Distance Moving Services vs DIY
By Hercules Moving Solutions Editorial Team · Updated 2026-09-03 Deciding between hiring professional movers and handling a long-distance move yourself comes down to one question:
Military Movers
As military movers, we understand the importance of a seamless relocation process for our brave servicemen and women. Our fast and efficient team is equipped with extensive knowledge on military moves and offers customized services such as packing and unpacking, storage, and local and long distance relocation, all while providing a military discount as a small token of our appreciation for their service.
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Military Relocation Services
You already know how a PCS goes. Orders drop, the window is shorter than you would like, and half the decisions are made for you. The part that is not made for you is what happens if you elect a PPM, and that is where a lot of money and a lot of stress gets decided.
Hercules Moving Solutions is a licensed interstate moving broker, DOT 3497836 and MC 1153414. We do not own trucks. We match your household to an FMCSA-authorized motor carrier that can run your route on your report date, verify that carrier’s authority and insurance before it is assigned, and stay on your file until delivery. We offer a military discount to all active and retired service members. Before anything else, though, it is worth being clear about which kind of move you are actually making, because for one of them you should not be hiring anybody.
First, Which Move Is This
Three paths exist under a PCS, and they work completely differently.
Government-arranged HHG move. The Defense Personal Property Program assigns your provider. You do not choose the company, you do not pay them, and you do not need a broker. If this is your move, close this page and work through your Transportation Office. We would rather tell you that than take a quote request you should not be filing.
Personally Procured Move. You arrange the move yourself and the government reimburses you. For 2026, a member-elected PPM pays 100 percent of the Government Constructed Cost, which is what DoD would have paid a contracted carrier for the same shipment. Move it for less than that figure and the difference stays with you. You need an approved DD Form 2278 before you start, and certified empty and full weight tickets to close out. This is where we help.
Partial PPM. The government moves part of your household and you handle the rest, earning reimbursement on the weight you personally move. Common when you want the heavy furniture handled but you are carrying items you would rather not hand over.
There is also everything a PCS does not cover: retirement and separation moves once entitlements run out, weight above your allowance, second residences, and moves you are making for reasons that have nothing to do with orders. All of that is ordinary interstate moving, and all of it we can arrange.
Who Actually Moves Your Household
Two companies are involved in a brokered move.
The motor carrier holds operating authority, owns the trucks, employs the crew, issues your bill of lading, and is legally responsible for your household from the moment it is loaded. The broker arranges that relationship. Federal rules require brokers to say so rather than let you assume you have hired a trucking company.
Our side: building your inventory, pricing against carrier tariffs, checking authority, insurance, and safety record before a carrier is assigned, and holding the file through delivery. The carrier’s side: the pack, the load, the drive, the delivery. Their published tariff sets the charges, and you can inspect it from the carrier on reasonable request.
If a company gets vague when you ask which one it is, that is your answer. It is also, specifically, the pattern DoD warns service members about.
Why Service Members Book Through a Broker
The doubt is reasonable. Why involve a middleman when you could call a moving company yourself.
Calling a carrier directly means asking one company whether it can take your job on your dates. One answer, one tariff, one truck schedule. Their salesperson is paid to close you, so the incentive is to say yes now and sort the calendar out later. When that slips in July and your report date does not move, you have already paid a deposit and you have no second option.
Booking through us puts your move in front of a network instead.
Your report date is not negotiable. Most household moves have flexible dates. Yours has a date on paper with consequences attached. Peak PCS season runs late May through August, which is exactly when carrier capacity disappears nationwide. During those windows a network is calling carriers with availability rather than waiting on the one company you found first.
PPM shipments are often awkward to book direct. A partial household does not fill a trailer, so a carrier with an empty truck would rather take a full four-bedroom house. Booked direct, you wait. Through a network, your shipment goes to a carrier already running that lane with space to fill.
Base towns are frequently rural lanes. Fort Irwin, Fort Polk, Minot, Cannon. Plenty of carriers simply do not run them. One refusal ends a direct booking. It only reprices a brokered one.
The vetting is already done. Authority status, insurance, and safety record checked before anything is assigned. Doing that yourself means pulling FMCSA records for every company you consider and knowing what a bad one looks like.
OCONUS and specialty routes are their own problem. Alaska and Hawaii involve ocean freight scheduling, port handling at both ends, and agricultural inspection at destination. Few carriers run them end to end.
One point of contact throughout. Same file, same people. When something needs escalating you are not explaining your move from scratch to a dispatcher who has never heard of you, from a phone at a duty station three time zones away.
If your move is a large household on a major lane in October with flexible dates, book a national van line direct. We will tell you that.
Packing and Unpacking
Our military packing and unpacking services are designed to cater to the needs of our troops and their families. Our fast military movers are equipped with the necessary skills and expertise to handle your belongings with precision and care, providing you with a worry-free relocation experience.
Storage Services
We provide top-notch military storage services to safeguard your possessions during deployments and transitions. Our storage facilities are secure, climate-controlled, and equipped with surveillance cameras to ensure the utmost safety and protection of your belongings.
How Your Military Moving Estimate Is Built
Three estimate types exist under federal rules and they behave differently at your door.
Non-binding. A projection. Final charges follow actual weight and services performed, so the number can rise. You are protected at delivery, since the carrier cannot require more than 110 percent of a non-binding estimate before unloading, with the balance billed afterward.
Binding. A fixed price for the inventory and services listed. It holds unless you change something.
Binding not-to-exceed. A ceiling. You pay actual charges if they come in lower, never more than the estimate. On a PPM, where your reimbursement is capped at the Government Constructed Cost and anything above it comes out of your pocket, this is the structure worth asking for.
Compare estimate type and inventory completeness before you compare price. A cheap non-binding figure built from a two-minute phone call is not a better price, it is a worse forecast.
What moves the number: shipment weight or volume, mileage, access at both addresses including stairs, elevators, long carries, and whether a tractor-trailer can reach base housing or your apartment complex. Packing services and materials. Specialty items. Season and date, which for you is usually the problem. Storage between your report date and your housing date. And the coverage you select.
One thing specific to your situation. Your reimbursement is capped at your authorized weight allowance under the Joint Travel Regulations, which is set by your rank and dependent status. Weight above that allowance earns nothing on a PPM. Knowing roughly where you sit before you build the inventory changes what you decide to move and what you decide to sell.
Where the Price Comes From
A tariff is the carrier’s published schedule of rates and rules. Every FMCSA-authorized household goods carrier maintains one. It governs linehaul charges, accessorial charges such as shuttles, long carries, stair carries and bulky article fees, plus the valuation options available and the conditions attached to each.
Your quote is that tariff applied to your shipment. It is not a figure someone picked. You can inspect it on reasonable request, and any quote worth trusting traces back to one. If a company cannot name the carrier whose tariff produced your number, ask again.
Valuation Coverage
Carriers provide valuation, not insurance, and the difference matters.
Released value protection comes free and pays 60 cents per pound per article. It settles on weight, not worth, which is a bad trade on electronics and equipment.
Full value protection costs extra. The carrier becomes liable for repair, replacement, or cash settlement based on the item’s value, subject to terms and any deductible.
Separate third-party moving insurance is also available.
Make the choice in writing before load day. Items of extraordinary value normally need a separate high-value inventory form, and coverage does not apply to what you did not declare. If you are storing anything through a deployment, confirm what coverage applies while it sits, not just while it moves.
Your Rights as an Individual Shipper
On a PPM you are paying the carrier directly, which makes you an individual shipper under federal rules. That gives you the full set of household goods consumer protections.
You are entitled to a written estimate, to inspect the carrier’s tariff, to request a reweigh if you dispute the weight behind a non-binding estimate, to file a loss or damage claim with the carrier within nine months of delivery, to an acknowledgment within 30 days and a resolution within 120, and to a neutral arbitration program the carrier must make available. Your carrier must provide Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move and the Ready to Move brochure, both free from FMCSA and linked from our Consumer Information page.
Verify anyone before you commit. Look up the DOT or MC number in the FMCSA licensing database and check the authority type matches what the company claims. Brokers must hold $75,000 in financial security. Check ours. Service members are a known target for unlicensed operators, precisely because the timelines are tight and the paperwork is unfamiliar, and DoD publishes guidance on it for that reason.
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Load Day to Delivery Day
Before load day. Get your DD Form 2278 approved through your Transportation Office first. Nothing else matters if that is not in place. You can request an advance operating allowance of up to 60 percent of your estimated GCC to cover costs upfront.
You receive an order for service listing dates, inventory, estimate type, and valuation selection. Confirm your delivery spread in writing. Tell us about anything that changed since the survey.
Set aside what is not going. Carriers cannot transport hazardous materials, and the list runs wider than people expect: propane, aerosols, paint, lighter fluid, ammunition. Weapons themselves have their own handling requirements, so raise them at quote stage rather than on the day.
Load day. Get your certified empty weight ticket before loading. The crew inventories your household and tags each item with a condition code. Walk it with them, because those codes are the baseline for any claim later. Then get your full weight ticket once loaded. Without both, your closeout stalls no matter how well the move itself went.
You sign the bill of lading. This is your contract with the carrier, not with Hercules. It should show estimate type, valuation, delivery spread, and both addresses. Never sign a blank one.
In transit. Interstate carriers consolidate several households onto one trailer, which is why long distance moving is affordable and why you get a spread rather than a fixed date. If your report date shifts, tell us early.
Delivery day. The balance is due before unloading, subject to the 110 percent rule on non-binding estimates. Items are checked against the inventory as they come off. Record any damage or shortage on the inventory sheet in writing before the crew leaves. Keep every receipt and both weight tickets for your closeout, because finance will want them.
Where We Move Service Members
We arrange PCS-related relocations nationwide. The routes we handle most run through New York, California, New Jersey, and Florida, plus Hawaii and Alaska, which involve ocean freight scheduling, port handling at both ends, and considerably longer lead times than a CONUS move.
Beyond those, we regularly arrange moves involving Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Washington, Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia, and Alabama.
Our licensed address is 1799 W Oakland Park Blvd, Oakland Park, Florida, but distance is not a limitation. Whatever your duty station and wherever your orders send you, send us both ends and your report date and we will tell you what the route looks like.
What We Coordinate
Full and partial PPM shipments. Retirement and separation moves. Interstate and cross-country household relocations. Packing and unpacking, partial or full. Secure climate-controlled storage, including through deployments and the gap between a report date and available housing. Specialty items such as safes, gun safes, pianos, and fine art. Small shipments and partial loads. Alaska and Hawaii relocations. Commercial and corporate moves for spouses relocating a business.
Start Your Military Move
Send your origin and destination, your report date, and your rough household size. That is enough for a realistic range. When you are ready to firm it up we will walk your inventory room by room, because a complete inventory is what keeps an estimate from moving later.
You get a written estimate, a clear statement of which type it is, the delivery spread to expect, and a straight answer on what could change the price. No obligation, and if a government-arranged move is the right call for you, we will say so.
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These testimonials are shared by the brave servicemen and women who’ve entrusted us with their moves. Discover their experiences with our packing, unpacking, and military relocation services, and understand why we are their preferred choice for military moves.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I hire a moving company for my PCS?
Only for a PPM or partial PPM. On a government-arranged HHG move the Defense Personal Property Program assigns your provider and you do not select or pay a company yourself. If you have elected a PPM, or you are moving outside your entitlements, you arrange it and we can help.
Is Hercules Moving Solutions a broker or a carrier?
A licensed moving broker, DOT 3497836, MC 1153414. We do not transport household goods. We arrange transportation with FMCSA-authorized motor carriers whose charges are determined by their published tariff, available for your inspection from the carrier on reasonable request.
Why use a broker instead of booking a carrier directly?
Because a direct carrier can only offer its own trucks, tariff, and calendar. A broker puts your move in front of a network, so a conflict with your report date becomes a rematch rather than a dead end. You also skip the vetting work. That matters most during peak PCS season, on rural base lanes, and for partial shipments carriers deprioritize.
How much does a PPM reimburse?
For 2026, a member-elected PPM pays 100 percent of the Government Constructed Cost, capped at your authorized weight allowance. Move for less and you keep the difference, which is taxable. Your Transportation Office and finance office are the authoritative source for your specific figure, and you should confirm with them before making financial decisions.
Do I still need weight tickets if I hire a carrier for my PPM?
Yes. Certified empty and full weight tickets are what substantiate your closeout regardless of who does the driving. Get the empty ticket before loading and the full ticket after, and keep your receipts. Check your branch’s specific requirements with your Transportation Office.
Will I be charged more than my estimate?
It depends on the type. Binding estimates hold unless you change the inventory or services. Binding not-to-exceed caps you. Non-binding estimates move with actual weight and services, and the carrier cannot require more than 110 percent of that estimate before unloading. Most overages trace to missed inventory or undisclosed access problems.
Can you store my household during a deployment?
Yes. Short and long term storage is available in secure climate-controlled facilities, which also covers the common gap between a report date and available housing. Confirm what coverage applies while goods are in storage rather than assuming transit coverage carries over.
What does the mover’s coverage actually pay?
Released value protection is free and pays 60 cents per pound per article, settling on weight rather than value, which is a poor outcome for electronics. Full value protection costs extra and covers repair, replacement, or cash settlement based on value. Choose in writing before load day. Third-party moving insurance is also available separately.
