How Much To Tip Movers 2024

One of the critical turning points in our life is when we move to a new place, also the most stressful. You will have a lot of preparations and packing you need to do.

Then you will be driving across cities and then unpack. The last thing you’ll want is realizing you’ve forgotten a family heirloom or something valuable.

Events like this show the importance of receiving assistance, for instance, from a last minute moving company in New York who will be there to ease the burden of your move. Getting help from professional movers will make your relocation much more comfortable and quicker

Although all moving companies are there to help you relocate — not all of them are created equal. Some might give you more stress than you bargain for.

That’s why taking a step back to research the Best Movers in New York diligently and consult your peers on what reputable company should you place your trust into will ensure a hassle-free experience.

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Advantages Of Hiring A Moving Company

Hiring a moving company is not cheap — on top of the moving costs, you also need to pay for extra service that you need and tips for the crew.

It’s the same reason why most people doubt the use and importance of asking the assistance of an entire team of people to move the furniture of their apartment to their new home.

Suppose you’re considering the time and effort needed to clean your apartment and transport everything across the border. In that case, you will be saving yourself the frustration and hardship of relocation when you let the professionals handle the job.

Suppose you’re still skeptical about the importance of hiring a moving company. In that case, the following perks can guide you about the in-depth information on services you can expect from movers. The reason why having one is a must-have service to get when relocating.

Transport Furniture Safely

It’s not a one-person job to move big and heavy furniture, forcing to carry them by yourself may result in accidents or damage to the items.

Movers who always work in teams have better chances of loading and unloading your furniture safely and efficiently.

Relocation services include the transportation of your items to your new place. This saves you money on car rentals if you don’t have one or don’t know how to drive.

No furniture left behind

Moving companies create an inventory list of items they will move. This service ensures everything you need to carry with you will be packed securely, saving us the time of going back and forth to our old place to retrieve forgotten items during the packing and loading stage.

Systematic Process

Dealing with a reliable company meant receiving the workflow efficiency developed and practiced by well-trained professionals.

They can ensure the safety of your items throughout the relocation process.

Additionally, if you’re not the biggest fan of packing your items, then moving companies offer extra service to put everything in boxes and label them accordingly.

This assures you that you will have no problem unpacking furniture and appliances the crew unload them.

The team leader of the movers will also guide you on where each item is placed. To remember everything better, you can participate in guiding the crew during the unloading of boxes to their respective areas at your new home.

Clean and Sanitize Items

With the current COVID 19 pandemic, it’s understandable to question the safety of letting strangers move and touch your items.

Moving companies understand their customers’ dilemma, and had been taking intensive precautions to ease the customers’ worry.

Ensuring their items and the movers who will be involved in the service area clean and sanitize.

Companies ensure regular temperature checks of crews, administering the normalization of carrying their hand sanitizers and securing protective equipment (PPE) for each mover.

The accessibility of electronic payments is also rapidly implemented to prevent further physical contact with clients.

All of these tasks and movement sounds like a hassle, especially if you’re planning to do them alone. This is why hiring a team of professionals is recommended to ease us, home movers, the stress of going through all these processes to reach our new home.


Do You Tip Movers?

Now that I’ve laid out all the advantages of getting help from professional movers, this poses another question.

Do I tip movers? The answer is a no-brainer. Yes, it would be best if you tipped movers.

I’ve detailed how moving houses can be stressful if done just by yourself, so imagine all the head-ache hiring a mover saved you? Aside from the movers saving you time, it freed up your schedule from unnecessary stress.

Giving tips to movers is a sign of gratitude for all the help they have done —– and that’s a lot of hard work. The moving crew also feels rewarded with their job performance, especially long-distance movers, when they are given cash tips.


How Much Should You Tip Movers In NYC?

Similar to most industries, 15-20% of the total bill is the customary amount you can follow when tipping movers. However, not everyone can shell out the standard tip.

After all, moving costs are expensive as it is, that’s why it’s okay not to stick to the percentage rule — giving that much tip is not an obligation.

How Much Do You Tip A Mover For 4 Hours?

In situations where you can’t cover the standard tip, you can consider showing gratitude to the crew according to the time spent moving from point A to point B.

As a rough guide of how much tip movers receives, you can give a $10-15 tip per person for a half-day of travel (4 hours).

How Much To Tip The Movers For A Full Day Move?

For a long-distance move or a job, that took a full day (8 hours) you should tip your movers $20-30 tip per mover. Giving the movers more than this estimation is highly appreciated.

Helping you move for the whole duration of their shift, without rest, especially for the driver, is a commendable job that deserves greater gratitude.


Can I Tip Movers In Kind Like Food Or Drinks?

What if you want to express gratitude, but you’re short on cash? How to tip movers on cases where moving costs alone took so much from you?

Do not worry; movers are not demanding or press you for a tip.

They will appreciate it if you can give them some meal or drink, especially for long-distance movers or for movers who work at the height of the heat or the cold.

However, this is not considered a tip. The movers are hired professionals; it’s best to tip your movers with cash.

If finances are too tight, providing a meal is one way of tipping movers. Mostly the crew won’t expect tips when you treat them with a meal, but for generous clients, food and drinks can act as another form of thank you to the crew on top of the tip you will give to them.


What Is An Appropriate Tip for Movers

Aside from the per hour or percentage guideline, other factors can also play to determine the appropriate amount you should tip to movers.

Before we proceed, some of you might be puzzled about the importance of how much to tip your movers.

The answer is simple; movers are within the service industry, also known as one of the industries with the toughest work duties.

Dealing with customers while always staying respectful is the daily life of customer service front liners. Despite their mentally and physically taxing workloads, most of them do not receive enough payment equivalent to the effort and time they put on their work.

Rewarding these hard-working movers to show our appreciation to their dedication to assist clients, even during these trying times of pandemic, is enough reason to commend the team.

I can’t stress it enough; make sure you tip movers. Other factors of the relocation process that you can consider to change the tip you can give to your movers.

Guide On How To Tip Movers

The following events can be used as a guide to help you determine how much to tip movers who helped you during the loading, driving and unloading stages of the whole process:

  • Receiving high quality, professional service with regards to handling your items and the movers’ attitude.
  • Tipping movers generously is ideal, especially if you have heavy furniture which needs to be maneuvered on tight corners and narrow flights of stairs.
  • Keep track of how many movers and teams were assisting you to ensure that you will give tips to everyone involved.
  • The area where you came from or relocating to is difficult to access, making the loading and unloading of furniture difficult.
  • You have lots of items requiring longer work time.
  • Base the tip on the distance between your old and new places.

Furthermore, knowing the state you’re moving at is a great idea to have an in-depth guideline on how much to tip a mover and the extra charges that you need to shoulder.

It turns out, the average tip across the states varies, and the rule is applicable whether you’re availing a local or long-distance service package. Reasons between the changes are as follows but not limited to:

  • Geographical differences, some states have rougher roads to drive through.
  • Going up and down stairs. In cities like NYC, with the majority of the residential areas situated in an up-rise building, require going up and down a flight of stairs.
  • Areas with heavy traffic.

The factors stated above may vary. If you know someone, it’s best to consult local movers how much is the standard tip on their area.


Do You Tip Movers When They Load Or Unload?

We’ve discussed how to tip the movers. Another consideration is knowing when to give the movers their tip.

Since different teams of staff are assigned for the loading and unloading tasks — especially if you avail of a long-distance service package, there’s a chance that giving tips at the beginning or end of the moving process will result in some of them missing their hard-earned tip.

While this set-up is not applicable on all occasions, it’s best to contact the moving company to confirm if there are a different group of movers who will work with you, this can also ensure that you will give tips on both ends, if needed.

You read that right, giving a tip to both ends is normal, especially if you have different teams of movers assigned to each relocation process.

Alternatively, you can send your tip for the whole team through the foreman/forewoman — the person who ensures that the transportation of items will arrive safe and secure.

He/she can distribute your generosity evenly; However, personally giving your tip per mover to reward their hard work is a much better way to show your appreciation to a job well done.


When Not To Tip Your Movers?

How much should you tip movers that didn’t do their job well during your move? How much to tip movers for an unsatisfactory job?

As mentioned earlier, not every mover is equal. Of course, some do the job with excellent service from beginning to end of your move, but we can’t deny the fact that some do a poor job.

Examples of this are not showing up on time without a phone call text or an explanation why, the crew member not handling your furniture with care, not respecting your property or those that are doing just the bare minimum.

Even worse if they broke something during the move and acted rudely about it, if this is the case, then it’s okay not to tip your movers.


What Can You Do For Your Movers After The Move?

Now you are successful with your move, what next?

Movers appreciate an online or a public review about their service during your move.

This helps their portfolio and therefore resulting in more clients hiring them.

Positive reviews for excellent service is always a treat for movers. On the other hand, leaving a bad review of a real experience during your move helps the community or others who are also considering which mover to use to decide which company they will hire.


Conclusion

At the end of the day, regardless of the method or amount of tip you choose to give, the important thing is we show our appreciation to the people from the service industry.

Are you looking to move to the Upper East Side, our review on best upper east side mover would be a big help. For Upper West Side, check our post on upper west side movers.

Check also our post on the best moving companies in New York City. Need something low-cost, we found cheap hire movers in NYC

Similar to how we find it normal to give tips to restaurant waiters and hotel valets. Giving a reward to quality service also encourages the movers to pay it forward and provide the same or better service to their clients.

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