We Move with Care | Movers Austin
Move and Care runs its Austin moves out of a depot on Burnet Rd, in the Brentwood/Highland part of north central Austin, which puts a crew about ten minutes from Hyde Park, fifteen from downtown and twenty from Round Rock or Cedar Park in normal traffic. That is the whole point of a local moving company: the truck is already in the city, the crew has already carried a couch up the stairs of a Travis Heights duplex and down the freight elevator of a Rainey Street tower, and the quote is built on what an Austin move actually involves.
How Austin customers rate us
The reviews page pulls the Austin office's Google, Yelp and Thumbtack reviews live, so the number you see there is the current one, not a number we typed. Read the ones that mention a stairwell, a dock reservation or a specific street; they tell you more than the stars do.
Read Move and Care ReviewsWhere the crews come from
One office, one phone line, crews that work Austin every day. The depot sits between Allandale and Rosedale, on the same corridor as the Burnet Rd small-business strip, so the drive to most central Austin addresses is under twenty minutes before the truck clock starts at your door.
What we plan around in Austin
Moving services in Austin, TX
Local moving in Austin
Anything within about 150 miles of our Burnet Rd depot is a local move, billed by the hour with a three-hour minimum. Round Rock, Cedar Park, Kyle, San Marcos and Georgetown all count as local.
Local Moving
Long distance from Austin
Austin to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Los Angeles or the East Coast as one flat rate quoted on your inventory. The full list of routes we drive out of Austin is further down this page.
Long Distance
Packing in Austin
Full packing the day before, or just the kitchen, the art and the TVs on moving day. Boxes and paper are priced separately so a partial pack stays cheap.
Packing
Moving and storage in Austin
Lease ends on the 31st and the new one starts on the 3rd. We load, hold your goods in climate-controlled storage, and deliver with the same crew when the keys are ready.
StorageSpecialty moving services in Austin
move in Austin, Texas
Crew size, hours and what is included,
confirmed before moving day.
What Austin customers say about us
Why Austin customers
book Move and Care
Four things decide whether an Austin move goes well: whether the crew is licensed for the work, whether the price you were quoted is the price you pay, whether the building lets the crew in on time, and whether anyone planned for the heat. Here is how we handle each.
Licensed in Texas and interstate
TXDMV 009636518C covers moves inside Texas; USDOT 3212621 and MC 1018431 cover moves out of state. Both numbers are on every quote, and the FMCSA record is public.
One hourly rate, in writing
The number of movers sets the hourly rate, the clock runs in 15-minute steps after a three-hour minimum, and the rate already includes the truck, fuel, blankets and basic coverage. No fuel surcharge appears afterwards.
Buildings, docks and COIs
Downtown, Rainey Street, West Campus and Domain towers want a certificate of insurance and a reserved dock or elevator window. Send us the management contact when you book and we file both before the date.
Built for Austin summers
August 2026 had 29 days at 100 degrees or hotter. From June to September we stage crews for 7 to 8 a.m. starts, load the heat-sensitive items last and unload them first, and the trucks carry GPS so you can see where your goods are.
Our licenses, listings and recognition
The badges below link to the public profiles where Austin customers review us: Google, Yelp, Thumbtack, the Better Business Bureau, Great Guys Moving and Angi. We do not summarize those ratings here because the live pages are the honest version; click through and read them.
Two third-party checks worth knowing about: the FMCSA safety record for USDOT 3212621, and MovingWaldo's 2026 list of leading Austin moving companies, which vets licensing, insurance and customer feedback before listing a mover (announcement, 2026).
Why choose us in Austin?
Because the crew that quotes your move is the crew that has done the same move: the fourth-floor walk-up off Guadalupe with no elevator, the dock reservation at a Rainey Street tower, the Pflugerville garage that takes the whole 26-foot truck. Ask us about your address and you will get a specific answer.
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What local movers in Austin actually have to plan around
Austin is an easy city to drive a truck into and a hard one to park it in, load it in July, or get it across I-35 at 4 p.m. Almost none of the difficulty is about distance. It is about the curb, the building and the calendar.
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There is no residential moving-truck permit in Austin. A truck loading from a legal curb space or a driveway needs no paperwork. What the city does issue is a Temporary Use of Right-of-Way Permit (TURP) from Austin Transportation and Public Works, and it is built for contractors: a $475 application fee, $32 to $80 per metered space per day, a bond, insurance and a traffic control plan, all filed through the AB+C portal (City of Austin right-of-way permits, fee schedule effective October 1, 2025). A moving container on the street is handled the same way, case by case, with two parking spaces and Type III barricades. For a household move that means the practical answer is a legal space or a driveway, and where neither exists, the building's dock. We plan the truck position when we plan the move, not when the truck arrives.
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Downtown is a dock-and-COI town. The Downtown Austin Alliance counts 13,976 residents in 14,164 downtown units (State of Downtown 2026), nearly all of them in buildings with a freight elevator, a loading dock and a management office that wants a certificate of insurance naming the building before a crew is allowed in. The same is true of the Rainey Street towers, most of West Campus and the Domain. We issue the COI and reserve the dock window; you tell us who manages the building. Book the window early. Elevators on the last weekend of the month are the scarce resource, not trucks.
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Summer is a scheduling constraint, not a footnote. August 2026 reached 100 degrees or more on 29 of 31 days at Camp Mabry, with a high of 107 (KXAN's Austin 100-degree record). From June through September we start early, keep the truck box shaded and closed between loads, and move electronics, instruments, candles and anything with a heat rating last onto the truck and first off it. If your move has any date flexibility, a weekday morning in October costs less and goes faster than a Saturday afternoon in August.
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I-35 is under reconstruction through 2033. TxDOT's I-35 Capital Express Central project is a six-part, $4.5 billion rebuild of the highway through central Austin (TxDOT project page); the MLK Jr. Blvd bridge is being rebuilt in 2026 and the Lady Bird Lake bridge work starts late in the year. Any move that crosses from east Austin to west or runs the corridor at rush hour gets travel time padded in the estimate, and we route trucks by MoPac, US-183 or Loop 360 wherever the addresses allow. You pay for labor time, so the route matters.
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The UT calendar moves the whole city. Residence hall check-in for fall 2026 runs Friday August 21 to Saturday August 22, and classes start Wednesday August 26 (UT University Housing and Dining). The halls themselves are a garage-and-cart operation the university runs; where movers matter is the off-campus turnover in West Campus, North Campus, Hyde Park, North Loop and Riverside in the two weeks before the 26th, when most student leases end and begin on the same few days. Book those dates in July. A studio move in that window is often cheaper the day after the lease starts than the day before it ends.
The first conversation is free. Tell us the two addresses, the floors and the dates and we will say which of these applies to you and what it does to the estimate.
More About PricingHow much do Move and Care movers cost in Austin?
Two ways an Austin move gets priced, and the distance decides which one applies: under 150 miles is a local move, billed hourly; over 150 miles is long distance, quoted as one flat rate. Both are confirmed in writing before you book.
Local moves in Austin: hourly rate
In Austin and the rest of the Austin area, a Move and Care local move typically falls in the $90–$180 per hour range for two movers and a truck, $130–$230 for three movers and $170–$280 for four . We do not work from a fixed rate card: the number of movers sets the hourly rate, the actual labor time sets the final cost, and your written quote fixes both before moving day.
What moves an Austin estimate up or down: crew size, labor time, the date (end of month and the two weeks before August 26 run high), stairs against an elevator, how far the truck has to park from the door, and add-ons such as packing or a storage hold.
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2 movers + truck Best for: Studio or 1-bedroom$90–$180/hr
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3 movers + truck Best for: 1–2 bedroom apartment or house$130–$230/hr
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4 movers + truck Best for: 3–4 bedroom home$170–$280/hr
| Home | Usual crew | Usual hours | Typical total | What usually adds time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or efficiency | 2 movers | 3 (the minimum) | $300 to $450 | Third-floor walk-ups in West Campus; a truck parked around the corner |
| 1-bedroom apartment | 2 movers | 3 to 4 | $400 to $650 | Elevator wait in a downtown or Domain tower without a reserved window |
| 2-bedroom apartment or small house | 3 movers | 4 to 5 | $700 to $900 | Two stops (storage unit plus home); a Hyde Park or Rosedale lot with no driveway |
| 3-bedroom house | 3 to 4 movers | 5 to 7 | $1,100 to $1,650 | Garage and attic contents in Round Rock or Pflugerville; assembly of large furniture |
The totals are the figures from our own 2026 cost of movers in Austin guide, which also covers what a same-day move and a long-distance move from Austin typically run. The range on your quote will be narrower because it is built on your inventory and your two addresses.
Long distance out of Austin: one flat rate
Past 150 miles the clock stops mattering. An Austin to Dallas, Houston, Denver or Los Angeles move is quoted as a single flat rate built from the inventory, the route and the delivery window, and that figure is the invoice. Fuel, tolls, the crew at both ends and basic coverage in transit are inside it.
What the flat rate covers
- Movers and the truck at both ends
- Fuel, tolls and transportation
- Basic released-value coverage in transit
- The price agreed up front, in writing
Moving in Austin's neighborhoods
The City of Austin recognizes 31 adopted neighborhood planning areas (Austin Planning). A moving crew sees them as four different jobs, and which one you live in matters more to the estimate than how many rooms you have.
Downtown, Rainey Street, West Campus and the Domain: tower moves
Freight elevator, loading dock, a management office that wants a certificate of insurance, and a booking window that fills up on the last weekend of the month. These moves are about the building's schedule, not the driving. We reserve the dock and the elevator, file the COI, pad and protect the elevator cab where the building requires it, and bring the crew size that clears the load in the window you were given. Parking a 26-foot truck on Congress Ave or Rainey St is rarely legal for long, so the dock is the plan.
Hyde Park, Rosedale, Brentwood/Highland, Crestview, Allandale and North Loop: the central bungalow belt
Our own depot sits in the Brentwood/Highland planning area on Burnet Rd, so these are the shortest drives we do. Older one-story homes on narrow lots, many without a driveway wide enough for the truck, mature trees over the street, and detached garages at the back. The work is the carry from the curb and the stairs to a converted attic or garage apartment, so a three-mover crew often finishes faster and cheaper than two movers with a longer clock. North Austin and Northwest Hills jobs run out of the same depot.
Bouldin Creek, Zilker, Travis Heights, South Congress, East Cesar Chavez and Holly: old lots, new builds
South and east of the river the streets mix 1930s cottages with three-story townhomes and small condo buildings on the same block. The new builds bring tight interior stairwells, tandem garages and shared driveways where only one truck fits at a time; the older homes bring the curb carry. We ask for photos of the entry and the stairs before quoting these, because a sectional that fits the door does not always fit the turn on the landing. See our Bouldin Creek, Zilker, Travis Heights and South Austin pages for those areas.
Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Kyle and Buda: the suburban ring
Two-story homes with attached garages, HOA rules about where and when a truck can stand, and a lot more cubic feet than the square footage suggests once the garage and attic are counted. These are four-mover, full-day jobs when a family of four is moving, and the estimate depends on an honest inventory of the garage. The suburbs are all inside our 150-mile local radius, so a move from a downtown condo to Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Kyle or Buda is billed hourly, not as long distance.
Neighborhoods and planning areas we work
Farther out, Oak Hill, Barton Creek, West Lake Hills, Steiner Ranch, Lakeway and Bee Cave have their own pages: hill-country lots, long driveways and Loop 360 traffic change the plan there.
An Austin move, in numbers
Sources: Census Reporter, Austin city (ACS 2024); Unlock MLS July 2026 Central Texas Housing Report; UT Austin Registrar 2026-27 calendar; City of Austin right-of-way permit fee schedule effective October 1, 2025.
What is included when you hire Move and Care in Austin
F.A.Q. about movers in Austin
Two movers and a truck run roughly $90 to $180 an hour in Austin, three movers $130 to $230, and four movers $170 to $280, with a three-hour minimum and 15-minute billing after it. A studio usually lands between $300 and $450, a one-bedroom $400 to $650, a two-bedroom $700 to $900 and a three-bedroom house $1,100 to $1,650. Those are planning figures from our 2026 cost of movers in Austin guide, not a quote. In Austin the two things that swing a total more than the furniture does are the elevator (a reserved freight elevator against a shared one) and the date, because the last weekend of the month and the two weeks before UT classes start on August 26 are the busiest days of the year here.
A weekday in the middle of the month, and outside the August lease turnover. Austin demand stacks on Saturdays, on the last three and first three days of each month, and on the fortnight before August 26 when West Campus, Hyde Park and Riverside leases roll over together. A Tuesday or Wednesday in October costs less than a Saturday in August for the same apartment and books with a week of notice instead of a month. Our cheapest day to hire movers in Austin post has the month-by-month pattern. If your lease forces the date, the lever left is the hour: an early morning start in summer runs faster than an afternoon one.
No. The City of Austin has no residential moving-truck permit; a truck loading from a legal curb space or a driveway needs no paperwork. The permit the city does issue, the Temporary Use of Right-of-Way Permit from Austin Transportation and Public Works, is a contractor instrument for reserving metered spaces, lanes or sidewalks: a $475 application fee plus $32 to $80 per metered space per day, a bond, insurance and a traffic control plan, applied for through the AB+C portal (City of Austin right-of-way permits). A moving container left on the street goes through the same process. For a household move the realistic plan is a legal space, a driveway or the building dock, and we work that out with you when we quote, not on the morning.
Start with the Texas one: ask for the TXDMV number and look it up. Every mover doing household moves inside Texas must be registered with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, and a company that cannot give you the number in a sentence is not one to book; ours is 009636518C, and the interstate registration is USDOT 3212621. Then ask two Austin questions: can you produce a certificate of insurance naming my building, and who reserves the freight elevator. A crew that works downtown or the Domain answers both immediately. After that the national warning signs apply: an estimate produced without asking about stairs, elevators or parking is a guess, a large cash deposit is a bad sign, and a rate quoted without saying what it includes will grow on the invoice.
For a local Austin move, light clothing can stay in the drawers of a solid dresser; we wrap the piece and move it upright. Empty anything heavy, breakable or loose (books, jewelry, papers, liquids), empty every drawer of particleboard or flat-pack furniture because it will not survive being carried full, and empty dressers completely for any move going into storage or out of state. In a summer move, take out candles, cosmetics and anything that melts; a closed truck box in an Austin August is far hotter than the street.
Anything flammable, corrosive or pressurized: propane tanks from the grill, gasoline in the mower, pool chemicals, aerosols, paint and ammunition. Plants and perishable food are not carried on long-distance moves and travel at your own risk locally. Pets and people ride with you. Firearms move unloaded and declared. Jewelry, cash, documents and medication should stay with you in the car. Hot tubs, pianos, pool tables and gun safes are not refused, but they are quoted as specialty items with the right crew and equipment; see our Austin piano, pool table and hot tub pages.
Yes, at no charge. Most downtown, Rainey Street, West Campus and Domain buildings require one before a crew is allowed on the freight elevator, and many also require the elevator or dock to be reserved to a two- or three-hour window. Send us the management company contact when you book and we handle both. Ask the building three things early: whether a certificate is required, exactly which entities must be named on it, and how far ahead the elevator has to be booked. Property managers answer slower than tenants expect, so ask the week you book, not the week you move.
Yes, and mostly off campus. The university runs residence-hall check-in itself (August 21 and 22 in 2026, out of parking garages, with trailers discouraged), so the moves that need a mover are the apartment ones in West Campus, North Campus, Hyde Park, North Loop and Riverside in the two weeks before classes start on August 26. Those are studio and one-bedroom jobs: two movers, three to four hours, and a dock or a legal curb space arranged in advance because those blocks are full of other people doing the same thing. Book July dates in June and August dates in July. Our student movers Austin page covers the details.
Cities and towns we move around Austin
Every place below is inside the 150-mile local radius from our Burnet Rd depot, so a move to or from any of them is billed hourly. Each page covers that town's own access rules and typical homes.
Long distance moves out of Austin
Each route is quoted as one flat rate on your inventory. The pages below explain the drive, the delivery window and what changes the price for that destination.
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