Boston movers

About $100 to $200 an hour for two movers and a truck, with a 3-hour minimum.

Three movers run $150 to $240 an hour, and four movers $200 to $280. After the three-hour minimum, the clock runs in 15-minute steps. That hourly figure pays for the crew, the truck, fuel and tolls, the loading gear, taking furniture apart and putting it back together, and basic coverage while it travels. Extras are itemized: packing materials, a $50 equipment charge, and hoisting where a piece will not fit the stairwell, at $40 per item per flight. Two things swing a Boston total more than the inventory does: whether a street permit puts the truck at your door instead of around the corner, and whether the building hands you an elevator or a staircase. Our cost of movers in Boston guide breaks the figures down further.

No, but a permit is the only way to guarantee a legal spot at your door.

A standard permit from the Parking Clerk reserves two spaces from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and costs $69, or $109 if the spaces are metered. Apply online 15 days to 8 weeks ahead, or in person at City Hall at least 3 days ahead, and the signs go up 48 hours before the move. You apply for the permit yourself, and you or someone you know puts up the signs. Move & Care doesn't file permits. A permit does not override a snow emergency, a construction zone, an accessible space or a no-stopping zone. Between August 31 and September 2 the city also blocks off some common moving locations for truck drop-offs, and those spots need no permit at all.

A Tuesday or Wednesday in the middle of the month, outside the last week of August.

Boston demand stacks onto weekends, the turn of each month and the days around September 1, when most of the city's leases turn over, and crews are committed weeks ahead for those dates. Prices follow that demand: our cheapest day to hire movers in Boston guide puts midweek and mid-month dates well below weekends and month-end, and winter below summer. Around September 1 the question is usually not price but whether a crew is free at all, so if your date can move a week either way, it should.

No separate fee. Stairs only add work time, which is what you pay for.

A Boston move is priced by the hour, so a third-floor walk-up in a triple-decker costs more because it takes longer than the same apartment with an elevator, not because a fee is added per flight. The itemized exception is hoisting, at $40 per item per flight, for a sofa or a piece of furniture that will not make the stairwell and has to come in through a window or over a railing. Tell us the floor, the number of flights and whether the building has an elevator when you book; that is what sets the crew size and the estimate.

About 3 hours for a studio, 8 to 10 hours for a four-bedroom house.

A one-bedroom apartment runs four to five hours with two or three movers, a two-bedroom five to seven hours with three, a three-bedroom six to nine hours with three or four, and a four-bedroom house eight to ten hours with four movers. Those are planning estimates from our Boston cost guide, not quotes. The Boston variables that stretch a day are a truck parked around the corner instead of at the door, a walk-up instead of an elevator, and a September date when every crew in the city is on the road at the same time.

Test it yourself: ask three Boston questions and check the license numbers.

Nobody should take that answer from the company being asked, so here is a test you can run instead. Ask three questions a mover who really works Boston can answer immediately and an out-of-town operator cannot: where will your truck stop at my address and will I need a street permit, can you issue a certificate of insurance that names my building and its management company, and what exactly does the hourly rate include. Then verify the credentials rather than the adjectives, since Massachusetts licenses intrastate household movers and the federal government registers interstate ones; ours are MA DPU #31854, USDOT #3212621 and MC #1018431. Finally, read the reviews for detail rather than for the star rating, because one review that names a stairwell, a permit or a specific street tells you more than fifty that say "great job".

A mover who can't explain the Boston truck permit, or won't put the price in writing.

Start with the Boston-specific one, because it catches out-of-town operators fast: ask how the moving truck permit works and when the signs go up. A company that works the city can answer in a sentence, including the detail that the permit is optional but worth having. One that cannot is going to park wherever it can and bill you for the walk. After that, the national warning signs apply here as anywhere. An estimate produced without a single question about stairs, elevators or access is a guess in a nicer font. A large up-front deposit is a bad sign, as is any reluctance to put the crew size, the hourly rate and the coverage into a written estimate before the day. Check that the DPU and USDOT numbers exist and belong to the company on the invoice.

Yes. Book as soon as your lease is signed, since crews sell out weeks ahead.

Most Boston leases turn over at the start of September, and the city reported issuing more than 4,500 moving truck permits in August 2025, over 2,500 of them for August 29 to September 1 alone, so crews across the city are committed weeks ahead. For a fixed September 1 date, book as soon as the lease is signed and get the permit application in at least 15 days before the move, since that is the city's online deadline. For any other date, the earlier you book the more arrival windows you can choose from, and midweek dates outside the summer are the easiest to get.