Before move-in day in Houston
In Austin your power comes from Austin Energy, the city's own utility. Houston is in the part of Texas where you choose the company that sells your power, a retail electric provider, while CenterPoint runs the lines that deliver it. Power to Choose, the Public Utility Commission's site, lists the plans for your new ZIP code. Sign up before the truck arrives so the lights are on when the first boxes come in.
Ask the property manager for the building's move-in rules before your lease starts: elevator hours, where a truck may park and the insurance wording it wants. You reserve the elevator or the dock; send us that wording and the Certificate of Insurance matches it. For a house, send photos of the driveway and the walk to the front door with your item list, because both go into the price.
Leaving Austin: the curb and what stays behind
Since February 2025, Austin City Code bans stopping, standing or parking in a bike lane anywhere in the city, with or without a No Parking sign, and hazard lights do not make a delivery stop legal (Austin Transportation and Public Works). If a bike lane runs along your curb, say so when you book. A driveway, a legal parking space or a loading zone you may use keeps the truck out of it, and we settle which one before moving day.
Furniture you are not taking can go to the city's on-demand bulk pickup if your home gets Austin Resource Recovery trash service, which is limited to single-family homes and fourplexes or smaller. Schedule it in the Austin Recycles app, online or through 3-1-1, up to three times a year. A booked date cannot be changed, only cancelled and booked again, and the pieces must be at the curb by 5:30 a.m. that day. Cardboard boxes are not bulk items, so plan another way to get rid of empty moving boxes (Austin Resource Recovery).
The drive and the day plan
The truck leaves Austin on TX 71 to the southeast, joins I-10 and stays on it east into Houston, 160 road miles in all. Fuel and any tolls on the way are inside your flat rate.
- Austin: the crew pads the furniture, takes apart any piece too big for a doorway and loads against your item list.
- One driving day east on TX 71 and I-10.
- Houston: the truck unloads within 2 to 3 days of loading day, and an evening or next-morning unload is possible, depending on mover availability. Furniture is set where you ask, bed frames and table legs go back on, and the crew notes any damage on a Damage Report.
Texas paperwork to hold before loading
This move starts and ends in Texas, so TxDMV sets the paperwork, not the federal mover rules. Before anything goes on the truck you should hold three documents: a written proposal, binding or not-to-exceed, that states the price and when payment is due; the moving services contract; and TxDMV's brochure on your rights as a customer. Nothing can be added to the bill after you sign unless you both agree in writing. A claim for loss or damage goes to the mover in writing within 90 days of delivery. TxDMV's consumer page walks through each step, and its help line, (888) 368-4689, answers from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Our proposal is a flat rate; basic coverage pays 60 cents per pound per article, and Full Value Protection covers pieces worth more. The same paperwork comes with our other moves inside Texas, such as Austin to San Antonio.
