Where the truck stands in Philadelphia
The Streets Department issues a Temporary No Parking permit for a moving truck. Apply online at least four business days before the move, with the address, the start and end times and the length of the truck; ask us for the full length of the truck booked for you, since our 16, 20 and 26 ft sizes measure the cargo box only. If nobody from the Streets Department has contacted you three days before you need the space, call its Right-of-Way Unit at (215) 686-5500. Once the permit is paid and issued, print it and take it to a police district headquarters, where you collect the signs. Put them up as soon as you have them and no later than 24 hours before the truck arrives (City of Philadelphia). The fee is not refunded, so apply after your date is firm.
Center City adds smart loading zones: between Spring Garden and Bainbridge Streets and the two rivers, they give any vehicle one paid hour at most, and cameras enforce the limit (Philadelphia Code, Section 12-923). So plan the unload around the permit or the building's dock. On residential blocks the city code also bars parking a semitrailer or a truck tractor (Section 12-919); our trucks are box trucks, sized to your home.
In an apartment or condo building, ask the manager for the elevator booking, the dock hours and the insurance wording movers must carry. Those bookings are yours to make. Forward the wording and the Certificate of Insurance we issue will match it.
Clearing out the Boston home
Decide early what is not coming to Philadelphia, because Boston will not haul some of it away with the trash. A mattress or box spring you leave goes out only through a city pickup you book ahead, and the city offers that only to buildings of six units or fewer; above that, your property manager sets it up (Boston Public Works). Clothes, linens and other textiles sit on the same state list as mattresses, kept out of disposal by MassDEP, so donate or recycle what you are not packing. Gas cans and propane tanks have to be emptied or given away too, since our truck cannot carry them.
The road and the day plan
The 310 miles are measured on roads a box truck may use. Out of Boston the route follows the Massachusetts Turnpike west, cuts south through Connecticut on I-84 and I-91, and from New Haven stays on I-95: the Cross Bronx Expressway, the upper level of the George Washington Bridge, the full run of the New Jersey Turnpike, then the Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge over the Delaware River and I-95 south into the city. Driving takes well under the 11 hours a day that federal hours-of-service rules allow, so the trip is one driving day. Every toll on the way is in your rate. Ending the move in New Jersey instead? The Boston to New Jersey page has its own prices.
- Before loading: your item list and price are confirmed, and you book the Philadelphia permit and any elevator or dock time.
- Boston: the crew pads every piece, takes apart what will not clear a door or a stair turn, and loads against your list.
- The drive: one driving day south on I-95. Unloading falls within 2 to 3 days of loading; a same-day or next-day unload is possible, depending on mover availability.
- Philadelphia: tell the crew which room takes what, bed frames and tables are rebuilt in place, and you sign only after any damage is written on a Damage Report.
