Getting into your Phoenix home
If your Phoenix address sits behind a gate, under an HOA or with an apartment leasing office, each can set its own rules for a moving truck. Before loading day, ask for the gate code or the guard's instructions, the hours trucks may come in, where the truck can stand and how long, and whether a Certificate of Insurance is needed. Those bookings are in your name. Send us the insurance wording the building or HOA uses and our certificate follows it word for word. Do the same with your Los Angeles building, because elevator and loading rules at the start of the day shape the whole move.
One day on I-10
From downtown Los Angeles the truck joins I-10 and stays on it for about 350 of the 370 miles, across the desert into Arizona and on to downtown Phoenix. The drive itself is about five and a half hours, so the truck can reach Phoenix the day it is loaded. Delivery is planned for 2 to 3 days after loading; unloading on loading day or the next morning is possible, depending on mover availability. Fuel for the trip is part of your rate. If you are moving farther east on the same interstate, see our Los Angeles to San Antonio page.
- Loading day in Los Angeles: walk the crew through each room, show what stays behind, and sign the bill of lading before the truck pulls out.
- The drive: I-10 east, about five and a half hours, then the truck waits for the delivery slot you agreed.
- Unloading in Phoenix: point out each room, the crew sets beds and tables back up, and any damage is written down before you sign off.
The clock at the state line
Arizona keeps standard mountain time all year and does not switch to daylight saving time (A.R.S. 1-242). California does switch. So between early November and mid-March, 9 a.m. in Los Angeles is 10 a.m. in Phoenix; from mid-March to early November the two clocks agree. When you set a delivery hour with our Irvine office, say it in Phoenix time, and tell the gate, the HOA or the leasing office the same hour.
Moving day in a Phoenix summer
Phoenix averages 21 days a year that reach 110 degrees, and most of them fall between mid-June and late August (1991 to 2020 figures, NWS Phoenix). If your move lands in that stretch, ask us about an early start for the unload when you book. Let medicine, candles, vinyl records and anything else that softens in heat ride in your air-conditioned car.
Your car and your plants in Arizona
Arizona asks new residents to register a car from another state as soon as they become residents, and some vehicles in the Phoenix metro area need an emissions test first (ADOT MVD). Keep the car's title and current California registration in the glove box. Plants have their own rule: indoor houseplants may come in without paperwork if they carry no pests and sit in clean, store-bought potting soil. Outdoor plants and nursery stock need a certificate from the agriculture department of the state they left (Arizona Department of Agriculture), so give the patio pots away before you go or get that certificate first.
