Hiring movers to go across the country

Load it on pallets and I’ll move it for you at 10$/lb

Done same thing before, cheaper to fly down and rent a Penske and drive back up... did it from DC flew in to in-laws, loaded truck next morning, drove til about 1 am.. yes drive sucks.... I drove from Br to somewhere in South Carolina first day.

Get aaa to get Penske discount

Fly down and drive back. If you can, try to take off from work make a mini-vacation out of it

Cheapest/least convenient would be driving it yourself with someone like UHaul, Budget, Penske. Make sure to factor in gas and shitty gas mileage as well as hotel stays.

Next would be leading/unloading it yourself but having someone else do transportation. A lot of times this can be the same price or even cheaper than renting a truck when you factor in gas, hotel stays, etc. (Upack/ABF, Pods, Packrat, Ubox). Bear in mind Pods doesn't have their own drivers and contracts that out. Not sure about the others.

Most expensive/most convenient would be a full service mover. Some of them combine moves which makes it cheaper but also takes longer to get your stuff.

Do research and read reviews. A lot of moving companies have hidden costs and fees. Some of them don't.

Friend,

It would be significantly cheaper, likely by greater than $10,000 to move the items yourself. You may rent either UHaul, Budget, or Penske.

Penske has the nicest truck fleet and they almost always honor their reservations. It also costs double to triple the other two options.

UHaul is usually about 10% higher than Budget. I find their trucks to be the oldest and sometimes smell bad on the inside. A reservation means nothing to UHaul. If a truck happens to be there and you have a reservation, you get the truck. If not, they look at you and act like you’re unreasonable to expect that a truck comes with a reservation.

Budget usually honors reservations. I find that with online coupon codes they are the cheapest. Almost every time I’ve reserved a small 12 footer, though, they do not have one and “upgrade” me to a 16 or 20 footer even if I do not want a bigger truck.

They are all very easy to operate. My courage in starting TulaneLSU’s Poorboy Tours comes from my many journeys in big rental trucks, helping Mother move art. I hope you have a safe journey. If you need a packing, lifting, and travel companion, perhaps I could join you, assuming you plan a route with no bridges.

Yours,
TulaneLSU

How much stuff are we talking about?

I’ve done multiple day drives in a Uhaul a few times now. It’s not ideal, but not bad.

26’ truck (smaller trucks weren’t much cheaper and gas mileage is about the same at 10-11mpg), fuel, and hotels were about $2k each time. A POD was about $4k for less space and that curbside/driveway option didn’t work for me.

Uhaul and Penske allow for cancellation 24hrs in advance. Book both. Call to cancel the day before and they will give a huge discount. Penske cut the rate from $3k to about $1300.

I did it from Lafayette to Phoenix a few years back and then from Phoenix to Charleston, SC. It is expensive, but still makes sense financially all things considered. My move to Phoenix was in Aug. 2016, Atlas Vanlines came and packed everything up from my house in Laffy on a big box truck and relocated it to a warehouse in BR off S Choctaw to get reloaded on a long haul truck along with other peoples stuff. Who knows what happened in BR Aug 16? The flood! Their warehouse went 6' underwater and all my stuff was gone. Insurance paid out at $6 per pound, basically garage sale value but it turned out to be $32k cash to buy new stuff. So most importantly make sure you are insured and you can feel safe using the service. They do recommend you take items of high importance or sentimental value yourself. I did with old photos, tax documents and guns & ammo so I still have those items. However, I did send all my LSU and Saints memorabilia and collectables on the moving truck and lost it all. All my stuff from 03, 07 and 11 Natty's and the 09 Superbowl and about 40 years worth of items including a football signed by damn near the whole Saints team and Coaches. And it was signed at training camp of 09 before they won it all...I teared up a little on that one. But the ball and case weighed about 2 or 3 lbs so I got a solid $12-$18 for it!

That drive sounds like a nightmare honestly. Look into this company LINK / I used them when I moved from NOLA. It's never exactly cheap when you pay movers, but it certainly doing the drive and unloading myself.