What Service Fees Should a Moving Company Charge?

Direct Answer A moving company should charge service fees that map to a real, explainable cost or constraint — fuel and travel, stairs and long carries, packing materials, heavy items, and storage — never a vague surcharge a customer will dispute on the spot. The right fees raise your contribution margin (what is left after crew and truck cost) and your average ticket without booking a single additional move. The formula is the same across services: Added margin per month = (Attach rate × Moves per month) × Fee × Fee margin %. Materials carry a real cost, so their margin is lower (~40–60%), while access fees like stairs, long-carry, and heavy-item are nearly pure margin at ~85–95% because the labor is already on the clock. Here is a worked example with real numbers. Say you run 120 local moves per month at an average ticket of 950. You add a 95 stairs/long-carry fee with a 40% attach rate at 90% margin: that is 0.40 × 120 × 95 × 0.90 = a retainer, about a retainer — enough to fund a full-time dispatcher. Add a 45 travel/fuel fee charged on every move (100% attach) at 85% margin: 1.00 × 120 × 45 × 0.85 = a retainer. Layer a 120 heavy-item fee (piano, gun safe, large appliance) at a 15% attach rate and 92% margin and you add another 0.15 × 120 × 120 × 0.92 = a retainer. The 2027 benchmark across local-moving operators (data echoed by the American Trucking Associations and moving-franchise networks like Two Men and a Truck) is that travel, access, and materials fees make up 12–20% of an invoice on a typical local job, and the discipline never changes: the fee must be tangible, disclosed before the truck rolls, and tied to a real condition. PULSE has a free [Service Fees Calculator](/tools/service-fees) that models this for you in your browser. ```mermaid

flowchart TD A[Move booked] --> B{What does the move involve?} B -->|Drive time & diesel| C[Travel/fuel fee 45 ~85% margin] B -->|Stairs or long carry| D[Stairs/long-carry fee 95 ~90% margin] B -->|Boxes, tape, wrap used| E[Packing-materials fee ~40-60% margin] B -->|Piano, safe, appliance| F[Heavy-item fee 120 ~92% margin] B -->|Goods warehoused| G[Storage fee recurring ~85% margin] C --> H[Higher average ticket + contribution margin] D --> H E --> H F --> H G --> H H --> I[Funds dispatcher without booking more moves]

• Value for money — street price vs. features you will actually use
• Reliability and support — warranty, returns, and owner satisfaction
• Ease of use — setup, daily operation, and learning curve
• Expert and owner reviews — patterns from trusted review outlets ## 1. The Top 10 Tools to Set and Track Moving Service Fees

The tools below either model your fees and margin (so you charge the right number) or capture and bill them (so the fees actually hit the invoice). Item #1 is the free PULSE calculator that sizes the fees; the rest are real moving-CRM and billing platforms that book them. ## 2. PULSE Service Fees Calculator 🏆 BEST OVERALL

PULSE's free [Service Fees Calculator](/tools/service-fees) runs this in your browser in seconds — no login, no spreadsheet. You enter your monthly move count, average ticket, the fees you want to test (travel/fuel, stairs/long-carry, packing materials, heavy-item, storage), the attach rate for each, and the margin, and it returns the added monthly contribution margin and the new average ticket instantly. It is built for the services use case, so you can model a near-100%-margin access fee alongside a lower-margin materials fee in the same view. For a moving operator deciding whether a flat 45 travel fee on every job or a situational 95 stairs fee funds the dispatcher hire faster, this is the fastest way to compare them before you change your rate card. It is free, so it is the default pick for sizing fees, and it pairs with whatever moving CRM you already use to collect them. Set the number here, then bill it with one of the tools below. ## 3. SmartMoving @@PRODUCT name="MoveitPro" img="https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4E10AQGItanrrNdxiw/image-shrink_1280/B4EZSEc7xnGcAM-/0/1737388965445?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=fb6YfIFtBkl3b6UlK21nU4a841jd2wLm1TGuBGFTa2Q" site="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/moveitpro_the-ultimate-software-for-modern-movers-activity-7287137509765971968-WZjA" SmartMoving is one of the most widely adopted moving-company CRMs and is built around accurate, itemized quoting — which is exactly where fees should originate. You configure travel/fuel, stairs, long-carry, heavy-item, and packing-materials as rate-card line items, so a sales rep building an estimate attaches the right fees automatically based on the move details. Pricing is quote-based, typically a few hundred dollars per month scaling by lead and crew volume. Its strength for fee discipline is lead-to-invoice consistency: the same fees quoted at booking flow to the final invoice, so the attach rate you assume in the formula is what actually gets billed. It also handles online booking and automated follow-up, which lifts conversion on the fees presented as value. ## 4. MoveitPro

MoveitPro is an end-to-end moving software platform (CRM, dispatch, billing, e-sign) used by local and long-distance movers. It handles materials inventory and accessorial charges natively, so a packing-materials fee can be tied to actual boxes and tape consumed, and access fees (stairs, elevator, long carry) are standard line items. Pricing generally runs a few hundred dollars per month depending on user count. Because it tracks materials as inventory, MoveitPro is the cleanest way to bill the lower-margin packing-materials fee accurately instead of guessing — which keeps that fee defensible and the margin honest. It also supports digital signatures on the bill of lading, so fees are acknowledged before the job. ## 5. Elromco 💎 BEST VALUE

Elromco is a moving CRM aimed at small and mid-size local movers, and it delivers the strongest fee-and-quoting feature set for the price, which makes it the best value in the category. It supports flat-rate and hourly quoting with accessorial fees (travel, stairs, heavy-item, packing) and an online booking widget that lets customers see and accept fees up front. Pricing is positioned below the largest platforms — commonly quoted in the lower-hundreds per month for a small crew. The reason it wins BEST VALUE is the fit-to-price ratio: a 2–6 truck operation gets moving-specific quoting, online booking, and accessorial-fee handling without paying enterprise-tier rates. For a growing local mover, Elromco captures the travel and stairs fees that move the average ticket most, at a price a small shop can carry. ## 6. Supermove

Supermove is a modern, mobile-first moving operations platform built for crews working off tablets and phones. Its differentiator is on-site fee capture: when a crew arrives and finds an unexpected long carry, a fourth flight of stairs, or a heavy item, they can add the accessorial fee to the digital job sheet and have the customer e-sign before work continues. Pricing is quote-based, generally in the mid-hundreds per month range. This matters because a large share of moving fees are discovered at the door, not booked in advance — and a tool that lets crews capture and document them on the spot turns "we couldn't charge for that" into billable margin. It pairs strong dispatch with real-time accessorial billing. ## 7. QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is the accounting backbone most moving companies already run, and it is essential for proving each fee earns its keep. Set up every fee as a distinct product/service item (Travel Fee, Stairs/Long-Carry, Packing Materials, Heavy-Item, Storage) so you get a clean revenue line per fee category and can watch attach rates and margins month over month. Plans run roughly a retainer (Simple Start), a retainer (Essentials), and a retainer (Plus). QuickBooks does not dispatch trucks, so you pair it with SmartMoving, MoveitPro, or Elromco (which sync to it). Its job here is measurement: without a separate line for the stairs fee and the materials fee, you cannot tell which fee is funding the back office. ## 8. Square

Square is the simplest way for a small or owner-operated mover to collect fees at the point of payment with no monthly software cost — you pay only processing (about 2.6% + 0.10 per tap/dip) and can add service charges and modifiers to any sale. A crew lead can add a stairs fee or heavy-item fee as a named modifier on the spot so it appears on the receipt the customer signs. Square also offers recurring invoices for storage clients and mobile card readers for door-step payment. Its value is zero fixed cost for a new moving business that just needs accessorial fees to land on the bill and clear immediately. ## 9. Stripe Billing

Stripe Billing is the right tool when a moving company runs recurring storage plans and wants the monthly storage fee to bill automatically. You model the storage fee as a recurring subscription and any one-time accessorial as an invoice add-on, and Stripe handles automatic card retries, proration, and tax. Pricing is usage-based, roughly 0.5–0.7% on top of standard processing for the Billing layer. It is developer-leaning, so it fits movers with a custom quote site or storage portal. For a company whose storage division is a real recurring-revenue line, Stripe Billing makes the storage fee a hands-off monthly charge. ## 10. Jobber Jobber is a general field-service platform that smaller moving and junk-removal operators use for its simple line-item quoting and invoicing. You can add travel, stairs, and heavy-item fees as default line items on a quote so they ride on every estimate, and its automated invoicing and card processing make collection quick. Pricing starts around a retainer (Core), a retainer (Connect), and a retainer (Grow), billed annually. Jobber is not moving-specific, so it lacks cubic-foot estimating and bill-of-lading tooling — but for a lean local mover or a hybrid moving/junk-removal shop, it is an inexpensive way to make accessorial fees automatic on every quote. ## 10. ServiceM8 ServiceM8 is a field-service app that bills on a per-job credit model (plans from around a retainer, scaling by job volume), which suits a small moving crew that does not want to pay for idle seats. Crews can add materials and call-out fees to a job card in the field, useful for a packing-materials fee or a long-carry charge discovered on arrival, and capture customer sign-off on the device. Its reporting is lighter than the dedicated moving platforms, so you lean on QuickBooks for per-fee analysis. For a budget-conscious local mover, ServiceM8 keeps on-site fee capture cheap and mobile. ## How to Choose - Size the fee before you wire it in. Use the free [PULSE Service Fees Calculator](/tools/service-fees) to confirm a travel, stairs, or heavy-item fee actually funds the hire — separate the near-100%-margin access fees from the lower-margin materials fee.

• Capture fees where they happen. Many moving fees are discovered at the door, so favor Supermove or SmartMoving for on-site accessorial capture with e-sign over tools that only quote in advance.
• For a small local mover, value wins — Elromco delivers moving-specific quoting and online booking at the lowest fit-adjusted price.
• Run recurring storage on the right rails. If storage is a real revenue line, bill it through Stripe Billing or Square rather than re-invoicing manually each month.
• Demand per-fee reporting. Every fee — travel, stairs, materials, heavy-item, storage — must be its own line in QuickBooks so you can prove which one is funding the back office. ```mermaid

flowchart LR A[Pick the right tool] --> B{What is the priority?} B -->|Capture fees at the door| C[Supermove or SmartMoving - on-site e-sign] B -->|Lowest fit-adjusted price| D[Elromco - best value for local movers] B -->|Recurring storage revenue| E[Stripe Billing or Square] C --> F[Bill the fee] D --> F E --> F F --> G[Track each fee as its own line in QuickBooks] G --> H[Prove fees fund the dispatcher]

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• [How Do I Figure Out How Many People to Schedule Each Day and at What Times for My Single Store?](/knowledge/tl0002) ## Sources - SmartMoving — moving CRM quoting and accessorial line-item features, smartmoving.com
• MoveitPro — moving software, materials inventory and accessorial billing, moveitpro.com
• Elromco — moving CRM pricing and online booking for local movers, elromco.com
• Supermove — mobile moving operations and on-site accessorial capture, supermove.com
• QuickBooks Online — plan pricing (Simple Start / Essentials / Plus), quickbooks.intuit.com
• Square — processing rates and service-charge modifiers, squareup.com
• Stripe Billing — recurring billing and Billing pricing, stripe.com/billing
• American Moving & Storage Association / Two Men and a Truck — local-move accessorial fee benchmarks, moving.org