41 years, one family, one county

Why a 41-year-old moving company is unusual

Almost anyone can start a moving company. A truck, a phone number and a website is the whole barrier to entry, which is why the industry turns over constantly — and why the mover who gave your neighbour a great price three years ago may not answer the phone today.

BEST MOVE has been operating out of Newbury Park since 1985, under the same family, with the same name, carrying USDOT 680476. That is a matter of public record rather than a marketing claim, and you can check it.

What longevity actually buys a customer is narrower than it sounds, and more useful. It means the crew already knows the driveway on that street in Wood Ranch is too steep for a loaded truck. It means somebody here has moved a grand piano down a Knolls staircase before and can tell you on the phone whether yours will go. And it means that if something does go wrong, there is still a company here in six months to put it right.

The no-hidden-charges thing

Every mover claims transparent pricing. What we actually mean by it is a specific list of things that are inside our rate and are commonly billed as extras elsewhere — stairs, elevators, long carries, fuel, wardrobe boxes, mattress bags, and taking furniture apart and putting it back together.

Those line items are how a lowball quote becomes profitable on the truck. A mover quotes a rate that beats everyone, then the invoice arrives with a stair fee, a long-carry fee, a fuel surcharge and a materials charge, and the customer pays it because their belongings are already in the vehicle.

We price the whole job up front and we do not add to it. There is also no deposit to book a date — you should not have to put money down to find out whether a mover is any good.

The rate you are quoted is the rate you pay. There is no deposit, and nothing gets added once your things are on the truck.

Who you are actually hiring

When you call, you get Lyn or Gary in the Newbury Park office. Not a call centre, not an answering service, and — importantly — not a broker.

Brokerage is the thing most people do not know to ask about. A large share of moving complaints nationally trace back to companies that sell the booked job on to whichever independent crew bid lowest. The customer finds out when a truck they have never heard of arrives, and nobody is accountable for what happens next.

Our crews are our people, in our trucks, out of our warehouse. If you book BEST MOVE, BEST MOVE is who shows up.

Are you a broker? If they sell the job on, the truck that turns up is not the company you chose.

What we have become known for

The work has drifted over four decades, and the two biggest categories now are not what they were in 1985.

The first is senior moves — families moving a parent into assisted living, independent living or memory care. It is now the largest single category of work we do, it is almost always arranged by an adult son or daughter, and it needs a completely different approach from a house move.

The second is TRASH DAY, our junk removal division. It started because moving customers kept asking us to take things away, and it now runs on its own for realtors, contractors and property managers across the county. Usable furniture is donated and electronics recycled before anything sees a landfill — partly on principle, and partly because dumping costs more.