Appliance Moving in Raleigh, NC Serviced before the truck arrives

Servicing is a shipper responsibility with three options

Rule 35(A) is explicit: except where the tariff says otherwise, the services it covers do not include servicing, meaning using a device to secure a washer drum, or disconnecting washers, dryers or icemakers. It is the shipper's responsibility to have those articles serviced and disconnected before loading. The rule then gives three routes. You can take responsibility yourself and hold the carrier harmless. You can have the carrier do it at the published Item 5 rates, provided the carrier has qualified personnel. Or you can have the carrier contract a third party under Rule 44, whose charge is listed on the bill of lading as a Third Party Charge in addition to everything else. Choosing among those three is a decision, and it belongs in the estimate rather than in a conversation on the driveway.

What Item 5 actually costs

The maximums are modest and worth knowing so an itemized bill can be checked. Carrier servicing of appliances at origin caps at $32.80 for the first article and $19.80 for each additional article. Unservicing at destination caps at $19.80 for the first and $15.20 for each after that. Rule 44 names the third-party services most often needed here: disconnecting and reconnecting washers, dryers and icemakers, and separately, disassembling and reassembling waterbeds, hot tubs, swing sets and playhouses. A refrigerator with a plumbed water line to an icemaker is the single most common appliance that stalls a load, because the shutoff, the saddle valve and the line all need attention before the unit rolls.

Waiting time is a billable hour

Item 9 prices waiting time not caused by the carrier at $94.50 per hour per vehicle and driver, with additional crew billed at Item 4 labor rates. It also fixes the working assumption: unless otherwise agreed, loading and unloading are performed between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and free waiting time exists only inside those hours, with one free hour on shipments traveling more than 100 but fewer than 200 miles and three free hours at 200 miles or more. The item does not apply on Sundays or legal holidays. A washer still full of water, a dryer still on a hard gas connection, or a refrigerator still cold and full at 8 a.m. is what turns a scheduled start into billable standing time.

Frozen food has a hard rule attached

Rule 40 says carriers will not accept frozen foods or other articles requiring refrigeration, with one narrow exception. Frozen food may be transported if it is inside a freezer that is operating at normal deep-freeze temperature at the time of loading, the shipment travels no more than 150 miles and delivery happens within 24 hours of loading, and no storage of the shipment is required. Item 10 then prices the handling charge for a laden home freezer containing frozen food at $93.30, once per shipment, in addition to the flight carry charges. Any move that involves storage in transit fails the exception outright, so the freezer travels empty and the contents get eaten, given away or discarded before the day.

Twenty-four hours before the truck, not two

Refrigerators and freezers need to be emptied, defrosted and dried, with the doors propped so nothing sours in a closed cabinet. Washers need the drum secured and the supply hoses drained. Dryers need the vent disconnected and the duct cleaned, and a gas dryer needs the fuel line handled by someone qualified to do it, not by a moving crew. Dishwashers hold standing water in the sump that will find the truck floor. Once at destination, an upright refrigerator that was transported upright can be plugged in after it has stood a few hours; one that traveled on its side needs longer for the compressor oil to drain back before power goes on. Manufacturer instructions for the specific unit govern, and the manual is worth reading rather than guessing.

Raleigh's summer heat is part of the plan

Appliance work is heavy, slow and often done in a garage or a laundry closet with no airflow. National Weather Service normals for Raleigh-Durham put the daily high at or above 90 degrees from July 2 through July 27 and still at 89.7 degrees on August 1, sliding to 86.4 by August 31. Combine that with the record July dew points NC State's climate office recorded across 33 of its stations in 2025 and an afternoon appliance carry becomes a heat-illness question. Schedule the heaviest units first, in the morning, and get the refrigerator inside and standing before the day peaks rather than leaving it on a ramp.

Mid-rise laundry and the loading dock window

In a downtown or Glenwood South building the constraint moves from the appliance to the building. Published move-in guidance for Skyhouse Raleigh, a 23-floor downtown tower of 352 units, describes a freight elevator reserved by calling the concierge desk at least 48 hours ahead, Saturday slots filling one to two weeks out, move-in hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, a certificate of insurance sent to the building on request, and the truck standing at a loading dock on Hillsborough Street. A stacked washer-dryer set, a French-door refrigerator and a reserved elevator slot have to fit inside that same window, which is a reason to confirm the appliance is disconnected and drained the night before rather than the morning of.