North Carolina is one of the few states that publishes a legal ceiling on what an intrastate household move may cost by the hour. This page puts that tariff next to what Raleigh and Wake County companies actually post, so both numbers are visible at once. Nothing here is a quote.
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Six boxes, about thirty seconds. You pick when to be called back, and that is when the phone rings.
Or call (919) 913-6126Maximum Rate Tariff No. 2 took effect January 1, 2026 and caps an hourly intrastate household move of fifty miles or less. Regular time runs 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and the clock starts when the crew arrives at the origin.
North Carolina Utilities Commission Maximum Rate Tariff No. 2
Overtime maximums run higher across the board: $235.15 for a truck and two, $310.25 for three, $385.15 for four. Each extra crew member adds $74.85 an hour and each extra vehicle $65.75.
Item 18 sets full value protection at a dollar per hundred dollars of declared value on a single-truck shipment, with a five dollar per pound minimum valuation. Released value at sixty cents a pound is the default and it is not insurance.
The May 2025 median across 17,060 workers in the metro. It is the floor the tariff ceiling sits above, and the gap between the two is where trucks, fuel, insurance and dispatch live.
Every range below is what companies working in Raleigh publish for that job, gathered from the numbered price pages under the table. It spans what several of them show, so the figures move with the specifics of the property and with who does the work. Nothing here is a quote, and no business has set a price on this page. A real number comes from whoever looks at the job.
| The job | Range seen | Billed as | What moves it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truck and two movers, hourly | $130–$190123 | per hour, regular time | Every posted figure in this market sits under the tariff ceiling for the same crew, some of them well under it. |
| Truck and three movers, hourly | $172–$235123 | per hour, regular time | Adding a third body is how a Wake County crew finishes a townhouse inside the working day instead of running into overtime. |
| Four movers, hourly | $260–$32513 | per hour, one or two trucks | At this size a second truck often comes along, which the tariff prices separately from the crew. |
| Labor only, household rents its own truck | $50–$6045 | per mover per hour | Loading help without a vehicle. The tariff governs transportation for hire, so a labor-only job is a different animal. |
| Studio or one-bedroom, inside the Beltline | $375–$80016 | finished job, two movers | A downtown curb with no reserved space turns a short carry into a long one and burns the minimum. |
| Two-bedroom, entirely within Wake County | $645–$1,400136 | finished job including the truck travel fee | Three hours at the highest posted crew rate plus a single truck travel fee is what sets this floor. |
| Three-bedroom house in the Triangle | $1,200–$2,40016 | finished job, three or four movers | Cary and North Raleigh subdivisions add driving between stops, and the tariff bills travel as chargeable time. |
| Piano, gun safe or other specialty piece | $100–$60036 | flat, per item | The tariff sets its own maximums here too, including $111.90 for a grand piano and $128.25 for a slate pool table. |
Prices each of these companies publishes on its own site, read on the date shown in each listing. A published price can change without notice, so treat a number here as what was posted rather than what you will be told today.
A household move that starts and ends in North Carolina is regulated transportation. Carriers hold a certificate from the North Carolina Utilities Commission and bill under its Maximum Rate Tariff No. 2, which sets maximum charges rather than suggested ones. The current edition was issued December 30, 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026.
For a move of fifty miles or less the tariff allows hourly billing, and Rule 53 sets the ceilings: $188.40 an hour for a vehicle and two crew, $243.30 with three, $297.90 with four and $352.95 with five, each additional crew member $54.80 and each additional vehicle $52.50. Outside 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday the same crews cap at $235.15, $310.25, $385.15 and $460.10. Set those beside the table above and the conclusion appears immediately: posted Triangle rates for two movers run roughly seventy to a hundred percent of the legal maximum, so the ceiling is real but the market competes below it.
Billable time is defined rather than left to interpretation. It runs from the crew's arrival at the origin address through completion at the destination, rounded to the quarter hour, and travel between the two addresses is chargeable at up to one hour per fifty miles. A crew bringing a household from Cary to North Raleigh therefore cannot inflate a bill with mileage games.
Beyond the hours, the tariff prices the things people forget. Carrying a piano of thirty-eight inches or taller caps at $111.90, a slate pool table at $128.25 and a laden freezer at $93.30. Carrying goods up or down the first flight of stairs inside a building caps at $33.55, each additional flight $16.85. An elevator caps at $3.10 per hundred pounds and stairs at $2.20 per hundred pounds. Full value protection is a dollar per hundred dollars of declared value on a single truck, with a minimum valuation of five dollars a pound.
Some carriers here decline to post an hourly figure at all, because the tariff also permits distance-and-weight pricing, and that is the structure required above fifty miles. One local nonprofit carrier states outright that its pricing rests on weight and distance rather than an hourly rate. Neither method is a trick, but the same household can be quoted two very different ways, so establish which one applies before load day.
Freight and material movers in the Raleigh-Cary metro had a median wage of $18.50 an hour in May 2025 across 17,060 workers, per the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release. Two crew at that median is $37 of a $190 hourly charge. The rest is the truck, the insurance the Commission requires, fuel, equipment, dispatch and unbilled travel.
Ask for the tariff basis in writing: hourly under Section II or weight and distance. Confirm crew size, the regular-versus-overtime rate that applies to the scheduled day, and the billing minimum. Then pin down the travel fee and whether it is charged per truck, the per-mile charge outside Wake County, and the valuation election. A Commission certificate number should be on the paperwork. Downtown jobs need the curb settled in advance, since Raleigh Right-of-Way Services directs moving-van parking passes through Raleigh Parking and a paid space needs the approved pass displayed.
Watch the overtime boundary first. A Saturday move, or a job starting at 3 p.m. on a Friday, is billed in the higher tariff band for every hour, and a late crew pushes ordinary hours into it. Second is the three-hour minimum most companies apply, which makes a genuinely small move cost more per box than a large one. Third is August, when NC State housing runs fall move-in on assigned appointment slots and the whole market tightens.
Published job figures assume a boxed household with ground-floor or elevator access. They exclude packing labor and materials, mattress and television cartons, floor protection, disassembly, appliance servicing, storage between closings, second stops, out-of-county mileage, and the specialty items the tariff prices separately.
Set the move up before the boxes become a crisis. Share the addresses, access conditions, date, and inventory; get the written scope and price before moving day; then let a prepared crew handle the carrying, wrapping, and placement.
Call (919) 913-6126Upfront pricing · No obligation · Local Wake County crew