What local moving services cost in the Austin area
Our local moving services are billed by the hour: about $120 to $180 for two movers and a truck, with a travel fee that covers the drive from our yard in Del Valle to your door and back. A one-bedroom apartment usually takes 3 to 4 hours. A two-bedroom home usually takes 4 to 6. You get that estimate in writing before you book, and there is no deposit to get one.
Titan Moving & Delivery is a family owned company with seven people on the payroll. Eliseo “Lee” Lucio III started in this trade with his father in the late 1990s, opened the doors here in January 2020, and still quotes the jobs himself. The company holds 4.7 stars across 47 Google reviews, 44 of them five-star, and is registered with the TxDMV.
What counts as a local move
Anything inside the metro and back the same day. That is Austin proper, Del Valle, Manor, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Leander, Kyle, Buda, and San Marcos. If your new address is further out but still in Texas, it is priced as a statewide job instead of an hourly one, and that runs through our moving services line rather than this page.
The 183 side of the metro is a steady piece of that map and it has its own rhythm. A two-story in Cedar Park is almost always about interior stairs and a garage that eats an hour by itself, and the newer subdivisions in Leander add drive time on the front and the back of the day, so we start those jobs early rather than pretending the clock does not care.
What the hourly rate includes
The rate is the crew, the truck, the fuel, and the equipment. It also includes the work people expect to be charged extra for.
- Disassembly and reassembly: bed frames, table legs, sectionals, and cribs come apart and go back together at the new place.
- Blanket wrap and shrink: dressers, headboards, and anything with a finish get wrapped before they move an inch.
- Dollies, straps, ramps, and floor runners: brought on every job, not rented back to you.
- Appliance handling: washers, dryers, and refrigerators disconnected, hand trucked, and set back in place.
Boxes and packing paper are the one thing sold separately, at cost. If you want the packing done for you, that is a separate booking and it is covered on our packing services page.
What actually changes the price
Four things drive the clock, and none of them are a surprise if you tell us about them up front. Stairs and elevators are first: a third-floor walkup can add two hours to the same amount of furniture, and a building that requires an elevator reservation can add more if the reservation is not booked. Second is the walk from the truck to the door. A long carry across a parking lot costs real time. Third is how packed you are when we arrive. Loose items in cabinets, closets, and the garage are the single most common reason a job runs long. Fourth is heavy or awkward pieces: a gun safe, an upright piano, a hot tub, or a marble top all need equipment and a plan.
Tell us those four things and the written estimate holds. That is the whole trick to an honest hourly bill.
Apartment moves and elevator buildings
An apartment move is priced the same way as a house, but the building decides how the day runs. Most managed properties in Austin want a certificate of insurance on file before a truck touches the loading dock, and many require you to reserve the freight elevator in a set window. Get that window as early as you can and tell us what it is, because the crew plans backward from it. We send the insurance certificate to the property manager ahead of time so nobody is standing in a leasing office on the morning of your move.
Third-floor walkups are the other apartment reality. There is no shortcut, but there is a difference between a crew that carries a sectional down three flights in twenty minutes and one that does it in an hour. Tell us the floor and whether there is an elevator when you ask for the quote, and the estimate will reflect the real building instead of an average one.
What moving day looks like
The crew arrives inside the agreed window, walks the place with you, and confirms what is going and what is staying. Furniture gets taken apart, blanket wrapped, and shrink wrapped before it leaves the room. Floors get runners. The truck is loaded heavy and square first, boxes into the gaps, fragile last and on top, so nothing shifts on the drive across town. At the new address we ask where each piece goes before we set it down, rebuild the beds and tables, and take the used wrap with us. If something is wrong, say so while the crew is still there.
What is the cheapest way to move locally
The cheapest option is to rent a truck and do it yourself, and for a studio with a friend and a Saturday, that math sometimes works. Once there is a king bed, a sectional, a refrigerator, and a flight of stairs, it usually does not.
The middle option is the one most people miss: rent the truck yourself and hire a crew for labor only. You pay for the hands and the hours, not the truck, and the load still gets stacked and strapped by people who do it every day. We do that work, and it is priced on our moving labor page. If you want the whole thing off your plate, a full-service hourly move is more, but it is one bill and one day.
The cheapest day and time to hire movers
Weekdays are cheaper than weekends everywhere in this business, and the middle of the month is quieter than the end of it, because most leases turn over on the first and the last. In the Austin metro the crunch is worse than average in spring and summer, and worst on the last weekend of the month. If your dates flex at all, ask for a Tuesday or Wednesday in the second week of the month. If they do not flex, book several weeks out, because the good crews are spoken for first.
Hidden costs and red flags to check before you book
A cheap hourly rate can hide a lot. Ask any company you call, including us, the same questions: is there an hour minimum, is there a travel or trip fee and how is it calculated, are stairs or long carries charged extra, are materials billed separately, and is the estimate binding or just a guess. Get all of it in writing.
Then check the license. Every mover working in Texas has to be registered with the TxDMV, and you can look ours up in their database. A company that will not give you a number, wants a large cash deposit before a wheel turns, or quotes a price without ever asking what is in the house is telling you something. So is a two-hour minimum quoted for a job that clearly takes five.
Moving with a small budget
If the money is genuinely not there, the levers are simple. Shrink the load before you pay anyone to carry it, because you are billed for volume and weight either way. Pack every box yourself and have them stacked by the door on the morning of the move. Book a weekday. Then hire the smallest amount of professional help that keeps the heavy things safe, which is usually a two-person crew for a few hours to handle the appliances, the bed, and the couch. Call us with a number and we will tell you honestly what that number buys.
Getting a quote for your local move
Send the pickup address, the destination, the date, the size of the place, the floor you are on, and anything unusually heavy. Lee will come back with a written estimate that lists the hourly rate, the crew size, the truck, the travel fee, and what is included. Quotes are free, there is no deposit, and nothing is booked until you say so.