Methodology

Haulest data team · 17 September 2026 · Research fallback. Not a first-party median.

At a glance: what we track, cost figures, reviews, lookups, what we will not do. Related: editorial standards.

What we track

22,847 movers and brokers are listed. That is every company with active FMCSA household-goods authority, in-state household-goods movers from the FMCSA census, and the licensed profiles for the US, Canada, and the UK. 3,427 of them carry dated reviews we hold, from 96,644 reviews on record at the source. The footer line counts the same files the pages read, so it changes when the data refreshes.

Cost figures

As of September 2026. Planning range, not a bid. Research fallback. Not a first-party median. Compiled in September 2026 from published industry tables and public quote examples. A phone survey still wins.

Country calculators use the same tables as moving-costs-2026.json and the CSV. City pages add a local access note. They do not invent a 90-day median we have not collected.

We do not publish a single invented quote on the homepage. City and corridor pages carry labeled research ranges with a date, or they stay silent.

Reviews

Review text on this site is dated. A tiny source name sits on the review row. Stars and counts come from those rows. We do not invent a star total. We do not scrape Google reviews into this HTML. See Terms.

Reviews written on Haulest carry a “Haulest reader” label. Each one needs an email the writer confirms with one tap, unless it came from our own review-ask link after a move. Every review is checked for signs of a fake before a person reads it: the same email or network reviewing the same company twice, a burst of reviews for one company, throwaway addresses, an address on the company’s own domain or account, text copied from another review, and links or phone numbers. Reviews sent by AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Cursor, Perplexity and others), by scripts, or from AI company networks are treated as fakes and never published. A person approves or rejects every other review. Rejected reviews are kept in our log and do not count toward stars. When we know the writer asked for quotes through Haulest and used that company, the review says “verified customer”. Writers can also upload a bill of lading, invoice or receipt. Only our desk sees it; when it matches, the review says “verified move”, and we delete the file once it is checked. Companies cannot pay to remove or reorder reviews, and they can only reply under them.

Licence lookups

US lookups hit the official FMCSA Company Census on data.transportation.gov. If that API fails we show a static snapshot and send you to SAFER. UK lookups use the Companies House API when a key is configured. Otherwise we send you to the official register rather than invent a company number.

ZIP and postcode lookups

A ZIP or postcode you type is matched to a town and a map point from the GeoNames postal code files (CC BY 4.0), stored on our side so the lookup sends your code nowhere. UK data contains Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey data, Crown copyright and database right. Distances from a postcode are straight-line estimates until a mover measures the route.

What we will not do

• Put a video estimator on a money page until it is accurate.
• Call a research range a guaranteed price.
• Claim we are a carrier.
• Publish thin town pages with the city name swapped.

Related: estimate policy, privacy.

Last updated 17 September 2026.