Moving from Houston to Dallas

Loading in Houston

A ground-floor unit, with a truck that cannot sit on a soft lawn, is a long carry you will pay for.

Inside the Loop, book the elevator. Apartments want a weekday elevator and a COI before the crew can work the building. Ask the desk for both before load day so the truck is not sitting in the humidity. Houston heat and humidity cook cardboard, so boxes that wait outside do not stay sound.

After a heavy rain, the lawn is the problem. Flood weeks slip calendars. A ground-floor unit, with a truck that cannot sit on a soft lawn, is a long carry you will pay for. Tell the crew where the truck can stand before they roll, and keep cardboard out of the humidity on that walk.

Ask for both license numbers before a deposit. Texas licenses household-goods carriers at the state level, so a job that never leaves Texas still needs a TxDMV number. Interstate work still needs FMCSA. Check both on a license lookup and read the deposit guide before you pay.

What is the drive like?

Houston humidity and Dallas heat both cook a packed truck.

I-45 is the clock. The drive is 239 miles, about 4 hours at the wheel, a regional hop, not a cross-country story. A dedicated truck can keep this on one calendar day when both buildings have access. On a shared truck, the delivery spread is set on the order for service, and the short hop gets expensive when the load waits.

Heat sits on the truck. Houston humidity and Dallas heat both cook a packed truck. A July load that sits on an unshaded Houston driveway, then waits for an Uptown freight car, is how a short hop stops being cheap. The driveway wait is the costly part of this hop.

Delivering in Dallas

A leather sofa left against an unshaded wall at 2pm will tell on the crew before anyone argues about bedrooms.

Uptown and downtown want the same paperwork. Apartments want a COI and a weekday elevator before the crew can unload. Have both ready when the truck arrives. Dallas heat cooks a packed truck, so a long elevator wait is time the load spends in the heat.

The last turn is where East Dallas goes wrong. Older East Dallas streets can deny a 26-foot box the last turn, so the last 40 feet is a long carry. HOAs in the northern suburbs have gate rules. Have the gate cleared and the truck size checked before the crew is on the clock, or you pay for that walk.

Shade the sofa first. A leather sofa left against an unshaded wall at 2pm will tell on the crew before anyone argues about bedrooms. Dallas heat cooks a packed truck, so that piece should go inside before the rest of the unload sits in the sun.