Used Household and Office Goods Moving (U.S.) — Industry Primer

NAICS 2022 code 484210. NAICS = North American Industry Classification System, the standard code set U.S. statistical agencies use to define industries.

---

1. Overview

This is the "professional movers" industry: companies that pack, load, haul, unload, and briefly store used household belongings and used office furniture — the local crew with a truck, and the interstate van line that carries a family's possessions across the country.[1] It is a physical, labor-heavy, low-margin service business, not a manufacturing or asset-appreciation play.

Why it matters to an investor: moving demand is a direct, real-time read on household mobility and housing turnover — how often Americans change addresses. The industry is also unusually fragmented and old-economy, exactly the kind of setting where roll-ups, franchising, and technology disruption create winners and losers.

The catch for public-market investors: there is essentially no pure-play public full-service mover. The biggest branded van lines are privately held or agent-owned, and the large public name most people associate with moving — U-Haul — is really a truck-rental and self-storage company that sits in adjacent codes, not in 484210.[5] So public exposure is indirect, while the richest opportunities (agencies, franchises, local roll-ups) live in the private market. Both routes are covered below.

---

2. What it is and how it's structured

Scope (what's in). NAICS 484210 covers establishments primarily engaged in local or long-distance trucking of used household, institutional, or commercial furniture and equipment, including the incidental packing and temporary storage that go with a move.[1] The defining word is used: this is moving people's existing stuff, not delivering new furniture. In practice that spans local residential moves, long-distance household moves, office/commercial furniture relocation, and the packing, loading, unloading, and short-term storage attached to a job.

What it excludes (and the adjacent codes to know). Because "moving" in everyday speech is broader than the statistical industry, several big pieces of the moving economy sit in other codes:

• Truck and trailer rental for do-it-yourself (DIY) moves (U-Haul, Penske, Budget) → NAICS 532120, Truck, Utility Trailer, and RV Rental and Leasing.

• Self-storage and portable storage containers (PODS, U-Box, 1-800-PACK-RAT) → NAICS 531130, Lessors of Miniwarehouses and Self-Storage Units.

• General freight trucking of new goods → NAICS 484110 / 484121 / 484122.

• Standalone warehousing/storage with no moving → NAICS 493110.
• Freight brokerage / transportation arrangement and relocation-management administration (arranging, not hauling) → professional-services codes, not 484210.

That boundary matters: much of what a consumer experiences as "moving" — renting the truck, the storage pod in the driveway — is statistically outside this industry, even though it competes directly for the same relocations.[1]

Ownership mix — a network business. The industry is dominated by very small operators. Federal data on employer firms (companies with at least one paid employee) count 9,519 firms running 9,436 establishments, and the average firm books only about $2.1 million in annual revenue (2022 receipts divided by 2022 firm count).[3] Most are local, owner-run businesses.

Layered on top are national van-line networks — franchise-like brands (United, Mayflower, Allied, North American, Atlas, Wheaton, Bekins) that supply branding, interstate operating authority, sales, dispatch, technology, and corporate/government accounts, while independently owned local agents and independent owner-operator drivers provide the crews, trucks, warehouses, and physical execution. Atlas describes its agents as owning and operating much of the equipment and warehouse infrastructure; Wheaton likewise describes its agents as independently owned businesses.[11][12] The federal file does not publish a national ownership-percentage breakdown, so none is estimated here.

---

3. How big it is

Federal ground-truth figures for the employer side of the industry:

SBA = U.S. Small Business Administration. With average firm revenue near $2.1 million against a $34 million small-business ceiling, the overwhelming majority of movers qualify as small businesses.[3][4] The firm count (2022 Economic Census) and establishment count (2023 County Business Patterns) come from different years and programs and a firm can run multiple establishments, so the two should not be compared mechanically.

The undercount caveat — important here. The federal receipts figure counts only employer establishments. County Business Patterns (CBP) excludes nonemployer sole proprietors and other tiny operators, so the headline misses two large layers of the real moving economy:[2] (1) nonemployer and owner-operator movers — the independent drivers who own their trucks and hire day labor per job, which is how interstate household hauling is largely done;[18] and (2) the DIY and container substitutes (truck rental, PODS-style pods) classified in other codes that nonetheless compete for the same customers. Industry-association tallies that fold in these broader layers put employment near 480,000 and wages near $13 billion — several times the employer-only federal count.[28] Treat $20.1 billion as the floor for the professional-hauling slice; the total money Americans spend to relocate is materially larger. For directional context, private-research firms estimate the broader U.S. "moving services" market at roughly $23–25 billion in 2025, growing low single digits — an analyst estimate on a wider definition, not a federal statistic.[27] The federal figures are best read as a defined employer-business universe, not a count of every crew, broker, or owner-operator.

---

4. The investable universe

Public companies — no pure play

There is no listed, dedicated full-service van line. The public names give only adjacent exposure to the moving economy. (Tickers and scale are shown here because this is the investable-universe section.)

REIT = real estate investment trust; LTL = less-than-truckload. U-Haul is the closest listed proxy for the moving experience, but its earnings are driven by self-move equipment and storage real estate, and its own filings explicitly distinguish self-moving/storage from full-service household transportation; it tends to benefit when households trade down from full-service movers to DIY.[5] ArcBest is fundamentally a freight-cycle bet; U-Pack is a niche.[6] The storage REITs give exposure to the real estate that surrounds moving demand, not to moving crews or transportation. Freight-trucking stocks should not be treated as direct substitutes for 484210.

Major private and network owners (where the full-service industry lives)

PE = private equity. The takeaway: to own the branded van-line business you generally have to be a private buyer, a franchisee, or a lender to a leveraged consolidator.

---

5. How the money works

Moving is priced and earned very differently for local vs. long-distance work.

• Local moves are billed by the hour — a two-person crew plus a truck typically runs ~$100–200 per hour, with most local jobs landing between roughly $700 and $2,500.[20] The economics are labor utilization: billable hours per crew per day, minus wages, fuel, and truck cost.

• Long-distance/interstate moves are priced by weight and distance, plus "accessorial" charges for packing, stairs, storage, and vehicle shipping. A 2–3 bedroom interstate move commonly quotes in the $3,000–$6,000 range.[20] The key levers are revenue per hundredweight, truck load factor, and deadhead (empty return) miles.

The van-line agent model. National brands (van lines) sell and "own" the move — the customer, the brand, and the interstate operating authority — while local agents and independent owner-operator drivers do the physical work. Even when an agent originates the lead, sells the job, and hauls it on its own truck, it pays the van line a percentage of revenue for the brand, the network, and the national booking/logistics system.[19] Owner-operators, who dominate household hauling, net roughly $80,000–$100,000 a year after covering their truck, fuel, and hired help — a demanding, high-touch job that is more loading than driving.[18] This makes the van line relatively asset-light (drivers own the trucks) but dependent on keeping quality agents in the network.

Main cost categories: mover and driver labor; fuel, maintenance, and truck replacement; warehouse rent and storage infrastructure; insurance and damaged-goods claims; customer acquisition, lead fees, and technology; and financing costs for trucks, facilities, and containers.

Operating variables to watch (not manufacturing capacity utilization or retail same-store sales):

• Capacity utilization and seasonality. Demand is concentrated in the summer peak (roughly May–September) and end-of-month, so fixed costs must be earned in a short window; winter is lean.

• Labor is the largest cost and the binding constraint — seasonal muscle is hard to hire, turnover is high, and injury/workers'-comp exposure is real.[18]

• Fuel is a swing cost, usually passed through as surcharges but a margin risk when it spikes.

• Cargo claims. Movers carry liability for damage; regulation lets consumers choose Full Value Protection (FVP) or bare-minimum Released Value (60 cents per pound).[21] Claims frequency and severity hit margin and reputation directly.

• Revenue per move and per crew-hour, quote-to-book conversion, truck utilization, storage occupancy, and on-time pickup/delivery are the practical unit-economics gauges.

• Stable contract volume — corporate relocation accounts and military/government moves — smooths the cyclical consumer book and is prized for its predictability.

Margins are thin and the business is cyclical; there is no recurring subscription revenue. The federal file does not report industry-wide pricing, margins, utilization, input costs, or growth, so company-level operating data are more useful than a single national margin. The model rewards operators who keep crews busy, trucks full, claims low, and a base of contract work.

---

6. What drives demand

Moving volume is a leveraged bet on people changing addresses:

• Residential mobility and the mortgage "lock-in." When existing-home sales freeze, moving demand freezes with it. Mobility is near record lows: the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) reported 11.8% of the U.S. population moved to a different residence in 2024, including 2.1% who moved between states;[25] the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) put the 2024 household mobility rate at about 11.2% (~14.8 million households), the lowest on record, as homeowners with cheap pandemic-era mortgages stayed put rather than trade into a ~6.6% rate.[24] This is the dominant near-term headwind. Even so, apartment moves, household formation, retirement, divorce, and family change generate baseline demand even in a weak housing market.

• Interstate migration patterns. Even when total moves fall, where people move drives long-haul revenue. Sun Belt inflows (Texas, Florida, the Carolinas) and higher-cost-state outflows generate the profitable long-distance loads; United Van Lines' annual "National Movers Study" is a widely watched read on this.[10]

• Employment and corporate relocation. Job changes, transfers, and office relocations support higher-value commercial accounts that are repeatable and less price-sensitive than one household's shopping — a swing factor for the branded van lines that lean on corporate books.

• Military and government moves (PCS). PCS = permanent change of station. A large, contract-based block of stable volume, historically a backbone for van-line agents (see Regulation).

• Office/commercial moves. Tied to office leasing and space decisions; hybrid work has trimmed corporate footprints, a mixed influence on office-goods moving.

• Substitution. In downturns, households trade down from full-service movers to DIY truck rental and portable containers — good for U-Haul/PODS-type models, a headwind for van lines.[5][16]

The secular backdrop is a less mobile America: the share of people who move each year has fallen for decades, and analysts increasingly treat the recent lows as a "new normal" — a structural drag on the industry independent of the interest-rate cycle.[24]

---

7. Regulation

Interstate moves — federal (FMCSA). FMCSA = Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Companies that move household goods across state lines must register with FMCSA and obtain a USDOT number and operating authority. Registration alone is not enough — a business can be FMCSA-registered without being authorized to transport household goods, a distinction consumers are told to check.[21] Interstate household-goods carriers must follow the consumer rules in 49 CFR Part 375 (CFR = Code of Federal Regulations), which require the mover to give customers the booklet "Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move," to provide a written estimate (binding or non-binding) based on an inspection, to issue a bill of lading (the transport contract), and to offer the two liability options — Full Value Protection vs. Released Value (60¢/lb).[21] For non-binding estimates, the federal 110% rule limits how much a mover can require at delivery relative to the estimate.[21] Carriers operating vehicles rated at least 10,001 pounds must also meet FMCSA insurance minimums — $750,000 public-liability coverage and $5,000 cargo insurance — and standard trucking safety rules (commercial driver licensing, hours-of-service, DOT safety ratings).[22]

Carrier vs. broker. A carrier transports the goods and takes legal responsibility for them; a broker arranges transportation but generally owns no trucks and never takes possession. The consumer-facing brand may not be the entity that executes the move, which complicates accountability.

Fraud, brokers, and "hostage" goods. The industry has a persistent trust problem: rogue movers and unlicensed brokers that lowball quotes, then hold belongings hostage for inflated fees. FMCSA runs a public "Protect Your Move" complaint system and has conducted repeated nationwide crackdowns on fraudulent movers and brokers.[21][23] Reputation risk is a genuine industry-level cost.

Intrastate (local) moves — states. Moves within a single state are regulated by that state, often through a public utilities commission or state DOT, with widely varying tariff, licensing, and insurance rules.

Military moves in flux. The Department of Defense tried to consolidate service-member moves under a single Global Household Goods Contract (GHC), awarded to HomeSafe Alliance, to replace the legacy van-line/agent system. After a troubled ramp, the Pentagon terminated the GHC in June 2025 for cause, reverting military moves toward the traditional program.[26] Because military volume is a meaningful, stable slice of interstate moving, the reversal is consequential for which operators capture it.

Compliance is both a cost and a competitive advantage: a strong record on safety, claims, licensing, and service supports national/government accounts and reduces reputational risk.

---

8. Competitive dynamics and consolidation

Extremely fragmented. Federal concentration data confirm one of the least-concentrated industries around: the top 4 firms hold just 18.6% of revenue, the top 8 22.8%, the top 20 29.4%, and even the top 50 only 37.2%; the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI, a standard concentration measure where anything under ~1,500 is "unconcentrated") is a mere 111.7.[3] Barriers to entry are low — a truck, a crew, and insurance — but barriers to scale (interstate authority, a trusted brand, a national agent network, claims handling, corporate/government contracts) are real. Local density matters: nearby crews and trucks cut travel time, improve scheduling, and help balance inbound and outbound loads.

How the industry organizes despite fragmentation. The national van-line groups aggregate thousands of small agents under shared brands, logistics, purchasing, insurance, and technology, capturing branded interstate volume without owning most of the trucks.[11][12] Simultaneously, franchisors (Two Men and a Truck, College HUNKS) and PE-backed platforms roll up local operators, while container and labor-marketplace models (PODS, U-Box, Zippy Shell, and labor marketplaces such as HireAHelper and Bellhop) peel off share by unbundling the truck, the labor, and the storage.[16][17]

Consolidation is visible but not winner-take-all. Wheaton acquired Bekins and later Stevens Worldwide Van Lines; SIRVA — parent of Allied and North American — passed from PE ownership to its lenders in an August-2024 recapitalization, a reminder that scale here does not guarantee financial strength.[9][12] Consolidation is likely to continue, but local execution, labor availability, and route density remain hard to standardize. The strongest consolidators should be those that improve agent economics and service quality, not merely combine brand names.

---

9. Risks

• Housing/rate cyclicality. The single biggest risk. Mobility is at record lows and volumes track existing-home sales and mortgage rates closely.[24]

• Secular decline in mobility. Americans move less each decade; a structural, not just cyclical, headwind.[24]

• Labor. Seasonal, physically demanding, hard to staff; high turnover; workers'-comp and injury exposure; driver availability.[18]

• Execution and claims. Late deliveries, damaged goods, disputed estimates, and poor subcontractor performance create claims and reputational damage.

• Seasonality. Fixed facilities, insurance, and vehicle costs persist while winter demand slows.

• Fuel and fleet. Fuel prices, truck availability, financing costs, and resale values compress already-thin margins when pass-through lags.

• Regulation and reputation. Loss of operating authority, insurance/consumer-protection enforcement, fraud among rogue operators, and state-level rule changes raise distrust that taxes the whole industry.[21][23]

• Broker/agent accountability. The consumer-facing brand may differ from the legal entity executing the move, complicating quality control.

• Substitution by DIY rental and containers, especially in downturns.[5][16]

• Leverage and credit risk at consolidators, with refinancing pressure and thin outside disclosure (see SIRVA).[9]

• Contract disruption. The military GHC reversal shows how one large government program can reshuffle a stable revenue block on short notice.[26]

---

10. How to invest, and the outlook

Public routes (indirect). There is no listed pure-play mover, so public exposure is a proxy trade:

• U-Haul Holding (NYSE: UHAL / UHAL.B) for the DIY-move and self-storage side — which tends to do relatively well when households economize and trade down, and whose storage real estate adds a recurring, asset-backed income stream.[5]

• ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB) for a small slice of the "you-load-we-drive" container model via U-Pack, though the stock is really a freight-cycle bet.[6]

• Self-storage REITs — Public Storage (NYSE: PSA), Extra Space Storage (NYSE: EXR) — for exposure to the storage real estate around moving demand, not to moving execution itself.[7][8]

Investors seeking the full-service van-line business itself will not find it on an exchange; the closest public analog is trucking/logistics and storage, not moving.

Private routes (where the industry actually is). Buying or backing a local mover with strong route density, acquiring a van-line agency (owned fleet and warehouse), taking a franchise (Two Men and a Truck, College HUNKS), funding a PE roll-up of regional movers, or backing corporate- relocation and moving-technology (claims, dispatch, labor, lead-gen) providers are the direct ways in — small-ticket, operationally intensive, cash-generative when run well. Sophisticated investors can also gain exposure through the debt of leveraged consolidators (as SIRVA's lenders now effectively own the equity), and through the self-storage/container real estate that surrounds moving demand. Private diligence should center on revenue per move, contribution margin after crew/driver costs, utilization, claims history, repeat corporate accounts, customer concentration, agent economics, fleet age, storage occupancy, working capital, and debt service.

Near-term outlook (forward-looking judgment). The cycle is at or near a trough: record-low mobility and rate lock-in have depressed volumes, and a durable rebound likely waits on materially lower mortgage rates and thawing home sales — which had not clearly arrived as of 2025.[24] Against that, the DIY, storage, and container segments have proven resilient as households economize, and consolidation (franchising, PE roll-ups, lender-led recaps) is likely to continue in a fragmented field. The structural decline in how often Americans move is a patient headwind that caps the ceiling even in a housing recovery. Net: a defensive, cyclical, low-margin industry best played through storage/DIY- adjacent public names or hands-on private ownership — not a growth sector, but a durable one tied to the fundamentals of American housing and employment.

---

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 NAICS Definition — 484210 Used Household and Office Goods Moving. https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=484210&input=484210&year=2022
2. U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns 2023 — NAICS 484210 (establishments, employment, annual and Q1 payroll; nonemployer-exclusion methodology). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
3. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 Economic Census — Concentration of Largest Firms, NAICS 484210 (receipts, firms, CR4/CR8/CR20/CR50, HHI). https://data.census.gov/table/ECNSIZE2022.EC2200SIZECONCEN
4. U.S. Small Business Administration. Table of Small Business Size Standards Matched to NAICS Codes. 2023. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
5. U-Haul Holding Company. Fiscal 2025 Financial Results and Form 10-K (revenue ~$5.83B; self-moving; self-storage; total assets ~$20.5B; NYSE: UHAL / UHAL.B; self-moving/storage distinguished from full-service moving). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/4457/000095017025078451/uhal-20250331.htm
6. U-Pack / ArcBest. ABF Transportation — U-Pack (U-Pack is an ArcBest/ABF Freight "you-load-we-drive" service; NASDAQ: ARCB). https://www.upack.com/about-upack/abf
7. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Public Storage Form 10-K (self-storage REIT; NYSE: PSA). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1393311/000162828026007696/psa-20251231.htm
8. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Extra Space Storage Form 10-K (self-storage REIT; NYSE: EXR). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1289490/000128949026000011/exr-20251231.htm
9. SIRVA Worldwide. SIRVA Closes Transaction with New Ownership Group (Aug 2024 credit/lender recapitalization led by KKR Credit Advisors, Evolution Credit Partners, BlackRock, Indaba; Allied & North American brands; prior owner Madison Dearborn). https://www.sirva.com/company/news/2024/08/20/sirva-closes-transaction-with-new-ownership-group-positions-the-company-for-continued-long-term-success
10. UniGroup, C.A. About Us / Member Relations; United Van Lines National Movers Study (agent/member-owned cooperative; United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit). https://www.unigroup.com/about-us/member-relations
11. Atlas World Group. Atlas Affiliates (agent-owned; agents own much of the equipment/warehousing). https://www.atlasworldgroupinc.com/affiliates
12. Wheaton World Wide Moving. Wheaton Acquires Bekins Van Lines and Agent Network (Wheaton/Bekins; later acquired Stevens Worldwide; independently owned agents). https://www.wheatonworldwide.com/why-wheaton/company-news/wheaton-van-lines-inc-acquires-bekins-van-lines/
13. JK Moving Services. Company / Leadership (founder-led, privately held national mover). https://www.jkmoving.com/media-center/david-cox-promoted-to-president-of-jk-moving
14. Two Men and a Truck. About Us (large franchised moving system). https://twomenandatruck.com/about-us
15. moveBuddha. These Are the Largest Moving Companies in the Country (van-line networks and franchisors, incl. College HUNKS). 2025. https://www.movebuddha.com/blog/largest-moving-companies/
16. HireAHelper / Move.org. Moving Containers & Labor Marketplaces (PODS — held by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan; U-Box; 1-800-PACK-RAT; U-Pack; HireAHelper; Bellhop). https://www.hireahelper.com/advice/moving-storage-containers/
17. PR Newswire. Zippy Shell Completes $52.5 Million Capital Raise (containerized moving/storage; Virgo Investment Group, Carlyle financing). 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zippy-shell-inc-completes-525-million-capital-raise-302144056.html
18. Overdrive. Owner-Operator Niche: Household Goods Hauling Offers Big Bucks for Big Work (owner-operator economics; ~$80k–$100k net; labor intensity). https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/14890142/owner-operator-niche-household-goods-hauling-offers-big-bucks-for-big-work
19. Move.org / Louis Massaro (Moving Business Mentor). What Is a Moving Van Line? / Should Your Moving Company Become a Van Line Agent? (agent revenue-share model). https://www.move.org/what-is-a-moving-van-line/
20. moveBuddha / HomeAdvisor / U.S. News. 2025–2026 Moving Cost Guides (local hourly rates; long-distance 2–3BR ranges). https://www.movebuddha.com/moving-cost-calculator/
21. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), U.S. DOT. Protect Your Move — Consumer Rights & Responsibilities; Regulations and Enforcement (49 CFR Part 375); registered vs. authorized; 110% rule. https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/protect-your-move/consumer-rights
22. FMCSA, U.S. DOT. Insurance Filing Requirements (minimum $750,000 public liability; $5,000 cargo for vehicles ≥10,001 lbs). https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/insurance-filing-requirements
23. U.S. Department of Transportation. FMCSA Continues Nationwide Crackdown on Fraudulent Household Goods Movers and Brokers. 2024. https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/fmcsa-continues-nationwide-crackdown-fraudulent-household-goods-movers-and-brokers
24. Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS). Household Mobility Fell to Record Low in 2024. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/household-mobility-fell-record-low-2024
25. U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey — Geographic Mobility, 2024 (11.8% of population moved; 2.1% moved between states). https://www.census.gov/topics/population/migration/guidance/acs-1yr.html
26. Federal News Network / U.S. Transportation Command. Pentagon Cancels Multibillion-Dollar Household Goods Moving Contract (GHC / HomeSafe Alliance terminated for cause, June 2025). https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2025/06/pentagon-cancels-multibillion-dollar-household-goods-moving-contract/
27. IBISWorld. Moving Services in the US — Market Size. 2025. https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-size/moving-services/1154/
28. ConsumerAffairs. Moving Industry Statistics. 2026 (broad-definition employment ~480,000; wages ~$13B). https://www.consumeraffairs.com/movers/moving-industry-statistics.html