I’m about to relocate to another state. This is the first time ever that my employers has paid for my furniture to be moved so I have the luxury of sitting on my corpulent bum and saying “Put that upstairs, boy, then peel me a grape and sing me a peasant song!” rather than doing the heave-ho myself.
However, I have no idea whether I’m supposed to tip the movers or if it’s all taken care of by the fee I’m being reimbursed for. Does anybody know, and if so, how much?
Check out this page, courtesy of Tipping.org. Yes, you should definitely tip, but how much depends on the difficulty of the move and how many movers you’re using.
No you don’t tip them. They do not fall under any of the categories of tipped employees. You are in the free and clear.
I was in the exact same situation. I ended up tipping the movers $50/man, the packers $30/man, and bought lunch for the whole crew. They seemed happy enough, and since I had come out more than a few thousand ahead on the whole relocation deal due to some lucky bounces it worked out OK for me as well.
Re: your employers – every company is different. I’d recommend talking to HR at length to get all the nitty-gritty details (like tips, and whether they’re reimbursing you or they have an account with the moving company) of the move hammered out before you construct the first box.
Now that I think about it again, I like this system. It is not all that expensive and it shows the guys that their work was appreciated. I worked that type of job before and I didn’t usually get a tip, but it felt great when I did.
I’ve always figured that giving the guys at least enough to pay for their drinking when the heavy lifting was done was no more than fair. Certainly I’ve never had a mover look surprised when I tipped him.
Tip the living heck out of em.
They are doing difficult demanding careful work. If they handle your life’s collection of posessions without damage and with grace, tip em bigtime. They have earned it.
One question. How do you tip the movers? Do you give the money to each individually when the job is done? The problem with that is often a couple leave early after the major part of the job is complete. I think it would be simpler to give the money to the foreman.
I dated a mover many moons ago. Definitely tip them.
The guys I knew didn’t always get tipped, and they never moaned if they didn’t, obviously, but they definitely did really appreciate a good tip.
Just hand them whatever you feel is appropriate, I’d say hand it to one person, if one seems to be in charge more than any others, they’ll divide among themselves.
Check with your employer and see if they’ll reimburse you for the tip. My guess would be they would, if they reimburse for things like restaurant tips, cab tips, etc.
I once moved from one Manhattan apartment to another. After the movers got all my possessions into the van, I had to negotiate the tip with the head guy (who was a very skillful negotiator), and he called my credit card company and got the money right away. Otherwise, I have no idea what they would have done with my stuff.
I reported them the the BBB, and was told that once these guys accumulate enough complaints, they simply start operating under a different name.
The moral is: get everything, including the tip, in writing before agreeing to anything.
Jeez, that’s halfway (or more) to theft, man.
I decided many moons ago that life was too short to move my own stuff. So I started using movers. I always provide food, beer and generous tips.
When my house was wrecked by a drunk driver, the insurance company paid t have movers transport move my stuff into storage and back. Since I knew I’d be seeing them again, I figured tips were a good idea. I tipped 20 each, and had cold drinks available.
Being in the service, we move all the time. I’ve never tipped them, but I do help them a lot (Because I can’t just sit there doing nothing while people around me are working with my stuff). On a least two moves, they probably should have tipped me. We always have food and drink for them, and they seem to really appreciate those things. I’ve been told by movers that they’re just happy when people treat them like they’re human, and not like peasants.
:eek:
That’s a hell of a way to start an anecdote - was everyone OK?
I used to be a mover, it’s great if the customer has drinks/ coffee available and picks up lunch. Being treated like a human is nice too.
I would tip if you think they do a good job for you. 95% of the guys are honest but there are a few scumbags who will pocket the whole tip if they can get away with it. If you give the whole tip to the lead mover doing it while another mover is in the room will insure that it is split among the crew.
To be honest, I never even really gave tipping movers much thought. And as a former waiter and bartender, I tend to tip way more than normal.
In 4 cross country moves, I’ve always had my stuff well taken care of. Perhaps I’ll ensure the streak remains by tipping the movers from here on out.
I tip. Usually, when they first arrive, I’ll have a friendly conversation with the head guy about the move & any special requests I have. I tell him (in a low key way, but in the hearing of at least one other mover) that I do tip for good, fast service.
I’ve only had local moves, which are typically billed on a per-man, per-hour basis. My impression is that my promise of a tip gets the job done faster, and may even save me money at the end of the day. I don’t remember exact amounts (my last move was 6 years ago), but I know I gave them at least a few hundred.
Although I didn’t have a lot of stuff then, it was a challenging move in a lot of ways. The people who bought my place (out of town parents buying a condo for darling daughter) were unbelieveable pains in the ass and caused some delays, I had a limited elevator move-out time slot (high rise), I had a massive 5-piece wall unit that I essentially gave away to someone in my old building, and we were also moving the contents of my then-GF’s apartment to the new place as well. Sort of a triple move. All in one afternoon. The movers got it done. Well worth the tip.
I’m a mover. As a part-time gig, I use my pickup truck to help people out with apartment moves and furniture deliveries (I pay the rent with a different, non-moving job) and my usual fee for these is $50 or $75 (I charge $25/hr). I’ve been doing this for a year now.
I don’t solicit tips and usually don’t get them, but they’re gratefully accepted. $10 is typical. Sometimes, they’ll tip me a buck or two. I don’t turn my nose up at it.
I think a reasonable tip is $5 per person for each hour you actually see them haul stuff. Travel time isn’t tippable.
I’ve never tipped movers, and frankly, of the last 4 move crews I had, none impressed me enough to even consider it. I did make food and drink available, tho.
The last group, the ones who moved our stuff into this house, were a major pain in the butt. If we didn’t specifically say (for example) “Put the hutch against the wall” they’d have left everything in the middle of the floor. They claimed, without measuring, that several of our items wouldn’t fit through the basement doors - until my husband pulled out a tape measure. They didn’t bring any dollies or hand trucks - they used ours! And it’s not like it was “Bubba’s Pick-Up Moving Service” - this was a national company.
Goodness knows how long it would have taken if they’d had all of our goods. As it was, we’d moved about a third of our items ourselves. They not only didn’t get a tip - they got a bad feedback from me when I filled our the customer survey.