Tipping protocol for professional movers?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am moving tomorrow morning, and this will be only the second time I have used professional movers. (The last time, 5 years ago, they broke my sofa and never responded to my inquiries about repairing it, so I didn’t tip them and am using a different company this time.)

It’s a local move, about 5 miles. I have a very full one-bedroom apartment (which is why I’m moving), and it’s a move from a first floor to a second floor. I plan to be 100% packed (I am about 96% packed now, and will go home and finish up tonight), and have already moved a few fragile things to the new place myself (framed posters and such) and will stuff as much as I can into my car tomorrow (whatever else will fit in addition to my boyfriend and my cat).

So what’s an appropriate tipping range? The company is estimating the move will take 4.5 - 5 hours, though I can’t imagine it will take much more than the last move, which took about 3 hours (and even that only because they had such a hard time with the sofa). It’s also supposed to rain tomorrow, which makes me even more glad that I hired movers (well, that, and the fact that I somehow managed to get tennis elbow 2 weeks ago, before we’d packed anything, so I’m not supposed to lift anything with my right arm).

2

I tipped $20 each to the two guys I hired last time I moved. I don’t know how “correct” this was, but I was told by friends that tipping was expected for this. Not being American my default behavior would have been to not tip at all.

Unless you’ve got a collection of grand pianos or something I think much more than this would be extravagant.

3

I tipped the crew about 10% of the total on our recent move. It was actually two moves (from the old house into storage for a few weeks, then out of storage and into the new house). The first move cost about $1,600, so I divided $160 among the four guys on the first crew. The second move cost about $2,000 and the five-guy crew shared $200. I came up with 10% from poking around the internet. I would have tipped less if they hadn’t done a good job, but 10% was my max.

4

We movd from one house to another a couple of years back and hired “Two Men and a Truck” (actually 3 guys) to move the really heavy stuff. less than a full day’s work, but but we tipped $25 each, 'cause we were so glad not to have to move that stuff ourselves. They seemed very appreciative.

5

I think it the past for me it’s worked out to be about $5/man/hour, very approximately. So yeah, I would say $20 for each guy, give or take $5. Just my vote, I’m no expert.

6

I tipped $20 per guy and bought them a box of donuts for breakfast since they were moving me so early in the morning.

7

I’d give them each $20. I’d also try to have a six-pack of cold water or soda on hand to offer them.

8

That part we’ve got covered - I left a case of root beer at the new place last night to chill in the fridge, and we have some other soda (pop to us Midwesterners) to take over there tonight. (I realize not everyone likes root beer.)

9

We tipped $20 each and bought drinks (non-alcoholic) and a pizza for them to eat / drink while working / taking a break. It was into an upstairs apartment, a LOT of trips upstairs.

Joe