It can be relative to what you’re shipping. A lot of people think that their homeowner’s coverage covers their household goods during a move, but more often than not, it doesn’t. You need to ask the question of your Los Angeles homeowner’s insurance company, but I always tell people it's better to have it just in case.

The key to valuation is selecting the right amount of coverage. Again, use your homeowner’s policy as a guideline. If you know if your homeowner’s insurance is for $80,000, use that number as a guiding point, or else base it on the weight and value of what you’re moving.

Keep in mind that there is a basic coverage already included in your move with Suddath, which works out to be 60 cents per pound, but it all depends are how you value your goods and what the level of risk is for what you’re shipping.

Yes, we can. We can transport vehicles locally, interstate and internationally. We offer either enclosed carriers or open carriers for your vehicle. Prices vary obviously, depending on the type of carrier you choose.

Yes, but discuss it with your move coordinator. Especially when you're talking about an interstate move, pricing can vary depending on the load so sometimes you may be able to get a lower price on a different day. It's also always subject to availability so while we may have the availability to load two days from now, it will most likely be more costly. It's kind of like buying a plane ticket – we’re a capacity-based industry, so being flexible and booking early can be a money saver.

As for the delivery of your items, you are more likely to have a delivery spread. There are Department of Transportation restrictions that prohibit us from traveling a certain way. We have time constraints and mileage constraints, so if you want to load in LA today and deliver in Florida two days from now, it's not going to happen because we must be able to abide by all the laws. Getting a specific day can be done, but it must work within a DOT-compliant plan, and again, it may come at a higher cost.

Moves are based on weight, so identify everything that you do not need ahead of time, or things that can be easily replaced on the other end. So the purging and organizing is the most important thing.

Things like canned food, magazines, boxes upon boxes of papers and files can be replaced, recycled and digitized, respectively, instead of paying unnecessarily to bring them with you.

There are so many things like that that you can do, and Suddath offers a moving checklist that details what you should be doing or thinking about each week leading up to your move.

Obviously, traffic is a big one. It's a huge area that we cover, and traffic can often throw off schedules. We try to give wide arrival time spreads to avoid that issue.

There are also a lot of access issues in L.A., especially when you get into downtown or some of the smaller communities on the beach like Hermosa Beach or Venice Beach. We deal with that by noting the need for shuttles, or smaller trucks, and parking permits in our initial walkthrough.

You want to advise your Los Angeles move coordinator right away. Let them know, but also document it by taking pictures of it at the time you discover it. You have plenty of time to file a claim, so document as you unpack.

No, all our move teams are company employees as of January 1, 2020. This is a recent change since California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the Employee and Independent Contractors Bill, also known as Assembly Bill 5 (aka AB5). Because of Suddath’s compliance with AB5, your California moving crew will consist of 100% Suddath employees. While Suddath already has stricter safety and training guidelines than many moving companies, converting our contractors to full-time employees to be compliant with AB5 will give us even greater quality control over our workforce.

Yes. We are very well-versed and experienced in international moves in L.A. We have our own international department that has very strong partnerships and relationships all over the world, tons of partner agents and we can move anybody anywhere they need to go.

There are certainly a lot of competitors in LA, but many of them work more in a niche. For example, you’ll have either just a local moving company, or just a commercial moving company, whereas Suddath in Los Angeles can professionally service all those needs. We do local moving, we do interstate moving, we have international experience, the ability to handle our own international in house. We also do a large amount of commercial moving and provide global logistics services to support your supply chain.

What that boils down to is that we’re good at moving. Whatever it is, we can move it, and move it better than the other guy because of our century of experience.

We also have, I believe, one of the biggest warehouses and the ability to store more than any other competitor in the market. We're in a great location. We can cover both LA and Orange County very easily, but we also go out to Riverside county, down to San Diego and out to Bakersfield where some L.A. movers don't.

Yes. You can store your items with us short term, or for long term. For interstate moves, short-term storage caps at 180 days, which is something you should keep in mind. In either case, your items are stored in a fully enclosed, secured vault within our Los Angeles warehouse, carefully padded, labelled and tracked electronically.

For commercial storage, there are always companies that just need a chunk of warehouse space for a short period of time. So, if you’re someone who needs 10,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space for six months, we can provide that flex space. Or we can provide a long-term solution where we can provide overflow area of 10,000 square feet for an entire five years. We take care of it all.

By using Suddath for your global logistics needs, you get all the experience and resources you need in one place. We have proprietary technology that's greater than what the rest of the industry can offer, giving you full transparency to your inventory through our tier-1 warehouse management systems. We also utilize the LEAN Six Sigma processes to great effect.

Suddath is adept in FF&E projects, hospitality, third-party logistics, MAC projects … we really offer every commercial service. We operate in offices of Fortune 500 companies with corporate campuses down to small offices, healthcare and medical buildings. To back up those offerings, we have experienced project managers, storage, inventory and asset management, furniture installation and space planning, worldwide shipping and white-glove services. Not only can we provide you with all of the new furniture you’ll need, but we have ways to decommission your old furniture in an eco-friendly way so as little as possible ends up in a landfill. We take care of it all.

Essentially, working with Suddath is a one-stop-shop. Each project is unique, and we are equipped with the staff, equipment and commercial moving services in L.A. to handle all of your needs.