Mover licensing, cargo insurance, and the certificate every apartment building wants

Brianna Sato· Local moving company, two trucks, open five months· Open, Logistics & Moving·Aug 11

Five months open, two trucks, and I am still finding paperwork I should have had on day one.

The one that cost me a job: a downtown building wanted a certificate of insurance naming the building and the management company as additional insured, plus proof of workers comp for everyone on the truck, twenty-four hours before the elevator reservation. My agent can produce that in an afternoon. I did not know to ask, the customer moved their date, and they hired somebody else. That was $1,400 gone over a form.

What I have now, and what I would tell anyone starting: my state licenses household goods movers separately from a general business license, and that took longer than the LLC did. Cargo coverage and commercial auto are two different policies, and the first quote I got had a cargo limit that would not have covered one bedroom set. Workers comp the moment I had a second person on the truck, no argument. And I keep blank certificate requests ready so I can turn one around same day.

None of this is exciting and all of it sits in the Protect phase of the checklist, which I skimmed at the time because I was busy buying a truck.

For the other movers - what does your crew actually carry in the cab, paperwork-wise? I am still printing things the morning of.

3 replies

Derek Johnson· Idea stage·Aug 11

This is the post I needed. I am still at the idea stage on last-mile and I had mentally filed insurance as one thing you buy once. Cargo and auto being separate policies is new to me, and if a cargo limit can miss a bedroom set it is definitely going to miss a pallet of electronics.

Question on the certificate: is the twenty-four hour lead time normal, or was that building being difficult? I am trying to work out whether I need a same-day process or whether most commercial customers give you a week.

Brianna Sato· Open·Aug 11

Downtown high-rises are the strict ones and twenty-four hours is on the generous end - I have since had a building want it three business days ahead with specific wording for the additional insured line. Suburban apartments mostly do not ask at all.

What I do now is ask at booking, every single time, whether the building requires a certificate and who it should name. It takes ten seconds and it has saved two jobs since. Your delivery version is probably receiving dock rules at commercial addresses, which I hear are just as fussy about who is on the list.

Cheryl Dunn· Open·Aug 12

The certificate lesson is one I watch a client learn the expensive way about once a year. The bookkeeping version: put every policy renewal and every license renewal in one calendar with a reminder a month ahead, because the lapse is always worse than the cost. I had a client lose a contract over a certificate that was accurate and eleven days expired.

Also, if you are not already, track that $1,400 loss somewhere you will see it again. Not to punish yourself, but so that next year when the insurance bill feels annoying, you remember what the alternative cost.

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