The Nuance Collective
The Nuance Index™
009
Mc
Moving
Companies
Companies
00
How this works
We asked five questions about hiring a mover, five times each, and then asked all five again with the everyday word swapped in: once about moving companies, once about movers.
What’s the best moving company? I’m about to hire a moving company. Who should I get? What’s the most verifiably licensed and insured moving company? What are the top brands of moving companies? If you were hiring a moving company for me, what would you choose?
50 conversations and we scored 25 of them. Then we looked up every company the answers named in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s public files: the licensing file, which says who may carry household goods between states and who may only broker them, and the census file, where each company reports how many trucks it runs.
Remember that the third question is always written by the model itself, before anything is scored. This week, we asked it what it would sort movers by, and “most verifiably licensed and insured” is what it said. It took 33 tries to get there, because it kept giving the same idea in different words. Also, the swapped word broke down on two of the five questions, where the model took “movers” to mean furniture sliders, lifting straps and hand trucks. (Those runs are not scored.)
What’s the best moving company? I’m about to hire a moving company. Who should I get? What’s the most verifiably licensed and insured moving company? What are the top brands of moving companies? If you were hiring a moving company for me, what would you choose?
50 conversations and we scored 25 of them. Then we looked up every company the answers named in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s public files: the licensing file, which says who may carry household goods between states and who may only broker them, and the census file, where each company reports how many trucks it runs.
Remember that the third question is always written by the model itself, before anything is scored. This week, we asked it what it would sort movers by, and “most verifiably licensed and insured” is what it said. It took 33 tries to get there, because it kept giving the same idea in different words. Also, the swapped word broke down on two of the five questions, where the model took “movers” to mean furniture sliders, lifting straps and hand trucks. (Those runs are not scored.)
01
The Number — Category Clarity
77.8
Clear
The answer is stable and accurate.
68.0
Agreement
does it answer the same way twice
58.2–79.3 at 90%
85.9
Accuracy
is what it says true
no interval — checked claims, not resampled
79.0
Alignment
does the ranking match the real category
77.6–79.9 at 90%
True →
Unsettlednot the same twice · true
Clearthe same twice · true
Confusednot the same twice · false
Miscastthe same twice · false
Clearthe same twice · true
Same answer twice →
Settled at Agreement 50 · true at Truth 50 · this category sits at Agreement 68.0, Truth 82.5 · both boundaries are the midpoint of their own metric
PASS Indexable 32 scoredPASS Capture blind 3 of 3 control runs— Reference set 28 named carriers, FMCSA-licensed— Baseline no prior run, no arrow
Most of what AI says about this category checks out: Accuracy 85.9. We checked 363 statements against the federal files and each company’s own site. 21 were false, and 11 of those 21 say the same thing about two companies: that Safeway Moving and Colonial Van Lines sell your move to someone else. Both hold a federal carrier’s license, but neither holds a broker’s license. Two say United and Mayflower own their trucks, and their own filings list none. “Nobody owns the trucks” is normal for van lines. Their local agents own the equipment and lease it to the van line. But consumers don’t know that.
The answers agree with each other: Agreement 68.0. United, Mayflower, Allied, North American and Atlas lead almost every list, and United is named first in 20 of 25. Alignment, how well the attention tracks the trucks, is 79.0. Four of the five largest fleets the answers name are in that leading group. Below them it comes apart, in both directions.
The answers agree with each other: Agreement 68.0. United, Mayflower, Allied, North American and Atlas lead almost every list, and United is named first in 20 of 25. Alignment, how well the attention tracks the trucks, is 79.0. Four of the five largest fleets the answers name are in that leading group. Below them it comes apart, in both directions.
02
The Read
The person moving is in a fragile state: this is arguably the most vulnerable purchase most people make. Everything you own, on a truck, with strangers. The question under every one of these fifty conversations is whether the people at the door are who you think you hired.
The name on the quote, the name on the truck and the crew at the door can be three different parties. In a van line that is normal and works fine: United reports 4,731 trucks and owns none; every one belongs to a local agent. The answers know this. What they cannot do is keep track of which names still have anyone behind them.
For people inside the category: if your company was sold, merged or renamed, the model may still be vouching for the old one, and the customer finds the mismatch at the exact moment they are deciding whether to trust you.
The name on the quote, the name on the truck and the crew at the door can be three different parties. In a van line that is normal and works fine: United reports 4,731 trucks and owns none; every one belongs to a local agent. The answers know this. What they cannot do is keep track of which names still have anyone behind them.
For people inside the category: if your company was sold, merged or renamed, the model may still be vouching for the old one, and the customer finds the mismatch at the exact moment they are deciding whether to trust you.
03
The Standings
AI says United is the best moving company. It is named in every scored answer and named first in 20 of them, and it is also the largest: United tells the federal government it runs 4,731 trucks, more than any other mover the answers name. Mayflower, Allied and North American follow, and Atlas after them. One answer describes Atlas as “somewhat smaller” than the other four; it reports 2,732 trucks, second only to United.
Two Men and a Truck is in every answer too. It is 229 separately licensed franchise owners who together report 2,536 trucks, which makes it the third-largest fleet here. The answers file it under local moves.
Two Men and a Truck is in every answer too. It is 229 separately licensed franchise owners who together report 2,536 trucks, which makes it the third-largest fleet here. The answers file it under local moves.
| Brand | Presence | Rank | Conviction | Fidelity | Composite | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Band 1 · 72–77 · 2 brands, not separated by the data | ||||||
| 1 | UnUnited Van Lines | 100.0 | 90.2 | 65.9 | 22.5 | 75.2 73–77 |
| 1 | MyMayflower | 100.0 | 81.8 | 67.0 | 23.5 | 73.6 72–75 |
| Band 2 · 69–72 · 1 brand, separated from every other band | ||||||
| 2 | AlAllied Van Lines | 100.0 | 70.7 | 65.9 | 25.0 | 70.8 69–72 |
| Band 3 · 66–69 · 1 brand, separated from every other band | ||||||
| 3 | NaNorth American Van Lines | 100.0 | 59.1 | 64.8 | 25.0 | 67.7 66–69 |
| Band 4 · 57–64 · 2 brands, not separated by the data | ||||||
| 4 | AtAtlas Van Lines | 100.0 | 41.8 | 65.9 | 22.5 | 63.1 62–64 |
| 4 | JkJK Moving | 96.0 | 23.6 | 79.8 | 23.8 | 60.2 57–64 |
| Band 5 · 59–61 · 1 brand, separated from every other band | ||||||
| 5 | BkBekins | 100.0 | 31.1 | 61.4 | 25.0 | 60.1 59–61 |
| Band 6 · 42–56 · 5 brands, not separated by the data | ||||||
| 6 | UpU-Pack | 100.0 | 2.7 | 72.7 | 23.9 | 55.0 54–56 |
| 6 | PoPODS | 100.0 | 4.4 | 64.8 | 25.0 | 54.1 53–55 |
| 6 | TmTwo Men and a Truck | 100.0 | 5.8 | 63.6 | 23.2 | 53.8 53–55 |
| 6 | PkPenske | 84.0 | 4.2 | 77.8 | 22.5 | 50.5 45–55 |
| 6 | UgUniGroup | 44.0 | 74.7 | 50.0 | 21.7 | 48.4 42–54 |
| Band 7 · 33–52 · 6 brands, not separated by the data | ||||||
| 7 | UhU-Haul | 84.0 | 4.8 | 61.1 | 25.0 | 47.8 42–52 |
| 7 | Pr1-800-PACK-RAT | 80.0 | 2.2 | 61.8 | 25.0 | 45.9 41–50 |
| 7 | SvSIRVA | 52.0 | 41.9 | 52.5 | 23.2 | 43.8 38–50 |
| 7 | BtBudget Truck Rental | 80.0 | 3.9 | 47.1 | 25.0 | 43.4 38–48 |
| 7 | ChCollege Hunks | 68.0 | 1.3 | 64.3 | 23.4 | 41.7 36–47 |
| 7 | IvInternational Van Lines | 68.0 | 12.4 | 39.3 | 18.8 | 38.5 33–44 |
| Band 8 · 23–41 · 11 brands, not separated by the data · Graebel 35.4 · HireAHelper 34.5 · Bellhop 34.2 · Arpin 33.7 · Zippy Shell 32.4 · Wheaton 31.6 · American Van Lines 30.8 · Gentle Giant 29.7 · Suddath 28.5 · Crown Relocations 27.5 · Enterprise Truck Rental 25.8 | ||||||
| Band 9 · 11–24 · 3 brands, not separated by the data · Moving APT 18.1 · Safeway Moving 14.0 · Colonial Van Lines 12.4 | ||||||
Composite, with its 90% interval
10,000 resamples of the 25 runs
Band 12 brands, not separated by the data
United Van Lines
Mayflower
Band 2one brand, separated from every other band
Allied Van Lines
Band 3one brand, separated from every other band
North American Van Lines
Band 42 brands, not separated by the data
Atlas Van Lines
JK Moving
55.061.067.073.080.0
Point estimate
90% interval — where this brand sits if the 25 primary-noun runs are redrawn
Bands are cut where the intervals stop overlapping
Table view — composite and interval
United Van Lines 75.2 (73–77) · Mayflower 73.6 (72–75) · Allied Van Lines 70.8 (69–72) · North American Van Lines 67.7 (66–69) · Atlas Van Lines 63.1 (62–64) · JK Moving 60.2 (57–64)
United Van Lines 75.2 (73–77) · Mayflower 73.6 (72–75) · Allied Van Lines 70.8 (69–72) · North American Van Lines 67.7 (66–69) · Atlas Van Lines 63.1 (62–64) · JK Moving 60.2 (57–64)
04
The Signal
Who shows up to move you? · this week's featured finding
23 of 25 answers tell you to look your mover up in the federal database.
Three kinds of company can take your money for a move, and the difference is who touches your things. A carrier is the mover itself: its trucks, its crew, its federal license to carry household goods across state lines. A van line is a national name over a network of local moving companies called agents. You book with the name, and the agent down the road does the move with its own trucks and its own license. A broker owns no trucks at all. It sells you the move and finds a carrier to do it. Brokers are legal and licensed separately. The federal licensing file says which of the three a company is.AI explains agents correctly. All 25 warn about brokers, and 23 tell you to check a company’s federal number before you sign. 5 tell you in so many words to find out who actually shows up.
Then come the names.
Graebel is in 12 of the 25 scored answers, and in all 5 answers to the question about who is most verifiably licensed and insured. Graebel’s own history page says that in 2014 it “divests from its US Van Line company in order to focus exclusively on global talent mobility.” It manages corporate relocations now. It reports 1 truck.
Arpin is in 11, and in the same 5 of 5. Wheaton bought Arpin Van Lines in April 2020. One answer credits Arpin with a “strong international arm.” Wheaton’s announcement says Arpin International Group stayed with the Arpin family, “with no affiliation to The Wheaton Group or Arpin Van Lines.” Today arpin.com opens a page titled “Arpin Trademark Site” with a Wheaton copyright line and Wheaton’s federal number. The two Arpin companies still on the federal list report 1 truck each.
Bekins is in all 25. It is one of the oldest names in the business, founded in 1891, and it has belonged to Wheaton since 2012. It still operates as a brand, with its own agents. 12 answers tell you UniGroup owns United and Mayflower, and 14 tell you Sirva owns Allied and North American. 1 tells you who owns Bekins. Bekins Van Lines itself reports 1 truck, and the companies with Bekins in their names report 163 between them.
The broker warning comes with a list, and someone reading it scared will cross every name on it off. Six heavily advertised companies are grouped together as brokers or part brokers: International Van Lines (17 answers), American Van Lines (13), Safeway Moving (7), Moving APT (6), Colonial Van Lines (5) and Interstate Moving & Relocation Group (3). Moving APT and Interstate Moving & Relocation Group are brokers, and both say so on their own sites. International Van Lines is both, and says so: a carrier license and a separate broker license. The other three are licensed as carriers. American Van Lines reports 81 trucks under its federal number, 614506. Safeway Moving Systems reports 51 and owns all 51, and its site says “Safeway Moving is the carrier.” Colonial Van Lines holds carrier licenses and no broker license. One answer says flatly that International, American and Safeway “are brokers, not carriers.” The others hedge, “wholly or partly,” and leave the reader to work out which.
None of this says anything about how well any of these companies will treat you. The federal file records a license and a truck count. It is the file the answers tell you to check.
For the folks who run moving companies. Look yourself up the way your customer is being told to, then ask the model who you are. If the two disagree, your customer finds the disagreement at the moment they are deciding whether to trust you with everything they own.
7,176 of the 7,683 licensed household movers on the federal list sit behind none of the names in the twenty-five scored answers. Most run one to five trucks and serve one city. These report 170 trucks or more and never came up in any of the fifty answers: Coleman American (629 across 12 licensed companies), Piece of Cake (340), Hilldrup (298 across 2 licensed companies), Roadway Moving (190), National Van Lines (174).
Every company on this page was checked the same way. A company is included if 1) the answers name it and 2) it moves household goods, or sells or enables a household move. Furniture sliders, packing tape, review sites and trade associations turned up in the answers too and are not included.
Trucks and licenses. 24 of the 32 scored names are licensed carriers with a truck count. The 8 without one are marked: PODS, U-Pack, U-Haul, Penske, Budget and Enterprise rent you a truck or a container and you do the moving; Bellhop and Moving APT hold broker licenses. A truck count here means trucks reported under that brand’s own name. A van line’s local agents are licensed separately under their own names and are not in the van line’s number. All 32 scored names are shown, in 9 bands.
Every name was looked up in two public files kept by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, both pulled on 21 September 2026, before any question was asked. The licensing file says whether a company may carry household goods across state lines, broker them, or both. The census file is where each licensed company reports its trucks. 7,683 companies hold an active license to carry household goods between states.
A company’s truck count is every truck reported under its brand name. For a franchise that means adding up the franchise owners, because each one is licensed separately: Two Men and a Truck is 229 of them. For a van line it means the van line’s own filing, and the agents’ trucks stay under the agents’ names.
Left out. A mover with no federal license of any kind. Most are local companies that never cross a state line and are licensed by their state.
Truck counts are compared across the 28 licensed movers the answers named, and the wording of the third question is the one the model gave most often across its 33 tries.
Trucks and licenses. 24 of the 32 scored names are licensed carriers with a truck count. The 8 without one are marked: PODS, U-Pack, U-Haul, Penske, Budget and Enterprise rent you a truck or a container and you do the moving; Bellhop and Moving APT hold broker licenses. A truck count here means trucks reported under that brand’s own name. A van line’s local agents are licensed separately under their own names and are not in the van line’s number. All 32 scored names are shown, in 9 bands.
Every name was looked up in two public files kept by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, both pulled on 21 September 2026, before any question was asked. The licensing file says whether a company may carry household goods across state lines, broker them, or both. The census file is where each licensed company reports its trucks. 7,683 companies hold an active license to carry household goods between states.
A company’s truck count is every truck reported under its brand name. For a franchise that means adding up the franchise owners, because each one is licensed separately: Two Men and a Truck is 229 of them. For a van line it means the van line’s own filing, and the agents’ trucks stay under the agents’ names.
Left out. A mover with no federal license of any kind. Most are local companies that never cross a state line and are licensed by their state.
Truck counts are compared across the 28 licensed movers the answers named, and the wording of the third question is the one the model gave most often across its 33 tries.
Scores are not comparable across categories, and no edition cites
another's. Every edition is a self-contained verdict on its own category.
Every license and truck count on this page comes from the federal government’s own files and anyone can look them up. What the answers say about your company can be checked the same way. The Nuance Collective
Every license and truck count on this page comes from the federal government’s own files and anyone can look them up. What the answers say about your company can be checked the same way. The Nuance Collective