Tipping movers - how to tip your mover

Professional movers work within your most personal and intimate boundary: your home. When you employ a professional mover you are entrusting everything you own and cherish into their care and custody. In addition, professional movers interact with consumers who are at their most vulnerable and fragile state because (after death in the family and divorce) moving is recognized as one of life’s three most stressful events.

In addition to managing their customer’s fragile emotional state, professional movers must often employ basic plumbing, carpentry, and electrical skills. So there’s a lot to being a mover and -- although movers are considered to be members of the service industry -- there is usually a lot more riding on their job performance than there is that of a restaurant food server. If the server drops your food, your order can be quickly replaced, whereas if a mover does a poor job packing your china -- or breaks your cherished furniture -- the result can be emotionally devastating. In addition, there are few members of any service trade who work as physically demanding as do movers.

There's a lot to being a mover, and yet moving company packers, helpers, and drivers don't earn a lot of money, and they do count on tips to supplement their incomes.

So tipping your mover is a way of giving extra thanks and recognition for a job that has been done well.

As with other service providers, you should base your tip on the service provider’s job performance. A bad attitude and/or indifferent work habits are not to be considered tip-worthy. However, if your moving crew is attentive, helpful, professional, and resourceful, then you should tip what you believe is fair.

 Tips are generally paid in cash, and a good rule of thumb for tipping movers is a minimum of $50.00 per packer or helper and a minimum of $50.00 for the driver/foreman. If you believe that the movers have done an extraordinary job, then you may want to tip them more than this. Generally, the largest tip a mover ever receives is $100.00 per person.
It should be noted that if your company is paying for your move, the price of a tip is never, ever included in the price that the relocation company charges your company. If you want your movers to receive a tip as a reward for good service, you will need to tip the movers yourself.

Tipping is a part of the moving industry, and such an offer will be greatly appreciated by your movers. It is a customary gesture when a moving job is done well.