Allied Van Lines, a prominent moving and transportation company based in Chicago, has garnered significant recognition in our latest rankings. Allied Van Lines has proven its commitment to delivering exceptional moving services by securing the esteemed third position in our Best Moving Companies of 2023 rating. With a rich history dating back to its establishment in 1928, this industry titan is owned by Sirva, Inc., Operating through a network of 400 agents across North America. Their extensive reach extends to 45 countries worldwide. Residential, commercial, international, and military household moves are just a few areas in which Allied excels, offering comprehensive solutions tailored to diverse needs. Moreover, their collaboration with the Salvation Army facilitates seamless donation services, assisting individuals in decluttering their homes before relocation.
What is Allied Van Lines?
Allied Van Lines is a renowned moving company that caters to various types of moves, including local, interstate, and international relocations. They offer basic and full-service packages, ensuring customers can choose the required level of assistance. One notable aspect of Allied Van Lines is its emphasis on personalized customer interactions. Their dedicated sales team members provide one-on-one support, assisting clients in obtaining accurate quotes and arranging all the necessary details for their move. To facilitate smooth transitions, Allied works in collaboration with their extensive fleet of over 3,500 vehicles operated by highly trained drivers.
The company’s services extend beyond standard moves, as they specialize in military family relocations, often requiring specific requirements. Customers can either pack their belongings themselves or entrust the packing, moving, and unpacking tasks to Allied’s professional movers. This flexibility allows individuals to tailor their moving experience to their preferences and needs.
While Allied Van Lines provides an online quoting process, it ultimately requires direct engagement with their agents or representatives to obtain an accurate cost estimate. This personalized approach ensures that customers receive attention and guidance throughout the moving process. However, if you prefer a more digitally-focused and self-service experience, there may be better choices than Allied for your requirements. Additionally, Allied Van Lines offers storage solutions for those who require a secure location to store their belongings temporarily. This service proves particularly beneficial when individuals must vacate their current residence before finding a new one for delivery.
Types of moves
Allied Van Lines provides a comprehensive range of moving services to accommodate residential and corporate clients within the United States and internationally. Here are the different types of moves offered by Allied Van Lines:
Local Moves
Allied Van Lines specializes in local moves, ensuring a seamless and efficient transition within the same city or metropolitan area. Whether you are moving to a nearby neighborhood or a different part of town, their experienced professionals will handle the logistics to make your local move stress-free.
Long-Distance Moves
Allied Van Lines offers long-distance moving services for those relocating to a different state or a considerable distance away. With their extensive network of resources and expertise, they can handle every aspect of your move, ensuring the safe transportation of your belongings to your new destination.
Interstate Moves
Allied Van Lines is well-equipped to handle interstate moves, which involve crossing state lines within the United States. Whether you are moving from the East Coast to the West Coast or vice versa, their team of professionals will provide efficient planning, logistics, and transportation services to make your interstate move a success.
Cross-Country Moves
Allied Van Lines has the expertise to handle cross-country moves if you are moving across the entire country. Regardless of the distance involved, they will coordinate and execute every stage of the move, ensuring that your belongings are securely transported to your new home, no matter how far away it may be.
International Moves
Allied Van Lines offers comprehensive moving services for those relocating internationally. Whether you are moving overseas for work or personal reasons, their international moving specialists will assist with the complex logistics of international relocations. From customs documentation to international shipping, Allied Van Lines will ensure a smooth transition to your new home in a different country.
What Are Services Offered by Allied Van Lines?
Allied Van Lines provides various services to cater to your moving needs. Explore the following options provided by Allied Van Lines:
- Packing and Unpacking: Allied Van Line’s skilled professionals will safely pack and unpack your belongings with utmost care.
- Loading and Unloading: Allied Van Lines movers are experienced in properly loading and securing your furniture and belongings in the moving truck. We utilize various protective materials such as plastic wrap, bubble wrap, moving blankets, specialized boxes, ramps, dollies, and tie-downs to ensure the safety of your items during transit. Additionally, Allied Van Lines conducts thorough inventory checks as our movers unload your possessions, ensuring every item is accounted for.
- Fragile Pack Only: If you prefer to handle most of the packing yourself but have delicate or valuable items that require special attention, our fragile packing service is an excellent choice. Our movers are trained to pack fragile, breakable, or high-value items safely.
- Extra Care Protection (ECP): For an added fee, you can opt for our full-valuation coverage. With ECP, Allied Van Lines takes responsibility for repairing or replacing any damaged, lost, or destroyed items during your move.
- Storage Services: Allied Van Lines provides temporary storage for up to 90 days for your household items in transit. We also offer long-term storage solutions for customers needing extended storage periods.
- Corporate Moves: If your office or company requires relocation, we specialize in creating custom corporate moving packages tailored to your specific needs.
- Packing Supplies: To assist you in preparing for your move, Allied Van Lines offers various moving and packing supplies. Our selection includes mattress boxes, mirror boxes, custom crates, dish-pack boxes, wardrobe boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, and wrapping paper.
- Custom Packing Kits: We provide the option to receive moving supplies in kits customized for your specific move, ensuring you have the necessary materials tailored to your requirements.
- Vehicle Relocation: Our vehicle relocation services are one of our top offerings. Unlike acting as a broker, Allied Van Lines directly supplies its trucks and movers for auto transportation. By pairing this service with your moving package, you can save money and eliminate the need to find a separate auto transportation company. We handle the transportation of various vehicles, including cars, trucks, SUVs, boats, yachts, luxury/exotic cars, classic/antique cars, snowmobiles, jet skis, motorcycles, and recreational vehicles (RVs).
How Much Does Allied Van Lines Cost?
According to Allied Van Lines, the average cost for a long-distance move is around $3,500. This estimate is based on transporting a 7,000-pound shipment across a distance of 1,000 miles. However, it’s important to note that fees may vary depending on factors such as the size of your home, the distance of the move, and the specific date of the move. The fees can vary depending on these factors, resulting in higher or lower amounts.
One advantage of choosing Allied Van Lines is that they do not require a deposit for their services. Instead, your first payment is due within 48 hours of the moving service being provided. This payment arrangement provides flexibility and convenience for customers.
Where Is Allied Van Lines Available?
Allied Van Lines is accessible in various locations nationwide, boasting a vast network of local agents. Even if there isn’t a nearby agent, Allied remains flexible and strives to accommodate your specific moving requirements. To determine the closest location, visit the official Allied Van Lines website, contact their dedicated number for a personalized quote, or conveniently submit an online form to request a callback.
When it comes to domestic moves, Allied’s moving services encompass a significant portion of the United States. Additionally, Allied collaborates with representatives spanning over 130 countries for those planning international moves. Their comprehensive international services include proficient packing, efficient shipment tracking, and valuable assistance with storage solutions.
Allied Van Lines Optional Services
Allied Van Lines provides a range of optional services to cater to various customer needs. One such service is full-service packing, where customers can opt to have the company handle the boxing of their items instead of doing it themselves.
If you have already secured a new home, Allied Van Lines offers site-to-site moving with no waiting period. However, if your new residence is not ready for immediate move-in, the company can temporarily hold your belongings in transit for up to 90 days. After this period, the items are transferred to permanent storage, and you will be required to pay a fee to keep them in a secure, climate-controlled facility. It may be worth comparing these storage costs to those of self-storage options.
While Allied provides packing supplies, customers also have the option to purchase their own boxes and packing materials in advance, potentially saving on costs. However, opting for the company’s packing supplies can offer convenience.
Allied Van Lines also caters to military families by facilitating Personally Procured Moves (PPM) for members of the armed forces. The company highlights features that may appeal to military families, such as labor certification requirements, shipment tracking capabilities, compliance with Department of Transportation regulations, and international shipping through freight forwarding partners.
What to know about Allied Van Lines
Here are some key points about Allied Van Lines:
Virtual Quotes
Allied Van Lines offers a convenient option for virtual moving quotes. You can opt for a virtual consultation instead of scheduling an in-person appointment with their movers. Allied will provide you with a video chat link by simply requesting a virtual quote. During the session, a representative will guide you to walk around your home with your camera, allowing them to assess your belongings and provide a rough estimate of the moving cost. Although a physical visit is still necessary for a binding quote, this initial virtual estimate saves you time and explains the expenses involved.
Extensive Service Area
Allied Van Lines stands out as both a broker and a carrier, resulting in a wide-ranging service area that covers most locations across the United States. Whether you are relocating to another state within the continental U.S. or planning a move to Alaska or Hawaii, Allied has the capability and resources to facilitate your move efficiently. With a network of 400 agents spread throughout the country, Allied ensures that you experience minimal wait times compared to other moving companies. This aspect is particularly advantageous considering the lingering moving backlogs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Storage options
Allied Van Lines provides a comprehensive selection of storage solutions tailored to your requirements. Allied has the perfect storage solutions for you, whether you require temporary storage for a few months or extended storage for an overseas move lasting multiple years.
One of the standout features is the availability of climate-controlled storage units, ensuring the safety of temperature-sensitive items such as furniture and electronics. With Allied, you don’t have to worry about the heavy lifting; their professionals will handle the moving in and out of storage for you.
Customer reviews
While Allied Van Lines prides itself on its customer service, there are variations in the overall satisfaction levels. While some of their brokers consistently receive excellent reviews, the company’s average customer service scores are slightly below the industry average. This means that while you can still find exceptional customer service, there is a higher chance of encountering a carrier that may not meet your expectations.
You can minimize this risk by searching on Google for customer reviews of the particular Allied carrier that offers you a quote. For instance, if you receive a quote from Bailey’s Moving & Storage—an Allied mover—you’ll discover that they have nearly perfect overall review scores. Conversely, if your search reveals review scores below the industry average (around 3.9 out of 5 stars), it would be prudent to explore other Allied carriers.
Insurance coverage
Allied Van Lines offers comprehensive insurance coverage under their Extra Care Protection plan, which is touted as the most comprehensive option in the industry. This protection plan covers the cost of repairing or replacing any lost, damaged, or destroyed items during the move. The coverage amount depends on the value you assign to your belongings.
In addition to the comprehensive coverage, Allied also provides a cost-effective alternative called Basic Liability Protection. The included protection plan for your move provides coverage for your belongings, with a maximum limit of $0.60 per pound per item, at no additional cost.
Allied Van Lines vs. the Competition
Allied Van Lines is a well-known moving company that competes with several other companies in the industry. Let’s compare Allied Van Lines with two competitors: JK Moving and Bellhop.
JK Moving
JK Moving is rated as the top moving company in our 2023 Best Moving Companies rating. It has operated for approximately 40 years. It stands out as an independently owned moving company and offers many moving and storage services. Customers can choose from different service levels, including full-service packing or fragile-only packing. Alternatively, customers can pack their boxes if preferred, and JK Moving will handle the loading and transportation. Although JK Moving doesn’t provide specialized moving services for the military, it claims to accommodate most military moves.
Bellhop
On the other hand, Bellhop rated the second highest in our 2023 rating, primarily focuses on moves within the United States. While Bellhop offers similar services to Allied Van Lines, such as interstate and local moving, it distinguishes itself by providing a tech-forward moving experience. Customers can conveniently utilize Bellhop’s mobile app to request quotes, whether they require a moving truck and movers or just a team of movers for loading and unloading. However, unlike Allied Van Lines, Bellhop doesn’t offer packing services. Bellhop is suitable for those seeking quick and efficient solutions for local or interstate moves without needing in-home consultations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Allied Van Lines has emerged as one of the top professional moving companies in the United States. Their virtual quoting system allows customers to easily obtain estimated costs for their move, providing convenience and transparency. The company’s extensive network of 400 local agents ensures efficient and swift service, regardless of the destination. Notably, Allied Van Lines excels in providing top-notch storage options, further enhancing their comprehensive moving services. While customer reviews may be mixed overall, it is advisable to research and evaluate the specific carrier assigned to your move. Ultimately, Allied Van Lines is a reliable choice for individuals and families seeking professional moving services in 2023.
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