The 110% Rule for Interstate Moving Estimates

Two different questions sit inside this rule, and the whole subject turns on keeping them apart:

What may the mover require at delivery?
What may I ultimately owe?

The 110% rule answers the first. It does not answer the second.

What the 110% is a percentage of

It is 110% of the non-binding estimate of the charges, meaning the estimated cost of the shipment and services described on that estimate. Not 110% of the final bill, and not 110% of a binding estimate, because the rule does not apply to binding estimates at all.

Federal rules require the sentence to appear on the estimate itself. A non-binding estimate must state on its face that it is not binding, that the charges shown are approximate, and that you will not be required to pay more than 110 percent of it at the time of delivery. If your estimate does not carry that sentence, the line that should be protecting you is missing from the document.

The estimated charges must also be entered on the bill of lading, so the figure your 110% is calculated from is recorded in the contract rather than left on a form you may not keep.

A worked example

A non-binding estimate comes in at $4,000. After loading, you ask for one extra pickup on the way, a service you requested after the paperwork was signed. The shipment turns out to weigh more than estimated, and the lawful charges under the mover’s tariff come to $5,500.

At the door you pay $4,700, and on that payment the mover must release your shipment. The $800 does not disappear. You owe it. You simply do not owe it standing in your driveway.

Reverse the situation and the rule still holds its shape. If the shipment came in under the estimate, you owe the actual lawful charges, not 110%. The 110% figure is a ceiling on what can be demanded that day, not a price you have agreed to. Our guide on why a moving bill can be higher than the estimate covers what makes the final number move.

What 110% does not cap

Final charges on a non-binding estimate are the ones in the mover’s tariff, based on the actual weight of your shipment and the services actually provided. The regulations require the mover to explain that those final charges may exceed the estimate. The 110% rule governs the timing and the leverage of payment, not the price.

Two categories of charge also sit outside the 110% figure:

• Services you requested after the bill of lading was issued. Waiting time, an extra pickup or delivery, storage. The mover may require full payment for these at destination, on top of the 110%.
• Impracticable operations. Conditions at pickup or delivery the mover could not reasonably work around, such as needing a shuttle where the truck cannot reach the property. What qualifies is defined in the mover’s own tariff rather than in the regulation. The amount collectible at delivery is subject to a limit of 15 percent of all other charges due that day, and applicable amounts beyond that are handled afterwards rather than demanded at the truck.

What happens at delivery

If you pay up to 110% of the non-binding estimate, plus any services you requested after the bill of lading was issued and any qualifying impracticable-operations charges, your mover must relinquish possession of the shipment at that time.

It must also accept the form of payment agreed at the time of the estimate, unless you have agreed in writing to change it. That is worth checking in advance: the bill of lading should name the same payment method the estimate did.

Failing to release a shipment after you have offered that payment is not a billing dispute. The regulations treat it as a failure to transport with reasonable dispatch, which exposes the mover to cargo delay claims under the federal claims rules.

If your shipment arrives in parts, the arithmetic is prorated by weight. Deliver 2,500 pounds of a 5,000-pound shipment and the mover may ask for 50% of the 110% figure, not the whole of it.

When the rest becomes due

“The rest” is not one thing. Federal rules treat three categories differently, and knowing which one a charge belongs to tells you when it can be demanded.

1. The balance above 110%, on the estimate’s own scope

Your mover may not collect more than 110% of the original non-binding estimate at destination. The remainder becomes a balance-due invoice, and the invoicing rules apply: the mover must present its invoice within 15 days of delivery, excluding weekends and federal holidays. The credit period is seven days.

If the invoice is unpaid after those seven days, the credit period is automatically extended to a total of 30 calendar days. The extension is not free. The rules require the mover to assess a service charge of one percent of the invoice, subject to a $20 minimum, for each 30-day extension the charges go unpaid. So the balance does not come with an automatic month to pay it. It comes with seven days, and then an extension that costs something.

2. Services the mover decided were necessary

If your mover concludes after the bill of lading has been issued that additional services are needed, it must tell you what they are before performing them, allow you at least an hour to decide, and record your agreement in a signed written attachment to the bill of lading.

These charges are billed after 30 days from delivery rather than collected at the truck. That is where the 30-day figure in this subject actually comes from, and it belongs to this category alone. The one exception is impracticable operations, which may still be collected at delivery subject to the 15 percent limit.

3. Services you requested

If you ask for additional services after the bill of lading has been issued, the mover must tell you the charges involved, and may require full payment for them at destination alongside the 110%. Applicable amounts not collected at delivery are billed under the same invoicing rules as the first category.

Where the rule sits among the estimate types

Federal rules establish two kinds of estimate: binding and non-binding. The 110% rule is a non-binding rule and has no application to a binding estimate, which has its own arithmetic.

You may also be offered something described as a “binding not-to-exceed” estimate. That is a commercial offering under a mover’s tariff rather than a third category defined in the federal rules, so what it commits your mover to is a question about the wording of your own document. Our guide on binding versus non-binding estimates covers how the two federal types differ.

What to look for in your own paperwork

Terminology you will actually see, and what it means here:

• Non-binding estimate. The words that decide whether this rule applies at all. A document headed “quote”, “price agreement”, or nothing in particular has not told you.
• 110 percent. The sentence the rules require on the face of a non-binding estimate. Its absence is worth raising before you sign.
• Collect on delivery, or COD. The payment basis these limits are written around.
• Maximum amount to be demanded at delivery. A required item on the bill of lading for a COD shipment. This is the number to compare against your own 110% arithmetic.
• Impracticable operations. Defined in the mover’s tariff, not in the regulation. Ask which conditions the tariff covers, and what they cost, before moving day.
• Additional services. Worth knowing whether a charge is one you requested or one the mover added, because the two are billed on different timetables.
• Balance due invoice. The document the remainder arrives on.

For the order to check the rest of the document in, see how to read a moving estimate before you sign.