Appropriate tip for movers?

[Alfisti]

I will never, ever, ever in my life understand the tipping culture there is in the USA and Canada.

It is utter and complete madness.

[vreihen16]

The last two times that I moved, I didn't hire movers or even rent a U-Haul truck. I loaded up my GTI or CJ-7 every evening, and drove to the new place on my way to work the next morning to unload. Repeat for two weeks until everything that fit in the car was out of my previous place. Then, I took a Sawzall to everything that didn't fit in the car and tossed it in the dumpster.

Buying new bulky furniture items with free delivery was cheaper/easier than moving the old stuff, and let me get decor that fit the new place rather than trying to figure out how to make the old stuff work.

If we had to move again, most of our furniture is roller toolboxes (including the kitchen). We can roll about half our stuff out the front door and up the ramp onto my enclosed race car hauler without even packing.....

[RickFLM4]

I tip most people and tip well, but don’t recall ever tipping a mover (not having used one in about 18 years). You never really know how good a job the did until everything is unpacked and you inspect it. $50/each + maybe some food sounds very fair to me.

[floridaorange]

Reading this stresses me out, give them each 2 $20's and be done with it.

[MPOWER5266]

I worked as a mover one summer during college, $50 would have been an amazing tip. Most of the time we were lucky to get water, haha.

[spazzyfry123]

Our recent move was from a two bedroom apartment on the third floor to the 3/2 single family home we're in now maybe 20 minutes away. We pre-packed and pre-wrapped the furniture and provided the U-Haul that I drove. We had two guys strictly for the muscle.

If I remember right, my wife grabbed a few things from McDonald's for the guys to have breakfast and $50 each.

[TheWatchGuy]

i used to move often for work and always hired movers to pack up my shit, load it up and deliver to the next place and offload.

for the packing/loading, id do ~$50 each depending on how long it took/how much stuff i had. 1200sqft condo - took 5 hours to pack and load, gave $50. 3500sqft house - took 8 hours to pack and load, gave ~$75. 3k sqft home - took ~4 hours to pack and load ( i packed a lot of my own stuff) gave $50.

[TheWatchGuy]

Originally Posted by Murf993

We are moving Monday, for the first time we hired movers to do a complete move. 4 ladies showed up at 9 am today and in 5 hours packed the whole house. My wife had left a few dirty dishes in the dishwasher so we'd have some cups and plates to get us through the weekend......they packed them too. Fabulous. You could pay them by the hour and give them a decent tip if they're fast and do a decent job. Not sure what a fare rate is in your neck of the woods but I'd be looking at least $25/hour or so.

Lol

the 1st time we had people pack our stuff up and move it, we didnt realize they would pack up literally EVERYTHING. Trash cans with trash in them? boxed up with the trash still in it.

the next few times we prepped accordingly and only a few weird things got pakced. Like half empty toilet paper rolls.

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by MPOWER5266

I worked as a mover one summer during college, $50 would have been an amazing tip. Most of the time we were lucky to get water, haha.

Same.

Temp agency, one day we worked 0600-well past midnight moving a huge office, 2 semi-trailers. I had never done that sort of stuff. I called in the next morning at 0600 because I couldn't walk. They said don't worry, most of the crew had called in before they even went to bed.

We didn't get no stinking tips

[jsf721]

Just moved my son into NYC. His first job post collage. He started remotely in July and the office wanted him back in November. I loved having him home all those months. Anyway, We had a 16 foot truck not quite full. They picked up a bedroom set at a store and a couch at another then loaded up at my house and took everything into NYC. We has 2 guys who took everything up, assembled the furniture and took whatever garbage we generated off site. (Boxes and packing material)

I was thrilled with their service and tipped them both $ 150 each. They were thrilled too.

NYC is not an easy move. They removed a lot of my anticipated stress and I appreciated that very much.

[Dang3r]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I will never, ever, ever in my life understand the tipping culture there is in the USA and Canada.

It is utter and complete madness.

Me neither but you would agree, that service jobs just by bare salaries are beyond from attractive. If you havent that little extra by tips the money wont even enough to let you have a good life.

My last moving is now 8 years ago, was a necessary 470mls move by employer company and so they had payed the full process, was around 10000,- EUR and included a 7.5ton truck, several boxes and 5 guys for packing, storage and moving the whole furniture. Hence in Germany its usual to take your own things completely with you and leave an empty flat/condo/house the amount of the carry-all is higher. At first we were willing to tip them with 20,- EUR p.p. but at least theyd damaged so much of our furniture that we had to fill out some sheets for the insurance - and left them w/o.

[c1pher]

Buy ATT for the 7% dividend.....

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by c1pher

Buy ATT for the 7% dividend.....

Don't stand up in a canoe.....

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Dang3r

Me neither but you would agree, that service jobs just by bare salaries are beyond from attractive. If you havent that little extra by tips the money wont even enough to let you have a good life.

Just pay more. In Australia minimum wage is $18 an hr for service jobs, no tipping. Over here it's a fucking mess. Absolutely loathe it.

[1MOREMOD]

Don't drop my shit or I will thump you.

[Joekerr]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Just pay more. In Australia minimum wage is $18 an hr for service jobs, no tipping. Over here it's a fucking mess. Absolutely loathe it.

Watch at the 0:16 - 0:20 mark for my response...

I keed, I keed.

[hooligan_G01]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

I’m stumped, need your feedback please. I have 2 moving vans and 5 guys coming. I packed and marked everything so they are loading boxes, furniture, patio furniture, snow blower, BBQ grill. Only things they are packing are 2 TVs, 2 big pictures and 3 wall mirrors. I was thinking $50 per man. My brother said 20% of moving charge which I think is excessive. Thoughts appreciated.

I’m so freaking stressed!

I would say $40-50/per is completely reasonable, even generous. Knowing what moving costs, 20% seems way over the top to me.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Joekerr

Watch at the 0:16 - 0:20 mark for my response...

I keed, I keed.

I'm trying I'm trying!! Wife making noises like she may be onboard but will believe it when I see it.

[Colodano]

The times that I have hired moving help, they were super happy with 40-50$ each and some snacks and drinks. Most of them are living their day on caffeine and smokes, so they are really happy to get something on top of the money they are making to do the work already.

[Murf993]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I will never, ever, ever in my life understand the tipping culture there is in the USA and Canada.

It is utter and complete madness.

So given that movers make minimum wage and it is a difficult, thankless job that leaves you aching I'd say a tip if they do a good job is fair.

We moved a 3 bedroom house this week, the weight was 12500lbs, it 5 guys almost 6 hours to load the truck and then 4 of them drove 400km and slept in a shitty motel, they were at our new place at 7:30 and they took another 6 hours to unload and then had to drive 400km back to the starting point. They were doing it again the next day. We bought them lunch both days and sent them off with a couple of cold beers each when they left. We also tipped them each $75 for each day of work. Was it a big tip, maybe. They did a great job, didn't break or damage anything, worked like pack mules. When I think about what a waiter get's tipped for an expensive meal the tip seemed small.

But that's just me, I sure as hell wouldn't want to have to carry all that furniture and boxes for what they get paid.

[cmyx6go]

So the move itself is complete. I'm living in chaos right now but I'll post that story in the Confess thread when I have time to write a novel.

The movers were great. Got there early, wrapped everything like pros. Got some oversized furniture down narrow stairs without marking up the walls or damaging any furniture. I was a bit concerned because when I moved in, the banister wasn't in so there was a lot more maneuvering space. They guys were thrilled with the $50 each, except for the lead guy. He looked down and spread out the bills to see how much and didn't say a word. He worked no harder than the others. I'm assuming if I had given all the $ to him, he would have distributed it differently. Oh well. That's exactly why I gave to them individually. I also gave them a few bottles of champagne that were in the house - I hate champagne.

Thanks for all your feedback. It's Friday boys and girls - YAY!

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I will never, ever, ever in my life understand the tipping culture there is in the USA and Canada.

It is utter and complete madness.

Most service workers (waiters, hairstylists, kind of thing) are paid lower wages based on them receiving tips. I do think things are getting carried away when I go to the local store and the cashiers have out tip cups. I don't tip them.