The Average Flagged Mover Is 2 Years Old. The Average Good Mover Is 18. Why Age Is the Simplest Trust Signal.

FMCSA registers a new moving company in 20 minutes for $300. No background check. No proficiency exam. No verification that the applicant has ever moved a piece of furniture. The company receives a DOT number and begins operating immediately.

Six months later, the company has 50 complaints. It dissolves. A new company is registered at the same address by the same person. The complaint counter resets to zero.

This is why company age is the simplest and most reliable trust signal in the moving industry.

Trunk tracks years in business for 92 profiled movers with verified age data.

Average age across all profiled movers: 17.9 years. Oldest company in the database: 124 years. Companies under 2 years old: 3.

When we separate movers by complaint trajectory:

Companies with zero NCCDB complaints have an average age significantly higher than companies with 50+ complaints. The companies generating the most complaints per truck (Howards at 166/truck, Handle With Care at 147/truck, Value Added at 135/truck) were all registered within the last few years.

The chameleon carrier pattern, dissolving and re-registering to reset complaints, is only possible because FMCSA does not penalize youth. A company registered yesterday receives the same 'Authorized' status as a company that has operated safely for 50 years.

A company that has operated under the same name for 15+ years has:

A reputation that took years to build and would take years to rebuild if lost. An established customer base that provides referrals (our repeat customer data confirms this: repeat business clusters in older, local companies). Insurance history that carriers and surety providers can evaluate. A track record that regulators, journalists, and platforms can verify. Employees with tenure, not day laborers hired from Craigslist.

A company registered 6 months ago has none of these. It has a DOT number and a website. The DOT number proves it filled out a form. The website proves it can use a template. Neither proves it can move furniture without damaging it, inflating the price, or holding belongings hostage.

Age is a signal, not a guarantee. Two important exceptions:

Old companies can decline. Colonial Van Lines has operated for over 20 years under the DiSorbo family. It has 121 NCCDB complaints, is a plaintiff in coordinated lawsuits against a consumer protection nonprofit, and its founder was banned from the industry in 1997 and jailed in 2000. Longevity does not immunize a company from fraud.

New companies can be legitimate. A mover who worked for a van line for 15 years and then started their own company is new to FMCSA but not new to moving. The company's age on paper does not reflect the owner's experience.

The distinction: a new company started by an experienced mover will typically have a verifiable personal history, real equipment, a physical address, and references from prior employers. A new company started to reset a complaint history will have a virtual address, zero trucks, a DBA that sounds like a national brand, and a principal whose name appears on prior revoked carriers.

1. Look up the FMCSA registration date at safer.fmcsa.dot.gov. This is the date FMCSA granted authority. A company claiming '20 years of experience' with a registration date of 2025 is lying or bought an existing DOT number.

2. Check the domain registration at whois.domaintools.com. Compare the website creation date to the FMCSA registration date and the company's claimed experience.

3. Search for the company name in historical records. Google the company name with year ranges ('Company Name 2015,' 'Company Name 2010'). A company with no web presence before its FMCSA registration date has no verifiable history.

4. Ask directly: 'How long have you been in business under this name?' The 'under this name' qualifier matters. A chameleon carrier may have 10 years of experience under 5 different names.

5. Check Trunk. Every profiled mover shows years in business alongside complaint data, entity links, and cross-platform ratings. A 20-year company with 3 complaints and Reddit recommendations is a different proposition than a 1-year company with 50 complaints and no web presence.