The Hostage Load Epidemic: Which Moving Companies Are Holding Your Belongings

A hostage load is when a moving company refuses to deliver your belongings until you pay more than the agreed price. It is a federal violation (49 USC 14915). FMCSA documented only 2 hostage load violations across all 167 HHG investigations in 2025. But the NCCDB complaint data tells a different story.

Trunk analyzed hostage load complaints filed with FMCSA for every company in our database. Here are the companies where consumers report their belongings are being held for ransom.

1. Handle With Care Moving (DOT 3190967, Tucker GA, 1 truck): 66 hostage loads. 2023=19, 2024=13, 2025=18, 2026=16. Authority revoked three times. Operator identified as Moran Eli Hasut.

2. Menards Moving & Storage (DOT 4072455, Greenacres FL, 0 trucks): 55 hostage loads. 2024=8, 2025=20, 2026=27. Accelerating. Broker that dispatches to Handle With Care and its reincarnations.

3. Howards Vanlines (DOT 4391903, Garfield NJ, 1 truck): 52 hostage loads. 2025=1, 2026=51. From 1 to 51 in one year. The fastest hostage load acceleration in the database.

4. LoadRans LLC (DOT 3729978, CA, 12 trucks): 47 hostage loads. 2023=4, 2024=13, 2025=6, 2026=24. Quadrupled in 2026. Connected to Value Added Moving network.

5. Moving Systems (DOT 4340834, NJ, 7 trucks): 46 hostage loads. 2025=42, 2026=4. Noble Moving network. Dropped sharply, possibly shifting to new entity.

6. American Van Lines (DOT 614506, FL, 81 trucks): 45 hostage loads. 2023=7, 2024=3, 2025=18, 2026=17. DiSorbo family company. Hostage loads tripled from 2024 to 2025 and stayed high.

7. Blue Diamond Movers (DOT 3828829, MO, 2 trucks): 44 hostage loads. 2023=12, 2024=20, 2025=11, 2026=1. Declining, possibly shut down or chameloned.

8. Amerisafe Vanlines (DOT 3341650, FL, 6 trucks): 43 hostage loads. 2023=15, 2024=11, 2025=5, 2026=12. Spiked again in 2026 after decline.

9. Safe Ship Moving Services (DOT 3475743, FL, 0 trucks): 36 hostage loads. 2023=14, 2024=9, 2025=7, 2026=6. Declining as company appears to wind down.

10. Coastal Moving Services (DOT 4090919, FL, 0 trucks): 32 hostage loads. 2024=10, 2025=13, 2026=9. Castro/Barbuto network. FL AG subpoena non-compliance.

These companies show the sharpest year-over-year increases in hostage load complaints:

Howards Vanlines: 1 (2025) to 51 (2026). 5,000% increase. LoadRans LLC: 6 (2025) to 24 (2026). 300% increase. Menards Moving: 20 (2025) to 27 (2026, partial year). On pace for 32+ annualized, a 60% increase. Mayzlin Relocation: 5 (2025) to 8 (2026, partial). On pace for 10+. Goodview Moving: 7 (2025) to 13 (2026, partial). On pace for 16+. American Hills Moving: 3 (2025) to 9 (2026, partial). On pace for 11+.

Accelerating hostage loads indicate a company that is not just defrauding consumers but escalating its tactics. A company whose hostage complaints are rising is becoming more aggressive, not less.

When normalized by fleet size, the per-truck hostage rate reveals which companies are most likely to hold your specific shipment:

Handle With Care: 66 hostage loads from 1 truck = 66 per truck Howards Vanlines: 52 hostage loads from 1 truck = 52 per truck Value Added Moving: 15 hostage loads from 1 truck = 15 per truck Rado Express Logistics: 29 hostage loads from 1 truck = 29 per truck Master Moving: 29 hostage loads from 2 trucks = 14.5 per truck Blue Diamond Movers: 44 hostage loads from 2 trucks = 22 per truck

A company with 66 hostage loads from a single registered truck means that nearly every move this company performs results in belongings being held for ransom. At this rate, hostage loads are not an exception. They are the business model.

Hostage loads cluster in connected networks:

The Handle With Care / Howards / Menards network: Combined 173 hostage loads across three entities. All connected through operator Moran Eli Hasut and the Leavenworth warehouse.

The LoadRans / Value Added network: Combined 62 hostage loads. Both accelerating in 2026.

The DiSorbo / Colonial / American Van Lines network: Combined 67 hostage loads across Colonial (22) and American Van Lines (45). Same family.

The Noble / Moving Systems network: Combined 77 hostage loads. Noble/Moving Systems peaked at 42 in 2025, then dropped as Howards (same network) surged to 51 in 2026.

When one entity in a network is shut down, hostage loads do not disappear. They migrate to the next entity.

The 466 hostage complaints from the top 10 companies are themselves a severe undercount.

In August 2026, Safe Ship Moving Services sued two of its own carriers, Bee Movers LLC and We Are The Best Moving and Storage LLC, for holding consumer shipments hostage. The lawsuits documented 49 hostage shipments (26 Bee, 23 Best) from a single month (July 2026).

How many of those 49 hostage events appear in the NCCDB? Bee Movers has 2 NCCDB hostage complaints. We Are The Best has 1. Combined: 3.

49 actual hostage events. 3 NCCDB complaints. A ratio of roughly 16 to 1.

This means the NCCDB captures approximately 1 in 16 actual hostage events. Consumers whose belongings are held for ransom are not filing federal complaints at anywhere near the rate the events occur. Some do not know NCCDB exists. Some are too focused on recovering their belongings. Some file with the police or their state AG instead.

If the 16x multiplier holds across the top 10 companies, the 466 documented NCCDB hostage complaints represent approximately 7,400 actual hostage events. From just ten companies.

Meanwhile, FMCSA's investigation system found 1 hostage violation in 87 HHG investigations in FY 2026. One. The agency's own complaint database shows 466 in the top 10 alone. The court-documented rate suggests the real number is in the thousands. The investigation system does not find hostage loads because it is not designed to find them.

In Out of Nowhere v. Nolan Transportation Group (N.D. Georgia), a freight carrier sued a broker for posting a FreightGuard Report that described the carrier as holding a load 'hostage.' The court granted summary judgment to the broker, ruling that the characterization of holding freight 'hostage' was opinion, not actionable defamation under Georgia law.

This precedent matters for documentation. When Trunk, consumers, journalists, or advocates describe a carrier's refusal to deliver goods without additional payment as a 'hostage load,' that language is protected opinion grounded in documented complaint data. The term 'hostage load' is not defamatory. It is a description of a pattern that FMCSA's own complaint categories recognize: the NCCDB has a formal category called 'Hostage Goods.'

Case note published by Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary (Sue Lawless, former FMCSA Assistant Administrator and Chief Safety Officer, is now a partner at the firm).

If you are considering hiring any company on this list, your belongings have a documented probability of being held hostage.

Before booking, search the company at trunk.lorea.ai and check the hostage load count. If the company has any hostage load complaints, understand that other consumers have reported their belongings held for ransom by this specific company.

If your belongings are currently being held hostage:

1. Do not pay additional cash demanded on delivery. You are only required to pay the binding estimate amount (or 110% of a non-binding estimate). 2. Call the police. Hostage loads may constitute theft or extortion under state law. 3. File a complaint with FMCSA at nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov. 4. File a claim against the broker's surety bond if you booked through a broker. 5. File a credit card chargeback if you paid by card.

This ranking will be updated quarterly.