FMCSA Southern Region: 76% of All Moving Complaints Come From Here

The FMCSA Southern Region covers 12 states: Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Together, these states account for 5,561 registered interstate moving companies. Of those, 563 have at least one NCCDB complaint on file. The total complaint count: 7,887. That is 76% of all complaints in the national dataset.

Each FMCSA region has an administrator with semi-independent enforcement authority, meaning the Southern Region administrator has the power to prioritize investigations, issue compliance orders, and refer cases for prosecution within the region. Despite overseeing three-quarters of the national complaint volume, the Southern Region has initiated zero broker enforcement cases in FY 2025 or FY 2026.

Florida alone accounts for 2,500 companies, 389 with complaints, and 6,665 total complaints. That is 84% of the entire Southern Region's complaint volume, and roughly 64% of all complaints nationwide.

Texas is a distant second: 1,679 companies, 104 with complaints, 576 total complaints. Georgia follows with 1,234 companies, 53 with complaints, and 481 complaints. The remaining nine states in the region contribute a relatively small share of overall volume.

The concentration in Florida is not because Florida has more people moving. It is because Florida is where the brokers are registered. These brokers sell moves to consumers in every state, collect deposits, and dispatch carriers they may never have vetted. The complaint lands on Florida's count because that is where the company is registered, not where the consumer lives or where the move takes place.

The top complaint categories in the Southern Region mirror the national pattern but at a much larger scale:

1. Estimates/Final Charges: 4,914 complaints. This is the classic bait-and-switch. A low estimate secures the booking, and the final bill arrives 50% to 200% higher on moving day. 2. Consumer Complaint/Deceptive: 4,099 complaints. Covers deceptive business practices, misrepresentation, and fraud.

These two categories together account for the vast majority of complaints. They describe a single business pattern: a broker provides a misleadingly low estimate, the carrier arrives and demands more money, and the consumer has no recourse because the broker disclaims responsibility and the carrier was never part of the original agreement.

The top five most-complained companies registered in the Southern Region are all based in Florida:

1. Safe Ship Moving Services: 321 complaints (FL, broker, 0 trucks) 2. Amerisafe Vanlines: 293 complaints (FL, carrier, 6 trucks) 3. Menards Moving & Storage: 290 complaints (FL, broker, 0 trucks) 4. Coastal Moving Services: 229 complaints (FL, broker, 0 trucks) 5. American Van Lines: 215 complaints (FL, carrier, 81 trucks)

Four of the five are brokers or operate with minimal truck fleets. Safe Ship, Menards, and Coastal own zero trucks. They exist purely as sales operations, booking consumer moves and handing them off to carriers. When the move goes wrong, the broker has already collected its fee.

The Southern FMCSA region administrator has semi-independent enforcement authority. This means the office can open investigations, issue compliance orders, and pursue enforcement actions without waiting for direction from FMCSA headquarters in Washington. The authority exists. It is not being used.

Broker enforcement cases initiated by the Southern Region in FY 2025: zero. In FY 2026: zero. This is the region that generates 76% of all consumer complaints in the national database. The companies producing these complaints are identifiable by name, address, and complaint volume. Many share addresses and phone numbers with previously shut-down entities. The data is available. The pattern is clear. The enforcement is absent.

The full regional dataset, including complaint category breakdowns, per-company totals, and state-by-state analysis, is available in Trunk's NCCDB Complaint Intelligence dashboard at trunk.lorea.ai/dashboard/nccdb.