Your Mover Has a Published Price List. They're Required to Show It to You. Almost None Do.

When you eat at a restaurant, you see the menu before you order. The prices are fixed. The restaurant cannot charge you $50 for a $15 meal after you've eaten it.

The same principle applies to interstate moving. Every household goods carrier must publish a tariff: a document listing the exact rates, charges, and service terms for every type of move. The tariff is the menu. The carrier cannot legally charge you prices different from what the tariff says. Doing so intentionally is a federal felony.

But unlike a restaurant, the moving industry hides the menu. Consumers never see the tariff. Most don't know it exists. Brokers provide estimates that reference a 'Total Tariff' amount, then show a 'Tariff Discount' to make the price look like a deal. The 'discount' is fake. The inflated tariff number is fake. And the consumer has no way to know because they've never seen the actual tariff.

A tariff is a published schedule of rates, charges, and service terms that a carrier is legally bound to follow (49 USC 13702). It covers:

Line haul rates: the per-cubic-foot or per-pound charge for transporting your goods Accessorial services: charges for packing, stairs, long carry, shuttle service, bulky items Binding estimate fees: if the carrier charges a fee for a binding estimate, the amount must be in the tariff Service terms: delivery windows, storage policies, payment methods

The tariff must contain the 'exact rate' for every service. Not an estimate. Not a range. The exact rate. This is what Congress intended when it retained tariff requirements specifically for household goods consumers in 1995, even as it deregulated tariffs for all other freight.

Until 2007, the household goods industry operated under a common tariff: the 400 Series, published by the Household Goods Bureau. This was the industry standard for decades. Every carrier used the same rate tables, the same rules, the same format. Consumers, brokers, and corporate relocation managers could compare prices because everyone was on the same page.

In 2007, the Surface Transportation Board shut down the 400 Series to eliminate collective rate-making. Every carrier was now required to publish its own individual tariff. The result: thousands of carriers producing thousands of different tariffs, many of them poorly drafted, internally inconsistent, and never updated. Some carriers hired tariff publishers (Michael Garcia, Moving Claims, Granot Moving Software) to produce their tariffs. Others copied the old 400N format and renamed it. Corporate clients suddenly faced multiple incompatible tariffs from different carriers with no common benchmark.

This is why tariffs are unreadable. They were designed for a world where one standardized document governed the entire industry. When that standardization ended, each carrier improvised. The consumer never saw the tariff under either system, but at least the old system had internal consistency. The current system has neither consistency nor transparency.

Nearly every broker estimate Trunk has examined includes a line item labeled 'Tariff Discount' of 30% to 40%. In documented cases:

Eagle Moving Group: 'Tariff Discount: 34.35%' Noble Moving and Storage: 'Tariff Discount: 34.35%' (same percentage, different broker) America First Moving: 'Tariff Discount: 39.55%' Hercules Moving Solutions (DOT 3497836): 'Tariff Discount: 53.55%,' the highest documented fake discount percentage, reducing a $7,867 'Total Tariff' to a $3,654 'Basic Price.' The estimate then added a Binding Estimate Fee of $4,500, which is 123% of the basic price itself. This is the most extreme court-documented example of a predatory BEF: the fee for the estimate exceeded the underlying service price. Court exhibit, Peterfai v. USA Logistics (S.D. Cal., 23-cv-1695, Document 22-3, Filed 01/06/25). Relocation Express: 'Tariff Discount: 11.98%' (on a move that tripled from $6,840 to $18,480) Howard's Van Lines: 'Tariff Discount: 42.12%' PLUS a second line item 'Coupon Discount: 45.00%,' two fabricated discounts stacked on the same estimate, reducing a $4,514 'Total Tariff' to $2,690

These discounts are themselves federal violations. Transportation attorney Michael Garcia, who publishes tariffs for moving companies, explains: 'Tariff rates/prices for line haul and accessorial services must NOT be randomly or individually discounted. Motor carriers may not charge or receive different rates/prices for services other than the rates/prices specified in the tariff' (49 USC 13702(a)(2)).

The only way to change tariff prices is through a formal tariff amendment with proper documentation. Offering a 'discount' to an individual consumer is not a permissible amendment. It is a violation.

The brokers inflate the tariff rate, display a fake discount to create the illusion of a deal, and the 'discounted' price is the actual price. The tariff rate shown on the estimate was never the real rate.

Email or write to the carrier and request 'a copy of your published tariff pursuant to 49 USC 13702.' They are required to provide it. A template is available at trunk.lorea.ai/insights/template-tariff-request.

If you hired a broker, ask the broker for the tariff of the carrier they plan to dispatch. The broker's estimate is required to be based on the carrier's tariff (49 CFR 371.10). If the broker cannot or will not provide the carrier's tariff, they cannot be basing the estimate on it.

Once you have the tariff, compare the tariff rates to your estimate. If the estimate shows a rate of $3.30/cf but the tariff says $2.50/cf, the estimate is inflated. If the estimate shows a 'Tariff Discount' that doesn't exist in the tariff, the discount is fabricated.

A retired transportation attorney reviewed the tariff, broker estimate, and bill of lading for a 2026 move from Kansas City to Florida brokered by Amerisafe (DOT 3341650) and carried by All Seasons Logistics (DOT 3911411, Aurora CO). The carrier is one of the lowest-complaint carriers in Colorado. Even so, every tariff-related charge deviated from the published tariff.

Line haul rate: The estimate and bill of lading both charged $3.60 per cubic foot. The carrier's tariff lists rates of $7+ per cubic foot in one addendum and $1 per pound in another. Nothing at $3.60 exists in the tariff. The rate used was invented.

Fuel surcharge: 16% was charged. The tariff says 10%. The last tariff amendment confirming 10% is dated January 2023.

Binding estimate fee: The broker's estimate included a BEF of $6,000, which is 90% of the line haul charge. The carrier's bill of lading listed a BEF of $10,999, which is 108% of the line haul. The tariff authorizes a BEF of 25% to 30%. Both the broker and carrier exceeded the tariff by multiples.

The tariff also contains a forum selection clause assigning jurisdiction to 'Dallas County, Texas' for a carrier based in Aurora, Colorado. This is an obvious error that reveals nobody at the company has read their own governing document.

This is not a scam carrier. This is a low-complaint carrier whose tariff was prepared by a respected transportation attorney. If even the good operators do not follow their own tariffs, the regulatory framework has failed at the most basic level.

In Trunk's documented cases, here is what happened when consumers or their representatives requested tariffs:

Noble Moving and Storage responded: 'Our internal tariff listing is not provided to clients.' This is a violation. The tariff is not an internal document.

Home and Office Movers eventually provided the tariff after weeks of follow-up, but only after the consumer filed a formal claim letter. The tariff revealed that the rates in the estimate did not match the tariff rates, and the tariff's own addendum allowed adjustments of up to 80% without clear documentation.

Most brokers and carriers simply do not respond to tariff requests.

The non-response is itself evidence. Under 49 CFR 1310.4(a)(1), carriers must 'make the full text of incorporated terms readily available for inspection by the shipper, free of charge, upon request.' Failure to provide is a regulatory violation you can include in your complaint.

One consumer who requested and received the tariff identified seven tariff violations in a single 2023 interstate move. He filed administrative complaints against both the carrier and broker, and reached a fair settlement in great part because the tariff gave him a document to compare against actual charges. The tariff turned a 'he said, she said' dispute into a documented regulatory violation with specific penalties. That is why carriers do not want you to see it.

The penalty for intentionally charging prices that deviate from the published tariff is up to $205,375 per violation (49 USC 14903(a), inflation-adjusted per 49 CFR Appendix B to Part 386) and criminal penalties include up to two years imprisonment per violation (49 USC 14903(b)). The tariff itself spells this out. An actual tariff document reviewed by Trunk, prepared for Absolute Relocation Service LLC (DOT 3795591) by a Miami company called Moving Claims (Movingclaims.net), states in its Important Legal Notice: 'Penalties for violating tariff provisions by either overcharging or undercharging are both civil and criminal.' The tariff also states that carriers using 'agents or subcontractors' are 'civilly and criminally liable for the actions of their agents.' The tariff author, not the regulator, is warning carriers about the penalties.

The same tariff includes Item 1601, 'Waiver of class action suits,' requiring consumers to waive their right to participate in class actions. It also includes attorney fees and confidentiality clauses. These provisions, buried in a document consumers are entitled to see but never shown, define the legal terrain before the consumer even knows the game has started.

The same tariff template, prepared by transportation attorney Michael Garcia, includes a section titled 'WARNING: Lowballing estimates is a crime subject to criminal prosecution.' It explains the mechanism exactly: dishonest carriers deliberately underestimate to win the booking, then use an 'onsite new estimate' to triple the price on moving day when the consumer has no alternative. The warning cites federal criminal statutes for fraud (18 USC 1343), extortion (18 USC 1951), conspiracy (18 USC 371), and money laundering (18 USC 1956). It gives carriers an eight-point checklist to prevent lowballing, including monitoring the percentage of moves where estimates increase on moving day.

This warning appears in the tariffs of both legitimate carriers and fraud operations. The good movers read it. The scam movers sign it and ignore it. A carrier whose tariff contains a signed warning that lowballing is criminal fraud, and whose estimates routinely triple on moving day, has documented their own violation in their own governing document.

Yet FMCSA has never penalized a carrier for a tariff violation. The agency's enforcement personnel, according to a retired transportation attorney who has studied the issue for two years, largely do not understand what a tariff is or its historical importance to consumer protection.

Congress retained tariff requirements specifically for household goods moving because consumers are uniquely vulnerable. The tariff was supposed to ensure that a consumer could determine the exact price of a move before committing to it. Instead, the tariff has become a fiction: referenced on estimates as a basis for fake discounts, but never shown to consumers, never enforced by FMCSA, and barely understood by the industry itself.