How Trunk Verifies Movers

Trunk maintains a database of 26,680+ movers across the United States, with 1,135 movers deep-profiled across six primary sources: FMCSA federal safety records, Better Business Bureau profiles, Google review analysis, MovingScam.com consumer reports, direct pricing surveys, and proprietary Trunk user-submitted reviews and complaints. No mover pays to be listed on Trunk. Verified partners have rate card pricing sourced directly from the company. Surveyed movers are researched using publicly available data with no commercial relationship.

1. FMCSA SAFER Database

Every mover profile on Trunk begins with a lookup in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's SAFER database. This provides:

• USDOT number and operating authority status (active, inactive, or revoked)
• Crash records and reportable incidents
• Inspection out-of-service rates for vehicles and drivers
• Fleet size (power units and drivers)
• Insurance filing status and coverage amounts
• Interstate vs. intrastate operating scope

2. Better Business Bureau (BBB)

Trunk checks each company's BBB profile for accreditation status, total complaint count, complaint resolution history, and customer review ratings. BBB letter grades are recorded but not treated as a standalone quality signal. A company can hold an A+ rating while having multiple unresolved complaints. Trunk flags this discrepancy when it occurs.

3. Google Reviews

Rather than relying on aggregate star ratings, Trunk manually analyzes 1-star and 2-star Google reviews to identify recurring complaint patterns across independent reviewers. A single negative review is not actionable. Repeated, specific complaints from unrelated customers (pricing disputes, damaged items, late arrivals) are treated as meaningful signals.

4. Direct Mover Surveys

Trunk collects actual pricing data through phone surveys and online quote tools operated by the movers themselves. This data is used to build pricing baselines for different move types, distances, and home sizes.

5. MovingScam.com Consumer Reports

Trunk cross-references 350 movers against MovingScam.com, an independent consumer protection database that tracks moving company complaints, blacklists, and scam reports. MovingScam.com operates independently from Trunk and provides a separate signal for companies with histories of consumer harm. Movers flagged on MovingScam.com have that status noted on their Trunk profile.

6. Reddit and Community Forums

Trunk collects mover recommendations, pricing reports, and complaints from Reddit communities (r/washingtondc, r/moving, r/Atlanta, r/LosAngeles, and others) where real consumers share unfiltered moving experiences. Reddit mentions are attributed to the original author and subreddit. Community-reported pricing is used to build market benchmarks alongside verified rate card data.

7. Facebook Community Groups

Trunk monitors Facebook moving groups, including "Moving? Tips on moving & avoiding Moving Scams" (administered by Terry Maupin), "Moving Company Scams" (375 members), "Victims of Lucrative Van Lines / M&P Relocation Specialists" (340 members), and other fraud awareness communities where consumers share real-time reports of scam movers, bait-and-switch pricing, and hostage loads. An 88-page victim compilation document containing 19 detailed consumer stories has been analyzed and cross-referenced against our database. Consumer-submitted complaint data from Facebook group administrators supplements our review analysis with documented case patterns across hundreds of victims.

8. Nextdoor

Trunk monitors Nextdoor neighborhood discussions for moving company recommendations and complaints. Nextdoor posts are hyperlocal and verified by neighborhood, providing a signal that complements broader review platforms. Complaints sourced from Nextdoor are attributed by author and neighborhood.

9. HomeMovingNow.com

HomeMovingNow.com is an independent consumer advocacy site that publishes analysis on moving industry fraud patterns, broker bond claims, and regulatory enforcement gaps. Their work on BMC-84 surety bond denials and FMCSA complaint transparency complements Trunk's data-driven approach with legal and regulatory analysis.

10. Legal Filings and Regulatory Records

Trunk references publicly available legal filings, Surface Transportation Board docket records, FMCSA enforcement actions, GAO reports to Congress, and DOJ press releases to document fraud patterns and regulatory outcomes. Legal filings shared by practitioners specializing in transportation law provide insight into remedies and enforcement gaps not visible in consumer-facing databases.

11. FMCSA NCCDB Complaint Intelligence

FMCSA's National Consumer Complaint Database (NCCDB) collects complaint data for every registered interstate mover, broken down by 14 categories (Estimates/Final Charges, Hostage Goods, Loss and Damage, Pickup and Delivery, etc.) and by year. However, FMCSA only publishes this data one company at a time, with no national aggregation. Trunk built a scraper that extracts complaint records for every registered mover from FMCSA's Protect Your Move database, state by state, and aggregates them by complaint category, company type (carrier, broker, small operator), FMCSA region, and year. The results are available in Trunk's NCCDB Complaint Intelligence dashboard. This is the first public aggregation of NCCDB complaint data by category. The same data powers shell company detection: companies sharing the same registered address or phone number are automatically flagged and linked via graph analysis. Trunk's aggregated complaint data has been cited in consumer protection filings, FMCSA enforcement requests, state attorney general referrals, and investigative journalism.

12. Trunk User-Submitted Reviews and Complaints

Trunk collects first-person moving complaints and recommendations directly from consumers through its Report a Mover and Recommend a Mover forms. Each submission includes the company name, USDOT number, quoted vs. actual price, move date, location, and a written description. These reports are reviewed before publication and displayed prominently on mover profiles as Consumer Reports. Because they are submitted directly to Trunk with specific, verifiable details (dates, dollar amounts, locations), they represent a proprietary data source not available on any other platform.

9. Review Integrity Analysis

Trunk cross-references publicly available data to assess review authenticity. Indicators include: FMCSA-reported annual mileage compared against total review volume (a small carrier with thousands of reviews warrants scrutiny), detection of non-disparagement clauses in contracts, and identification of review pressure tactics such as offering discounts for 5-star ratings.

53movers have been surveyed for detailed pricing across multiple metros. Pricing data is updated periodically. The date of the most recent update is displayed on each mover's profile page.

Trunk has documented 1,899 specific red flags across 1,135 profiled movers, with 422 movers flagged to avoid entirely. The following patterns are flagged when supported by evidence across multiple sources:

Movers are matched to cities based on the service radius from their headquarters or primary operating location. A mover headquartered in Arlington, VA with a 50-mile service radius appears in results for Washington, D.C. and surrounding cities within that range. Service areas are confirmed through FMCSA records, the mover's own website, and direct communication when available.