Double Drive Time: Everything You Need To Know

Grizzly Moving

ORIGIN OF DOUBLE DRIVE TIME

September 16th, 1964, the California Public Utilities Commission held a hearing to discuss revising the terms of service related to transporting items. Beyond addressing the concerns of both customers and movers, they noted that the current “practice of computing the hours of service is from carrier’s terminal to carrier’s terminal” (1). The committee found that this was unfair to clients. While carriers were bringing the trucks to the client’s origin address, they were technically not conducting their move. The CPUC concluded the following:

“The hourly rates and charges are based upon the loading time, plus double the driving time, plus the unloading time,” and the origin address was defined as “the precise location at which property is physically delivered by the [customer] into the custody of the carrier for transportation” (1).

The new revisions were adopted and applied March 30th, 1965. Although the CPUC originally developed this law to govern oil rigs, it was expanded to include any company transporting goods into, within, or out of California.

HOW DOUBLE DRIVE TIME WORKS

When you book with a mover, the company should not include the drive time from their offices to your address in the bill of lading (contract). You, as a customer, are not responsible to pay for that time nor their drive back to the office after your move is complete. This protects the customer from moving companies wishing to exploit unknown travel times unrelated to their relocation project.

Instead, the customer is charged for the actual time it takes to drive from the origin to the destination DOUBLED.

This allows the client to conduct research into the reasonable amount of time it should take a mover to drive from point A to point B while also fairly compensating the movers’ time worked outside of the contract.

EXCEPTIONS

If the mover returns to the origin address to pick up extra items and deliver them back to the destination address, the customer will be charged actual drive time for the second and third drive. (Double, Actual, Actual)
If there are multiple pickup/dropoff locations, the customer will be charged double drive time between all locations.

ADDITIONAL FEES

Many moving companies exploit customers and their lack of knowledge in the law to define the point of origin as their offices, even though the law says otherwise. Remember to always ask moving companies what they define as the origin address to make sure you aren’t being charged for the drive from and to their terminal.

Most, if not all companies, include various travel/fuel fees to further compensate their time spent outside of moving your items… which Grizzly Moving does not charge!

GRIZZLY MOVING PROMISE

Grizzly Moving does NOT have any additional fees and promises to follow CPUC guidelines as defined. If you are looking for a licensed mover with straightforward, all-inclusive pricing, Grizzly Moving is here to take the stress off your shoulders and make your move as simple and smooth as possible. Get a free consultation here!