Change orders in moving

Moves change. The customer remembers a garage full of boxes, asks for packing, or the new building needs a shuttle. A change order puts the change in writing, with its price, and the customer signs it before the extra work is done.

One form, three names

Every national van line uses the same one-page form, under one of three names:

• Change Order
• Addendum to Order for Service
• Amendment to the Order for Service

They record the same things: who and which move; the reason (items added, services added, conditions different from the estimate, or an impracticable operation); the lines that changed with their prices; the original and revised estimate and the difference; the estimate type; and the signatures of the customer and the mover's representative, dated. The change order becomes part of the order for service and the bill of lading.

The rules on interstate moves

• Binding estimate — if the customer has more goods or wants more services than the estimate, the mover must, before loading, either keep the price, write a new binding estimate the customer signs, or agree in writing to make the move non-binding (49 CFR 375.403). The change order is that new estimate.
• Impracticable operations — at delivery, conditions nobody could have known (a street the truck can't use, for example) may add charges of at most 15% of all other charges, with a written attachment the customer signs.
• Non-binding estimate — at delivery the mover may collect at most 110% of the estimate, plus in full the services the customer asked for after the estimate, and impracticable operations. Anything else is billed later (49 CFR 375.405).
• Not to exceed — treated like binding: the change order raises the ceiling.

Local moves

There is no federal rule, but state tariffs follow the same idea: the customer signs before the extra work. On an hourly job the change order is a signed acknowledgement of the new estimate (more hours, movers or trucks); on a flat-rate job it adds to the price.

In MoveBoard

• The foreman writes the change order on the phone: the reason, the items and services added or removed, the new price, then the customer's and the foreman's signatures. See Write a change order.
• The terms printed above the signatures, and whether crews write change orders at all, are on Settings › Documents & bill of lading › Change orders. See Change orders settings.
• Signed change orders are listed on the bill of lading and the signed PDF is kept on the order. The customer finds their copies in the portal — see Change orders in the portal.