Local Transportation and Delivery in Richmond and the Bay Area

Yes — this is one of our most common delivery jobs. You buy the piece; we handle the rest.

Here's how it usually goes: you send us the seller's address, the pickup address, and a photo or description of the item. We coordinate the pickup time directly with the seller (or you can be there, your call), load the piece into a padded, blanketed truck, and bring it to your home. If it's a couch, dresser, dining table, mattress, armoire, or anything bulky — we have the equipment to get it through doorways and around corners without damaging the piece, the seller's home, or yours.

What makes a professional crew different from showing up with a friend and a borrowed pickup: we bring straps, dollies, moving blankets, shoulder harnesses for stairs, floor protection, and two trained movers who lift for a living. Marketplace sellers also tend to be more cooperative when a uniformed crew shows up on time — pickups go faster and you're far less likely to scratch a wall or drop a piece on the way out the door.

The honest answer: gig apps work fine for low-stakes, low-value items where you're comfortable with variable outcomes. For anything you actually care about, the gap between a licensed mover and a gig contractor is bigger than most people realize.

A few real differences:

• Who actually shows up. Gig platforms match you with independent contractors who set their own rules. Some bring a cargo van. Some bring a pickup with no straps. Some are labor-only and expect you to provide the truck. We send a uniformed two-person crew in a fully equipped, padded truck. Same crew every time, trained the same way.
• What happens if something gets damaged. Gig platforms offer limited platform protection capped at relatively low amounts, and claims go through their support process. As a licensed California household goods carrier, we carry the cargo insurance the state requires for moving your belongings — and you deal with us directly, not a chat queue.
• Whether the crew will actually finish the job. A common complaint with gig delivery is that the helper drops the item at the front door — or worse, at the bottom of the stairs — and leaves. Our crews complete the delivery. Up the stairs, around the tight corner, into the room, against the wall you wanted it on. That's the job.
• Accountability. We're a Richmond-based family business. Our name and our license number are on every vehicle. If something goes wrong, you have a real company to call.

Yes. Every delivery includes carrying the item to wherever you want it placed — upstairs, downstairs, third-floor walkup, narrow hallway, behind the dining table. We don't drop and run, and we don't charge a surprise stair fee at the door.

A few things that help us do this safely: let us know in advance about stairs (especially narrow or curved ones), tight doorways, low-clearance entryways, or HOA elevator reservation requirements. If you're in a Berkeley craftsman with the famously tricky staircases or a San Francisco walk-up, send us a photo when you book — we'll bring the right straps and plan the path.

If a piece genuinely won't fit (it happens with sectionals and oversized armoires), we'll tell you before we bring it in rather than forcing it and damaging your trim.

Threshold delivery is a logistics term for delivering an item to the first dry, secure spot on your property — usually just inside the front door or garage. After that, you're on your own to move it, unpack it, and assemble it. It's what most big-box retailers and freight carriers mean when they say "delivery is included."

This matters because a lot of Bay Area customers get burned by it. You buy a sofa online, the delivery confirmation says "delivery included," and a freight crew shows up, sets the boxed sofa inside your front door, and leaves. Now you have a 200-pound boxed sectional in your entryway and a third-floor apartment.

JH Moving doesn't do threshold delivery — we do full-service delivery. We bring your item to the room you want it in, unwrap it if needed, position it where you want, and remove the packing materials. Same crew, same truck, same standard whether it's one piece or twenty. If you're choosing between paying a retailer's delivery fee for threshold service and hiring us for the full job, it's worth getting both numbers — we're often comparable in price and dramatically less of a headache.

Delivery pricing comes down to three things: how far we're driving, how long the job takes, and how many movers it requires. We price transparently and quote upfront — no surprise stair fees, fuel surcharges, or "heavy item" upcharges at the door.

Single-item delivery (one couch, one dresser, one mattress, a Marketplace pickup): we quote a flat rate based on pickup and dropoff locations within our 20-city service area. Most single-item deliveries in the East Bay run in a predictable range and take an hour or two start to finish.

Multi-item or full-load delivery (a few pieces from a warehouse sale, an estate pickup, several Marketplace finds in one trip, a small office relocation): we quote either an hourly rate with a two-hour minimum or a flat rate for the whole job, depending on what makes more sense for you. Hourly is usually better when the scope might shift; flat-rate is better when everything is locked in.

Either way, you'll know the number before the truck leaves the yard. Text us photos of what you need moved and the pickup/dropoff addresses, and we'll send a quote back the same day.

Yes — and this is where a lot of people don't realize the gig apps are operating in a gray zone.

In California, anyone transporting used household goods for compensation between two points within the state is legally required to hold an active Household Mover Permit (often called a Cal-T or MTR number) issued by the Bureau of Household Goods and Services (BHGS). The requirements include passing a state exam on California's Maximum Rate Tariff (Max 4), Live Scan fingerprinting and background checks for owners, a minimum of $600,000 in combined liability insurance, $20,000 per shipment in cargo insurance, and a USDOT number. The permit number is required to appear in all advertising.

JH Moving is a fully licensed and insured California household goods carrier. We carry the required permits, insurance, and workers' comp on every crew member.

What this means for you as a customer: when you book a licensed mover, you have legal recourse if something goes wrong, you're protected by state cargo insurance minimums, and the people in your home have been background-checked. When you book through a gig platform, you're hiring an independent contractor who is generally not held to those same standards — and the platform itself often disclaims being a licensed household goods carrier in its own terms of service.

For a sub-$200 item with low risk, that tradeoff might be fine. For anything valuable, fragile, or going somewhere with stairs, it's worth knowing the difference.