How to start a moving company in Arizona: no state license, the hostage load law, what it costs, and what to do this week

Arizona is one of the few states with no household goods mover license at all. What governs you instead is a 2017 consumer statute on contracts and hostage loads, ADOT's commercial registration and weight fees, and the ordinary rules on insurance, tax and employees. What each one requires, what it costs, and the work you can take this week.

Arizona is the odd one out. Texas, Florida, California and Illinois all make a mover register with a state agency before the first paid job. Arizona does not. The Attorney General's office said it in writing in 2023: the state has no registration law and no professional licensing requirement for movers.

That is not the same as no rules. What Arizona has instead is a consumer statute, passed in 2017 and known as the hostage load law, that tells you exactly what the contract has to say before you can insist on being paid at the door, and a police officer who can order your truck unloaded if you get it wrong. Add ADOT's commercial registration, the state's tax on transporting, workers' comp from the first hire, and a cheap LLC, and that is the whole list. This is the order we would do it in. We run a licensed carrier in New York, not Arizona, so read the statute yourself before you take the first job, and call the Attorney General's consumer line when a line is unclear. They take the complaints, so they know what the rules mean in practice.

What the law covers and what it does not

The statute, A.R.S. 44-1611 through 44-1616, applies to "household goods moving services": taking possession of someone's household goods for a fee to move them within Arizona, including loading, packing, transport, storage in transit, delivery and unloading. There is no agency to register with and no vehicle-size test. The question is whether you took possession of the goods for money.

• A paid move in any vehicle you drive, pickup or 26-foot box truck: the contract and disclaimer rules below apply, and so do ADOT's registration rules for the vehicle.
• Labor-only work, loading or unloading a truck, trailer or container the customer rented: the customer keeps possession and control of their own goods in their own vehicle. Read the definition for yourself, because "loading" and "unloading" appear in it, and the safest habit is to give the same written contract on every job anyway. It costs nothing and it is the document that gets you paid. How to price labor-only work and find the first customers.
• In-home moves, room to room or floor to floor: no transport, same written contract, same answer.
• Moves that cross a state line, into Nevada, California or New Mexico: federal rules apply on top, and at that point a USDOT number and federal household goods authority are required. The USDOT number and federal authority are covered here.

Labor-only is how we tell everyone to start, in any state, because it needs no truck and no permit and it pays the same hourly rate. In Arizona the permit was never the obstacle, so the reason is simpler: the truck is the expensive part, and the jobs pay for it.

Step one, before anything else: a USDOT number

Arizona sets its own intrastate threshold higher than most states. ADOT's commercial registration page says a carrier needs a USDOT number when a vehicle over 10,000 pounds GVWR runs in interstate commerce, or a vehicle over 26,000 pounds runs only inside Arizona. A rental box truck under 26,001 pounds, used only inside the state, does not trigger it.

Get the number anyway, this week. It is free from the FMCSA and takes about ten minutes online, and state law lets ADOT ask for it before it registers a vehicle that pays gross weight fees. The first out-of-state job will need it on day one. When the form asks about your operation, choose intrastate, not interstate. Choosing interstate signs you up for federal filings you do not need yet.

Do not pay anyone to get this number for you. The sites that charge $100 to $300 for it are filling in the same free form.

Step two: the contract Arizona requires

Here is how the hostage load law works. A mover that takes possession of goods may not refuse to deliver or unload them, and may not threaten a carrier's lien, on any move inside Arizona. There is one exception: a mover that gave the customer a compliant written contract before the job may require the customer to pay "the total estimated price" in that contract before unloading. Fail any part of the contract rule and you lose the exception entirely, which means you unload first and collect however you can afterward.

So the contract is not paperwork. It is the only thing that lets you be paid at the door. To qualify it has to be signed and dated by both of you before services begin or goods are taken, with a legible copy handed over before you start, and it has to contain:

1. Your name, telephone number and physical address.
2. The date and time of the scheduled services.
3. The customer's name, address and phone, the pickup address and the destination.
4. A detailed list of the services you will provide, and any other fees the customer may have to pay.
5. The terms and conditions of payment, "including notice of any minimum charges."
6. The payment methods you accept.
7. Whether you reimburse for loss or damage and, if so, how and by what process.
8. The total estimated price, including all anticipated fees and charges, based on the specific circumstances of the move.

Alongside it, a separate disclaimer, clear and conspicuous, signed by both parties, in the statute's own words: "By signing this disclaimer, I acknowledge that the household goods mover may refuse to unload and deliver my household goods until I have paid the total estimated price set forth in this contract. I can cancel this contract at any time prior to the moving company providing services."

Then, at the destination:

• Once the customer tenders the estimated price, less anything already paid, you deliver and unload. You cannot refuse because you no longer want to accept a payment method the contract listed.
• Medicine, medical devices and anything used to treat or assist a person with a disability come off the truck on request, no payment required, no extra fee. That one is absolute.
• Extra services the customer asks for after signing need the customer's written acknowledgment of the expected fee before you do the work, with a copy to them. You can invoice for those afterward. You cannot hold the goods to secure them.
• Anything collected beyond the contract price and the acknowledged extras gets refunded. Tips are the exception.
• If you refuse to unload without the exception on your side, a peace officer may take custody of the goods or order you to deliver and unload them. That is written into the statute, and the Attorney General can also pursue it as consumer fraud, with a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per wilful violation.

Note what that total estimated price does. It is the ceiling you can demand before the goods come off the truck. Charge by the hour if you like, but the figure in the contract is what the customer owes at the door, and the hours only matter if they came in under it. For an hourly mover the honest way to write it is a rate, a minimum, a realistic estimate of hours, and the total those produce, said plainly on the phone before anyone signs. How we run the walkthrough and arrive at the number, and how we handle the deposit and the agreement.

None of this is a burden. A signed contract with a price on it before the job is the whole reason our company grew, and Arizona wrote our habit into law. It makes it easier to compete against the guy in the unmarked pickup, because the Attorney General told customers in 2023 to ask for exactly this document.

The vehicle: ADOT registration and insurance

With no mover license, the vehicle rules are what the state actually checks.

• Commercial registration. A pickup or van of three-quarter ton or less that is used commercially for 1,000 hours or more in a year must be registered commercially, and any vehicle registered in a business's name is commercial unless you certify it will not be used that way. ADOT has a "for hire" option for vehicles of 12,000 pounds or less that carry property for pay.
• Gross weight fees. A one-ton pickup or anything larger declares a gross weight and pays a $4 commercial fee plus an annual gross weight fee: $63 at 10,001 to 12,000 pounds, $103 at 12,001 to 14,000, $234 at 24,001 to 26,000, from the table in A.R.S. 28-5433.
• The motor carrier fee. Every vehicle with a declared gross weight over 12,000 pounds also pays an annual motor carrier fee at registration: $64 at 12,001 to 14,000 pounds, $119 at 24,001 to 26,000. In exchange, income from transporting with that vehicle is excluded from the state's transaction privilege tax, which matters below.
• Auto liability. Arizona's general minimums are $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident for bodily injury and $15,000 for property damage. A property carrier with a vehicle of 20,001 to 26,000 pounds gross weight needs a $300,000 combined single limit, and over 26,000 pounds, $750,000. A 26-foot rental truck lands in that middle band; the smaller ones do not.
• Cargo. Arizona sets no cargo minimum and no released-value scheme. The contract has to say whether you reimburse for loss or damage and how, and any advertising about insurance has to be accurate. That is the floor. It is not what we would carry, because a single two-bedroom load is worth far more than a customer's goodwill. What moving insurance actually covers and what we carry.

The business side

• An LLC, filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission for $50, or $85 expedited. That is one of the cheapest filings in the country. One Arizona wrinkle: if your statutory agent's address is outside Maricopa or Pima counties, you publish a notice in a local newspaper three times within 60 days of filing. In Phoenix or Tucson the Commission posts it for you. Form it when the first few labor-only jobs have paid for it.
• An EIN from the IRS, free, the same day.
• A transaction privilege tax license. Arizona taxes the business of transporting property for hire inside the state under its transporting classification, on total income, unless the vehicle pays the ADOT motor carrier fee. The state license is $12 per location, and the cities add their own: Phoenix charges 2.8 percent on transporting with a $50 license, Tucson 2.6 percent with a $20 business license. If you are running a small van under 12,000 pounds, ask the Department of Revenue directly whether the exclusion reaches you, because the statute is not plain on it.
• General liability insurance before the first job with furniture in it.
• Workers' comp the day you have an employee. Arizona requires it for every person who regularly employs any worker, with no headcount minimum, part time included. The Industrial Commission can fine an uninsured employer up to $1,000 for a first failure, $5,000 for a second and $10,000 for a third, and can ask a court to shut the business until it complies, and an injured worker can sue you with your usual defenses stripped away. What to set up before anyone starts.

The order we would do it in

1. This week: labor-only and in-home jobs, with a phone line, a Google Business Profile and a Craigslist post, and the written contract above on every one of them. The first job, step by step.
2. When the first jobs have paid for it: the USDOT number, the LLC for $50, the EIN, the transaction privilege tax license, general liability.
3. Before the first move in your own truck or a rental: commercial registration with the gross weight and motor carrier fees, auto liability at the $300,000 level for a box truck, cargo coverage you chose rather than the state's silence on it, and the disclaimer printed on every contract.
4. Before the first employee: workers' comp.
5. Before the first job into Nevada, California or New Mexico: federal household goods authority.

Every step is paid for by the jobs before it. The full version of that order, with the numbers. The same guide exists for Texas, Florida, California, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Washington, all of which do license movers. If your situation does not fit these rows, bring it to the strategy call, and every term above is defined in the glossary.

Figures in this post come from A.R.S. 44-1611 through 44-1616, 28-4009, 28-4033, 28-5433, 28-5854, 23-902, 23-907 and 29-3201 as published on azleg.gov in October 2026; the Arizona Attorney General's press release of July 10, 2023; ADOT's commercial vehicle registration page and the Corporation Commission's LLC fee schedule, revised March 2026; and the Department of Revenue's transporting classification pages, as published in October 2026. Check those pages before you file, because fees change and this page will not always catch it.