How to start a moving company in California: the household mover permit, what it costs, and the four-month window
California requires a Bureau of Household Goods and Services permit for every paid move, with fingerprints, $600,000 in liability coverage and $20,000 in cargo coverage. What it costs, how long it takes, and what you can do while you wait.
California has the most demanding mover licensing in the country, and it is enforced. The regulator is the Bureau of Household Goods and Services, part of the Department of Consumer Affairs, and the license is a household mover permit, known by its number as a Cal-T number or an MTR number. In December 2025 the Bureau ran a sweep of forty moving companies across eight counties looking for anyone operating without a permit or without workers' comp. That is the environment you are starting in.
The good news is that the permit is a known process with a known price, and there is real work you can do while the application is open. We run a licensed carrier in New York, not California, and we are movers, not lawyers. Read the Bureau's application packet yourself before you file, and call them when a line is unclear.
Who needs the permit
Anyone who moves used household goods over California roads for pay, within the state, needs a household mover permit. The Bureau has said in writing that there is no exemption for storage container companies, restoration companies or brokers. If the goods move on your truck for money, you need the permit.
- A paid move in any vehicle, yours or a rental: permit required.
- Packing or unpacking only, with no transport: the Bureau lists this as outside the permit, as long as your business does not also act as a mover.
- Labor-only loading or unloading of a customer's rented truck or container: the Bureau does not list an exemption for it. Ask them in writing before you take the job, and keep the answer. How labor-only works in general.
- Moves into or out of California: a separate interstate category with the Bureau, plus federal authority. The federal side.
What the permit costs
- Filing fee: $500, nonrefundable, paid when you submit the application.
- Fingerprints for every owner, partner, officer or LLC member, through the state's Live Scan process, after the Bureau sends you the form. Do not get fingerprinted before that.
- A $2,000 surety bond if you will take cash-on-delivery shipments, which most local movers do, since the customer pays at the end of the job.
- Quarterly reports once you are licensed, with a $15 minimum fee and a small percentage of your revenue.
Expect the permit to cost under $1,000 in fees and a few hundred more for the bond and fingerprints, before insurance.
The insurance, and it is the real cost
The Bureau will not issue a permit until the insurance is on file, and the minimums are the highest of the big states:
- Auto liability of $250,000 per person, $500,000 per accident and $100,000 property damage, or a combined single limit of at least $600,000.
- Cargo coverage of at least $20,000 per shipment.
- Workers' comp on file with the Bureau the moment you have employees. This is what the enforcement sweeps look for alongside the permit.
For a new company with a rental truck, the liability policy will be the biggest line on the startup sheet. Get quotes before you file, because the 120-day clock below starts when the application is processed, not when the insurance arrives. What each policy covers and what we carry.
The 120-day window
Once the Bureau processes your application, you have 120 days to complete everything on the checklist: fingerprints, insurance certificates, the bond, your business formation documents and the rest. Miss the window and you start over, including the $500.
Plan it like a job. Day one, file the application and order insurance quotes. Week one, form the LLC if you have not, and open the business bank account. When the fingerprint form arrives, do Live Scan that week. Insurance certificates go to the Bureau directly from your agent. Keep a copy of everything.
What goes on the truck and the paperwork
Once licensed:
- The Cal-T number on every vehicle. Magnetic signs work on a rental.
- The Bureau's rules for estimates and contracts, which are detailed. California customers are owed a written estimate before the move, and there are specific rules on what you can charge beyond it. Read the Bureau's household mover law book before the first job, the way you would read a contract before signing it.
- A tariff, the maximum rates you charge, which the Bureau regulates for some kinds of moves.
The pattern is the same as every strict state: the written estimate, the number on the truck, and the contract before loading are both the law and the reason customers hire you over the guy in the unmarked van. We built our company on publishing prices and signing before the job in a state that did not force us to. How we quote and the contract and deposit.
The business side
- An LLC through the California Secretary of State. California also charges an $800 annual franchise tax on LLCs, which is a real cost for a company doing two jobs a week. Many people start as a sole proprietor and form the LLC when the jobs justify it. The permit application asks for your business structure, so decide before you file.
- An EIN from the IRS, free.
- General liability insurance before the first job with furniture in it.
- The Bureau has said a vehicle operating under a household mover permit does not also need a separate DMV motor carrier permit. Confirm that for your vehicle when you register it.
The order we would do it in
- Now: insurance quotes, the business structure decision, the EIN, and the permit application with the $500. Start the 120 days.
- While it processes: the phone line, the Google Business Profile, the website, the rate sheet. Take only work the Bureau has confirmed in writing is outside the permit. How to set up the first week.
- The day the permit arrives: the number on the truck and in every listing, and the first ad. What to charge.
- Before the first employee: workers' comp on file with the Bureau, before the hire, not after.
- Before the first out-of-state job: the Bureau's interstate category and federal authority.
California makes you build the company before you take the first job, which is backward from how we did it in New York, and it is the law there. It also means the companies that bother are a much smaller group than the ones advertising. The general version of this order, the strategy call if your situation does not fit these rows, and the glossary for every term above. The same guide exists for Texas, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Washington.
Figures come from the Bureau of Household Goods and Services application packet and the Household Movers Act as of October 2026. Check bhgs.dca.ca.gov before you file. Fees change, and this page will not always catch it.
- Moving pricing guideHourly or flat, how to say the rate, and how the math works. The calculator itself is in the course.
- Quote-call openingHow our quote call starts, word for word, with your name and rate filled in. The rest is in the course.
- Google Business Profile fieldsFree: what to set up first and the profile fields, word for word.
- One job, start to finishA real one-bedroom move, every message with its timestamp.
- Moving industry FAQThirty-five questions about getting in: trucks, licenses, insurance, pricing, hiring, when to buy the truck.
- GlossaryPortal to portal, released value, COI, and fifty more terms in plain English.
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