How to start a moving company in Washington: the UTC permit, Tariff 15-C, what it costs, and what to do this week

Washington licenses movers through the Utilities and Transportation Commission, and it is the one state that sets both a floor and a ceiling on what you may charge. What the household goods permit costs, the insurance it requires, how Tariff 15-C prices a local move, the paperwork every Washington move needs, and the work you can take before any of it.

Washington is the most thorough licensing state we have written up, and also the one that spells out the most. The Utilities and Transportation Commission publishes a tariff with a minimum and a maximum hourly rate for every truck and every worker, a consumer booklet you hand to every customer, the exact words on your estimate and your bill of lading, and a free training class every owner attends before the permit is issued.

That is a lot of rules. It is also a market where the man with the unmarked truck faces a $5,000 penalty for every advertisement, so the rules keep the field small. This is the order we would do it in. We run a licensed carrier in New York, not Washington, so read the Commission's household goods pages and Tariff 15-C yourself before you take a job that needs the permit, and call them when a page is unclear. They teach the class, so they answer this question every week.

What needs the permit and what does not

A household goods carrier in Washington is anyone who transports household goods for compensation by motor vehicle within the state, or who advertises, solicits or agrees to. The permit is required before the first job and before the first ad. There is no vehicle-size exception; size only changes the insurance tier.

Washington is unusual in writing the exemptions down. The Commission's rule says no permit is needed when you:

• Pack and load the goods but do not transport them. That is labor-only work, exempt by name. How to price it and find the first customers.
• Pack and load into a truck the customer owns or rented. Also exempt by name.
• Move commercial or office goods, or carry sealed self-storage containers the customer packed, with no other services.
• Move goods across a state line, into Oregon or Idaho, where federal rules apply instead. The USDOT number and federal authority are covered here.

Everything else, a paid move in any vehicle you drive, from a pickup to a 26-foot box truck, needs the permit. Operating or advertising without one is up to $5,000 per violation, with each ad in each medium counted separately, and up to $10,000 after a cease-and-desist order.

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 Washington it matters more, because the permit takes weeks to issue and the application asks for a financial statement and three statements of support from the public. Jobs on the books are where both come from.

Step one, before the Commission: a USDOT number

The permit rules do not list a USDOT number among the application criteria, but every truck you run under the permit has to display one on both sides next to your permit number, so you need it before the first move. The number is free from the FMCSA and takes about ten minutes online. When it 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 household goods carrier permit

The permit comes in two stages. A provisional permit first, for a minimum of six months, and then a permanent one, with no expiration and no second application, once the Commission has reviewed your safety record. The application is an online form, with a statement-of-support attachment, and the fee is paid through the Commission's payment page.

What it looks like in practice:

1. The application and fee. $550, one time, for provisional and then permanent authority. The form asks for a photo ID for every person named, a financial statement showing you can operate, proof of liability and cargo insurance, verifiable account numbers with the state's tax, labor and licensing agencies, proof of enrollment in a drug and alcohol testing program, and evidence that you own or lease the equipment. Staff run a criminal background check on every person named; theft, assault, fraud and drug convictions within five years disqualify.
2. Three statements of support. Sworn statements from people who want the service to exist. Customers from your labor-only jobs are the obvious source.
3. The 30-day wait. A complete application has to sit for at least 30 days before provisional authority can be granted. The Commission publishes it, and anyone may comment or protest in that window. A protest alone does not force a hearing.
4. The training. Each person named in the application attends the Commission's free household goods class before the permit is issued: a one-day live virtual session or self-paced modules on consumer protection, Tariff 15-C, annual reports and safety. There is no exam.
5. Provisional authority. The Commission says complete applications are usually processed in about a day. The 30-day wait is the real timeline, so plan on five to eight weeks from filing to the first legal move.
6. The safety review. Between six and eighteen months in, Commission safety staff visit your office, review crash, driver and equipment files, inspect the trucks at the terminal and rate you satisfactory, conditional or unsatisfactory. Satisfactory, plus the training, background checks on every employee, no outstanding penalties and no unresolved complaints, and the permit becomes permanent. Miss the eighteen months without good cause and the provisional permit is cancelled.

What it costs, from the Commission's rules and fee pages current at this writing:

• Application: $550, one time
• A regulatory fee every year by May 1: 0.25 percent of the prior year's intrastate gross revenue from household goods work, so $250 on $100,000, with a late fee and interest if it is late and filing penalties from $250 to $1,000 for a late annual report
• The tariff: you must hold a copy and may owe a maintenance fee for it

That is before insurance, and the insurance is the bigger number.

The insurance the Commission requires

• Liability: $300,000 combined single limit for vehicles of 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating or less, and $750,000 for anything heavier. A cargo van gets the lower floor. A rental box truck does not. Your insurer files a Form E in the exact permit name, and it stays in force until the insurer files a cancellation 30 days ahead.
• Cargo: $10,000 for vehicles under 10,000 pounds and $20,000 at or above, filed on a Form H or a certificate with the application. The tariff makes you liable to the customer directly regardless of what the policy pays, so those floors are not what we would carry. A single two-bedroom load is worth far more than $20,000 to the family that owns it. What moving insurance actually covers and what we carry.

Let the insurance lapse and the permit can be suspended or cancelled without a hearing. No bond is required; a surety bond is only an alternative to the liability policy.

Tariff 15-C: Washington sets your floor and your ceiling

Every permitted mover charges from the Commission's Tariff 15-C, the edition effective January 1, 2026. You choose your rates inside the band it sets. You may not go above the maximum, may not go below the minimum, may not advertise a rate that conflicts with it, and rebating carries a penalty.

Local moves are hourly. A move of 55 miles or less is a local move, billed by the hour per truck and per worker:

• Truck and driver, on a job of three hours or less: $39.20 to $154.38 an hour. On a longer job: $37.93 to $149.40.
• Each additional worker, on a job of three hours or less: $30.69 to $134.48 an hour. On a longer job: $29.63 to $129.83.

So a three-person crew with one truck on a four-hour job bills somewhere between $97.19 and $409.06 an hour, depending on where you set yourself inside the band. The Commission raised the maximums by temporary supplement twice in 2026, 3.35 percent from May through July and 5.8 percent from August 1 through October 31. The minimums did not move.

The clock. Regular hours are weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The minimum is one hour in regular hours and four hours when the customer asks for a move outside them. Time is recorded in fifteen-minute increments unless you file a form to record by the minute or to use a lower minimum. Travel time is actual, terminal to terminal, or a flat figure, documented on the bill of lading. Breaks and interruptions are not billable. Overtime after 5 p.m., before 8 a.m., on weekends and holidays or after eight straight hours is only at the customer's written request, at $11.38 to $32.84 per person per hour on top.

Longer moves are by weight and distance, mileage-rated from the tariff at 55 miles and up.

For comparison, our two-mover rate at home is $200 an hour with a three-hour minimum, and we publish it. In Washington the Commission has already published the range, and the customer who reads the consumer guide knows that a mover's rate is a choice inside it. Pick a number, put it on the website with the permit number next to it, and say it plainly on the phone.

Published rates, a written minimum, and no surprise line items are the whole reason our company grew. In Washington the tariff is the law, which makes it easier to compete against the guy whose ad has no permit number on it.

What every Washington move has to include

The Commission writes the forms, and the rules are the same habits that make a customer trust you anyway.

1. A written estimate before every move, binding or nonbinding, signed and dated by both of you. A verbal estimate alone is not allowed. You inspect the goods in person or by video, or the customer fills in the Commission's calculation sheet. The estimate shows your permit number, the type, the origin, destination and stops, a cube sheet inventory, and for a local move the number of workers, vehicles, hours and rates. If you estimate on moving day, you do not charge for the drive out or the time spent estimating. How we run that walkthrough and say the number.
2. The 25 percent rule. On a nonbinding estimate you may not charge more than 25 percent over it. The customer gets the shipment on payment of 110 percent, has at least 30 days to pay the rest, and never owes more than 125 percent unless they signed a supplemental estimate before the extra work. On a binding estimate you charge the estimate and nothing else. Overcharging is up to $1,000 per violation.
3. The consumer guide. The Commission's "Consumer Guide to Moving in Washington State" goes to every customer with the written estimate, in the Commission's words, printed by you, and the customer initials that they got it.
4. A bill of lading for every shipment, signed by both parties and kept three years, with the permit number, the 110 and 125 percent statements, the valuation choice, and on an hourly move the truck's departure and return times and each worker's start, stop and break times. The back carries the Commission's prescribed contract terms.
5. Valuation in writing, in the tariff's wording. Option one is basic value protection at 60 cents per pound per article, free. Option two is replacement cost with a $300 deductible, at 55 cents to $1.78 per $100 of declared value, with the declared value at least $9.16 times the net weight. Option three is replacement cost with no deductible, at 66 cents to $2.16 per $100. A customer who does not choose gets replacement value by default. How we handle the deposit and the agreement.
6. Your permit name and number and your USDOT number on both sides of every truck, legible at 50 feet, and your permit number, name, physical address and phone in every ad including the website, at $500 per violation.
7. Claims within nine months of delivery, acknowledged in writing within ten business days and paid, denied or offered within 90, with the Commission's number on the letter.
8. A background check on every person you hire, with the same five-year disqualifying list as the application, kept on file while they work for you and three years after.

The business side

The permit is not a business. Before the first full move you also want:

• An LLC, filed with the Washington Secretary of State for $180 plus an online processing fee, with a $70 annual report after that. Form it when the first few labor-only jobs have paid for it.
• A state business license through the Department of Revenue, $50 to open, $5 a year to renew, with a $10 update when you add employees. The Commission wants the account numbers before it will grant the permit.
• An EIN from the IRS, free, the same day.
• General liability insurance before the first job with furniture in it.
• Workers' comp the day you have an employee. Washington does not allow private coverage: you get an industrial insurance account from Labor and Industries by updating the business license when you hire, and you pay premiums per worker-hour, reported quarterly. The Commission asks for evidence you are in compliance with the labor laws as part of the permit. What to set up before anyone starts.

The order we would do it in

1. This week: labor-only and packing jobs, both exempt from the permit by name, with a phone line, a Google Business Profile and a Craigslist post. The first job, step by step.
2. When the first jobs have paid for it: the LLC, the business license, the USDOT number, general liability, a drug and alcohol testing program enrollment.
3. When you have three customers who will sign a statement of support and a financial statement you can stand behind: the $550 application, the training for everyone named on it, the Form E and Form H filings, and the 30-day wait. Keep doing labor-only jobs while it runs.
4. Before the first move under provisional authority: the permit and USDOT numbers on the truck, the consumer guide printed, the estimate and bill of lading forms built to the rule, your rates chosen inside the tariff band.
5. Before the first employee: the Labor and Industries account, and a background check on them.
6. Every year by May 1: the annual report and the regulatory fee.
7. Between six and eighteen months in: the safety review, and the permanent permit.
8. Before the first job into Oregon or Idaho: 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 Arizona. 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 WAC 480-15 and RCW 81.80 as published on apps.leg.wa.gov in October 2026; the Utilities and Transportation Commission's Tariff 15-C effective January 1, 2026 and its rate supplements 2026-1 and 2026-2; the Commission's household goods carrier, permit application, insurance and training pages as published on utc.wa.gov in October 2026; the Department of Labor and Industries' workers' compensation account pages; and the Secretary of State and Department of Revenue fee schedules, as published in October 2026. Check the Commission's household goods page before you file, because the tariff is revised by supplement and this page will not always catch it.