What Type of Bad Weather Causes Movers to Cancel a Move?

As a moving company that handles both local and long-distance moves, believe us when we say the absolute last thing we ever want to do is cancel a move. We understand how important timely moves are to our customers, many of whom have very firm deadlines when they need to be out of their current location and into their new one. Our own internal operations hinge on every move being completed as scheduled, so we can delegate moving crews, trucks, and other resources appropriately.

Unfortunately, weather events happen. It’s important to understand what type of weather events cause movers to cancel a move. Sometimes we know about these type of weather events in advance, and schedules can be accelerated to get your possessions packed and moved before the snowstorm or hurricane arrives. In other instances, weather events turn out to be more severe than anyone expected, and the decision to postpone a move must be made.

The types of weather events that can cause a move to be cancelled include snowstorms, heavy rain events that cause flooding, hurricanes, tropical storms and more. Wildland fires can also delay a move if the fires are not contained or are causing road closures.

The primary criteria we use to determine if we have to cancel a move during bad weather are feasibility and safety.

Feasibility refers to ability to actually perform the move. If roads are closed or blocked due to local weather conditions, we can’t get our moving trucks or crews in to your location in order to move your things. In some events, such as a windstorm that puts tree limbs, downed power lines, and other dangerous debris into the street, roads are generally cleared very quickly, and a move can proceed on a delayed timeline. In other instances, where roads are blocked for a prolonged period of time, or flood waters, landslides, or other significant weather has damaged or destroyed the roadway, a move will be cancelled. At that point, we will work with you, using all available known information regarding local conditions, to determine an alternate time and route for your move.

When we talk about safety impacting our ability to perform a move, we’re including the safety of our crews and equipment as well as that of your family’s possessions in the conversation. If we can’t preserve the safety of everyone and everything during the course of the move, we will cancel the move until such point as conditions improve. When a state of emergency is declared and all non-essential traffic is ordered off of the roads, we comply with these orders. Our commitment to you includes keeping you continually appraised of any situations that impact your timeline, so you will be the first to know in the event extreme weather conditions delay your move.

Luckily, extreme weather events that impact moves are relatively rare. In the decades we’ve been in this industry, there are a very limited number of moves we’ve had to cancel due to weather; the majority of these have been when the weather was so bad roadways were blocked or destroyed. Our goal is always to perform moves as scheduled and as long as we can do so safely and legally, we’ll be there!