What actually decides a Hoboken move
Hoboken is one square mile and almost none of it has a driveway. Nearly every job here is decided by two things before anything else: where the truck can legally stand, and how many flights are above it. The city runs a permit system for reserving curb space for a moving truck, with signage posted in advance. When that spot is not held, the truck ends up circling, or double-parked on a one-way street with traffic building behind it, and a crew that should be carrying is standing around instead.
The building stock is largely four and five storey walk-ups and converted brownstones, with elevator buildings concentrated toward the waterfront. A fourth-floor walk-up with a turn at every landing is a materially different job from the same furniture on a ground floor, and the honest way to price it is to know the floor and the stair layout beforehand rather than discover it on the morning.
The waterfront towers are a third kind of job again: a certificate of insurance filed with management to their wording, a booked elevator window, and a loading dock you have to be clear of on time. That paperwork is ours to deal with, not yours, and we would rather start it a week early than find out on the day that management has not approved it.
What we ask before we quote it
- Which floor, and how many flights of stairs
- Whether the staircase turns, and how tight the turn is
- Whether the building requires a COI or a reserved elevator
- Whether curb space can be permitted, or we work from the nearest legal spot
