Is It Customary to Tip Movers?

Until you mentioned it, it never even occurred to me to tip movers. We've mostly used smaller companies where the owner is actually one of the movers so that may be why it never occurred to me before, or it may just be that I'm cheap and I figured the hundreds of dollars that I paid for a few hours of work was sufficient. But I've never tipped a mover, ever. I never even thought of feeding them like some of the people mentioned. We always have offered drinks of course, but our moves have always happened so fast (local short distances) that none of that ever seemed necessary. Of course now that I know some people do, I probably will tip in the future. Very good question! :-)

We've moved several times in our married life. I haven't tipped the movers every time. The times in which they worked efficiently and completed the move within the expected timeframe, I have tipped them. However, the last time we moved we hired someone out of the newspaper and though he was very nice, he brought a trailer and two trucks to move us. Thus, the move took twice as long as we expected and since we were paying by the hour, we ended up paying almost twice as much. He didn't get a tip nor did his workers.

Every time that we have moved we have tipped our movers. Some more than others...wait until you are TOTALLY moved before you do it! How much you tip really depends on how much you are moving.

We tipped after everything was completed. During the process, we also brought in some lunch for them.

The amount is just up to you.

OK, we sound like cheapskates, but honestly we never thought about tipping them and we've moved a LOT. We do usually buy their lunch and have water and Gatorade available for them.

I have never done this, but I recently heard on a tv show that one way to encourage your movers to do a great job is to let them know how much you intend to tip them if they get things done quickly and well. On the show they stated that it you should tip around 5-10% of the moving cost, but I dont know if that is realistic or just hopeful! Anyway, for sure I would do lunch and drinks! Good luck with the move! ~A.~

I would say yes. We tipped ours which seems a bit crazy after all we paid to move.