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Moving · NJ + NYC · $50/hr per person

Moving labor for your rental truck or POD.

You rented the U-Haul, the Penske, the Budget cube truck. You need two or three pairs of arms to load it without throwing your back out — and unload it without tipping the dresser down the stairs. We bring the dollies, the straps, the moving blankets, and the calm. You point at what goes; we get it on the truck in the right order with nothing scuffed.

Book a moving crew → Call (855) 82LABOR

Best for

What we knock out on a moving job.

  • Loading a rented U-Haul, Penske, or Budget truck the day of pickup
  • Unloading at the new home or office, with stair + elevator runs
  • Loading + unloading a PODS, U-Box, or 1-800-PACK-RAT container
  • Storage-unit transfers — old unit to new, or unit to home
  • Apartment-to-apartment moves where the truck is already booked
  • Office moves — workstations, files, conference furniture

What we bring

Gear in the truck.

  • Furniture dollies (4-wheel and 2-wheel appliance hand-trucks)
  • Forearm forklift straps — the secret weapon for stairwell turns
  • Moving blankets (12-pad set) and stretch wrap for upholstery
  • Ratchet straps and rope for tying down the load inside the truck
  • Mattress bags, TV boxes, and tape on request — bring your own if you have them
  • Floor protection — rosin paper or runner mats for hardwood and tile

Price examples

Real jobs, real numbers.

  • Load a 15-ft U-Haul, one-bedroom apartment — 2 hours, 2 crew, $200 total
  • Unload a 26-ft truck, three-bedroom house — 3 hours, 3 crew, $450 total
  • POD loading at home, ground floor — 2 hours, 2 crew, $200 total
  • Office move (8 workstations, files, two conference rooms) — 5 hours, 4 crew, $1,000 total
  • Walk-up unload, third floor, no elevator — 3.5 hours, 3 crew, $525 total

All examples assume travel inside our NJ + NYC service area. No travel surcharges.

The deep dive

Moving in NJ + NYC — what actually happens.

Moving labor in northern New Jersey and the five boroughs is the line item every renter and homeowner under-budgets. The truck rental is the obvious cost — $80-200 for a U-Haul or Penske cube — but the labor is the part that determines whether the move finishes on time, whether your security deposit comes back, and whether you can walk on Monday morning. National van lines quote moves at $1,500-3,000 for a one-bedroom because their pricing model bakes in fuel, mileage, insurance, dispatch, and a 30 percent markup on labor. Brick Labor sells the labor as labor: $50 per hour per person, you book the truck through the rental brand of your choice, you keep the savings. We bring the dollies, the appliance hand-truck, the forearm-forklift straps, a 12-pad set of moving blankets, stretch wrap, ratchet straps, rope, mattress bags on request, and rosin paper for floor protection at every door we walk through. The crew is calm, multi-cultural, and well-rested — we do not run double shifts and we do not show up at 10 a.m. with a hangover.

Load + unload separately, or both ends with the same crew

The most common moving-labor call is both ends with the same crew on the same day. You book a 15-foot U-Haul for the morning, we meet you at the old place at 9 a.m., we load by 11, you drive across the Hudson or the Pulaski Skyway, we meet you at the new address at noon, we unload by 2 p.m., you return the truck before the rental cutoff at 4 p.m. — total job under five hours of crew time, $200-500 depending on stair runs and crew size. The second most common call is load-only — you flew in a friend to do the drive, or you handed the truck off to a long-distance carrier. The third is unload-only — the POD arrived from Phoenix and the driver dropped it in the driveway. We bid each leg separately so you never pay for crew sitting on the highway.

Furniture dolly stacked with boxes and a wrapped couch — Brick Labor moving help on a Jersey City apartment stair run
Stair run in a Jersey City walk-up — furniture dolly + forearm-forklift straps + a stretch-wrapped couch on a tight turn.

What flat $50/hr per person actually buys

No fuel surcharge. No mileage fee for working inside our coverage radius. No "minimum 4-hour" booking. No "stair fee" added at the end. No "long carry" upcharge when the front door is 80 feet from the parking spot. The hourly meter starts when we begin work and stops when we sign off — typically within 5 minutes of arrival and within 5 minutes of the last box leaving the truck. Equipment is included — every dolly, blanket, strap, and floor-protection mat is in the price. We do not charge for the wrap and we do not charge to unwrap on the other end. The pricing model is intentionally boring because moving labor has historically been the trade with the most aggressive upsell, and we wanted to be the obvious anti-upsell crew. If a job runs short — we tell you and you pay short. If a job runs long because of something we did not see during booking, we eat the first 15 minutes.

How to size the crew before booking

Crew sizing is the biggest variable. Two crew can handle a studio or a tight one-bedroom in two hours each end. A two-bedroom apartment with stairs or a third-floor walk-up needs three crew running rotations to keep anyone from blowing out their back. A three-bedroom house or a four-room office needs four crew and the kind of choreography where two stage at the truck, two carry, and the team rotates every couple of trips. The 1,000-pound piece — refrigerator, full upright piano, gun safe, heirloom armoire — requires an extra crew member specifically for that piece and roughly 15 minutes of focused work. If you describe the home accurately at booking — bedrooms, floor, stairs, elevator-or-not, heaviest items, distance from truck to door — we will recommend a crew size we are willing to be wrong about, and we will adjust on arrival if reality differs from the booking. The goal is finishing on the truck-return clock.

Moving day is the highest-leverage day of the move. A clean load means a clean unload, a clean unload means an undamaged security deposit and an undamaged spine, and an undamaged spine means you can show up to work on Monday. Book the truck on your terms, book the crew on ours, and we will close the gap between a chaotic rental-and-pray weekend and an organized move that ends with both of you grateful, paid, and tipped (tips welcome, never required, never expected).

Why us

Why Brick Labor for moving labor.

Moving is stressful. We show up calm, on time, in branded shirts so you know who walked into your living room, and ready to work without a 20-minute coffee break. The crew is multi-cultural, bilingual on most rotations, and trained to ask before improvising — we will tell you when the lamp will not fit under the bed in the truck before we try and fail. We rely on teamwork: one stages at the truck, one wraps inside, one carries, all rotate. We end every move with a walk-through of both properties and a photo of the empty old place so you have evidence for the security deposit conversation. Pride shows up in the empty spaces, not the social-media post.

  • Enthusiastic — we like the puzzle of fitting a household into a truck box
  • Multi-cultural — bilingual crew comfortable in any New Jersey or NYC neighborhood
  • Calm under pressure — broken elevator, parking ticket, surprise heavy item, all handled without drama
  • Teamwork — every move is a 2-4 person rotation, no solo lifter
  • Pride in the move — we walk both properties, photo-document the empty old place, leave the new place protected

How it runs

How a Brick Labor moving job runs end to end.

  1. Walk the home + the truck

    On arrival we walk every room, ID anything fragile or heavy, and confirm the loading order. We measure the truck or POD opening against the tallest piece (usually a dresser or a couch) before lifting anything.

  2. Pad-wrap and stage

    Furniture gets moving blankets and stretch wrap. We stage each room in trip-order near the front door so the loading rhythm stays clean — heaviest first, lightest last.

  3. Load Tetris-style

    Heaviest pieces along the cab end, weight balanced left-right. Couches stood on end save floor space. Mattresses against the wall, not on the floor. Boxes fill the gaps. Ratchet straps every four feet to lock the load.

  4. Drive and unload

    You drive the rental (or arrange the POD pickup). We meet you at the new address and unload to the room labels you wrote on the boxes. Floor protection down at every door we use.

  5. Final walk-through

    We walk both properties with you, confirm nothing got left behind in the truck, photograph any pre-existing damage, and only ask for payment after you sign off on the work.

Why it matters

Why hire a crew for this at all.

A botched move means a scuffed hardwood floor, a torn box spring, a herniated disc, or worst case a security deposit you never see again. The IRS lets W-2 movers deduct moving costs almost never — so paying for a careful crew is your last chance to keep the move under budget. A flat-hourly crew runs $300-500 less than a national van line for a one-bedroom and arrives with the same dollies.

Moving FAQ

Common moving questions.

Do you supply the truck?

No — you book the truck through U-Haul, Penske, Budget, or the POD provider, and we bring the crew. That way you only pay for the rental you actually need, and we never mark up the truck cost. We help you size it correctly before you book if you want a sanity check.

How many crew should I book?

Studio or 1-bedroom: 2 crew, 2 hours each end. Two-bedroom apartment with stairs: 3 crew, 3 hours each end. Three-bedroom house or multi-room office: 3-4 crew, 4-5 hours total. We can recommend a count when you describe the job at booking.

Do you drive the truck for us?

Generally no — most rental contracts only cover drivers on the contract, and adding a driver costs more than it saves. We load and unload at both ends and ride along in a separate vehicle when needed. Ask at booking if you specifically need a driver and we will tell you what fits the contract.

What about the heavy stuff — piano, safe, gun cabinet, hot tub?

Pianos under 350 lbs (uprights, spinets) — yes, with a piano dolly. Grand pianos and safes over 500 lbs — we coordinate a specialty mover for the lift and handle the rest of the move. Tell us at booking; we will not overpromise.

Can you do same-day moves?

Often, yes — if the truck is already in your hands and the crew calendar has a slot. Single-truck moves inside Essex or Hudson county usually fit same-evening. Larger moves with multiple stops need 1-2 days of lead time so we can plan the rotation.

Do you wrap furniture?

Yes — every piece that needs it. Upholstered furniture gets stretch wrap, wood pieces get moving blankets and tape. Mattresses go in mattress bags if you bring them, or stretch-wrap if you do not. We do not charge per blanket; the wrapping is part of the hourly.

Pick a city

Moving in your city.

Same flat $50/hr rate everywhere we cover. Pick yours for the local crew page.

Field notes

How we run moving jobs.

All field notes →

Coverage map · live

One Newark crew. All of NJ + five NYC boroughs.

Home base in Newark. We cover 45 New Jersey cities and the 5 NYC boroughs at the flat $50/hr rate. Trace the route, drop into any city, hop into any service hub — all from the map.

NEWARK · BASE
50 cities · NJ + NYC
Home base Newark, NJ 07102
  • Home base
  • NJ city (45)
  • NYC borough (5)
Book your area

By region

NJ counties we hit weekly

  • Essex
  • Hudson
  • Bergen
  • Union
  • Passaic
  • Morris

NYC boroughs

  • Manhattan
  • Brooklyn
  • Queens
  • Bronx
  • Staten Island

Outside the lines? Email hey@bricklabor.com — we travel.