Back in 2023 I went through an inter-state move with Flat Rate Movers, LTD. (US DOT 488466, MC 254356). They bungled the job, damaged my stuff and my house, and then refused to talk to me or their own insurance company. I placed dozens of calls, wrote letters, emails, nothing worked. I finally got some money for the damage by working with their insurer directly. I know a lot of folks struggle with moving companies, and figured I’d write up a bit of this story in case it helps. You can skip ahead if you just want to know about the FMCSA insurer database.

In November 2022 I scheduled the move with Flat Rate. We took a detailed video inventory of everything to be moved. I paid over $14,000 for an “all inclusive move”, which, per the move plan, included full packing services, blankets for furniture, boxes for electronics, lamps, and bicycles, a custom crate for a tabletop, and “extended valuation coverage”—their insurance policy.

A few days before the move in March 2023, Flat Rate called to tell me a five-person team would arrive. When the crew arrived, it wasn’t Flat Rate. It was a team of two from Esquire Moving Inc (US DOT 2820253, MC 940499). They had no idea they were supposed to provide packing services. The crate I paid for was nowhere to be found. They didn’t have enough boxes or blankets. I had to have everything out that day, so there wasn’t any choice—I worked alongside the team for thirteen hours to complete the packing and move-out.

I let the team handle furniture protection and loading the truck, which was a mistake. As they unloaded a few days later, I realized much of the furniture had been completely unprotected. My bicycle wasn’t boxed. Lamps were tossed in loose. There was extensive damage to furniture, art, books, and my home: I watched the crew rip a doorframe off the wall. The crew provided me with a backdated bill of lading only on delivery.

I called Flat Rate a couple days later to discuss my concerns. Their representive apologized and acknowledged that a crew of two was insufficient. I sent Flat Rate a detailed email explaining their failure to provide promised services, accompanied by photographs of the move process and the resulting damage. I asked for a partial refund, and for Flat Rate to pay for the damage they caused. I received only an out-of-office auto-response.

On March 21st, I received a generic form letter from Flat Rate’s claims department. I filled out the claim forms and submitted them on March 25th, and repeated that I needed more than an insurance claim: Flat Rate obviously failed to provide the services I’d paid for.

Then things got weird. I placed call after call to the claims department. They didn’t answer. I left voicemail after voicemail. On April 28th I reached an actual human, but their computers were apparently down, and no supervisor was in the building—the representative couldn’t do anything but take down a note to call me back. They never did. I left another voicemail on May 5th. Again on May 23rd. Again on August 4th. August 8th. I began to realize that Flat Rate’s strategy was simply to never answer the phone.

On August 14th, a new hire in the claims department called me: she’d just been hired and was taking over my case. She dispatched a local furniture company to inspect the damages and help complete the claim. The inspectors agreed: the movers had done extensive damage. I provided them with documentation and photos as well.

On September 14 I called the furniture company and confirmed that yes, they had submitted their report to Flat Rate. However, the furniture company had a confidentiality agreement with Flat Rate, and could not release their report to me. I called their contact at Flat Rate, who didn’t answer, and left a voicemail. I called the claims representative’s direct line: her number was no longer in service. On September 19th I got a call from the claims representative, who promised she’d have a decision by the end of the day. Flat Rate never talked to me again.

I called again and again, but got voicemail every time. I tried a letter from my lawyers, an arbitration request with the American Trucking Association, complaints with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the New York Department of Transportation’s Motor Carrier complaint department, and the New York State Department of Financial Services; none of this went anywhere.

Here’s the thing: movers offer coverage, they have claims departments, and they do many insurance-like things in house. But for complicated reasons, they are not actually insurance companies, and are not regulated as such. Their coverage is backstopped by separate, real insurance companies. I eventually discovered I could bypass Flat Rate and talk to their backing insurance company directly. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration maintains a public database of moving companies. Putting in their US DOT number (488466) yields a page with some basic info. At the bottom are links with their active and pending insurance, and the history of their insurers.

The insurance history told me their cargo insurer at the time of my move was Hanover Insurance Company, with policy RHX H706231. The database also had Hanover’s phone number. I was able to call Hanover and ask about the policy—it took a few tries, but I got through to a claims adjuster there who was able to confirm that yes, I could file a claim directly with Hanover. I sent over a package of documentation, including the photos and the story so far.

Hanover Insurance informed me they’d never heard anything about my claim, and called Flat Rate to check. Over the next few days we discovered that Flat Rate wasn’t just refusing to answer my calls—they wouldn’t answer calls from their insurance company either. Hanover wasn’t able to obtain the report from the furniture company, but they did agree, on the basis of the photos, to pay a reasonable amount for the damage to cargo. I had a check a few days later.

I’m still unhappy with Flat Rate: they charged me a good deal of money for services they failed to deliver, and never paid for damage to the house. I was gearing up for small claims court—but during the tail end of this fiasco I was entering a fresh hell of home renovation, and got distracted. If you’re reading this, Flat Rate, you still owe me.