Many consumers get confused about “double drive time”. It is there to protect the consumer in California although the name they gave it implies that you are being charged twice for the same thing.
What is “double drive time”? Here in California, the California Public Utilities Commission requires all movers to charge “double drive time” on hourly rated moves.
Double drive time actually saves you money and also protects you from unscrupulous movers that might charge “portal to portal”. In essence double drive time means you don’t get charged for the time it takes to get to your home from our warehouse, or in other words the drive to your origin.
We also don’t charge you for the time it takes after the move is complete to get back to our warehouse.
Instead, the time to get from your origin (starting point – where you are moving from) to your destination (ending point – where you are moving to) is logged, and then doubled. This is supposed to represent all of the drive time involved in your move.
If you think about it it makes sense. The reason the PUC does it that way is because you can actually “see” the amount of time it takes to get from your origin to your destination. You would not be able to know how long it takes to get to your origin from the warehouse, or to get to the warehouse from your destination so movers aren’t allowed to use this. So instead, the law says to pay twice for the time in the “middle” to represent the total drive time involved with your move.
Here is the actual page from the Max Rate Tariff 4 regarding double drive time. The Max Rate Tariff 4 (I know, it’s a funny name…) are the laws that regulate household goods movers in California. You can actually read or download the entire Tariff on our site by clicking here.
For further questions or clarification, please feel free to call our San Diego moving offices at 858-689-2525. Priority Moving – San Diego movers is always happy to answer any questions you may have and to ensure that you are getting a move that is lawful and fair.
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