Guides · 4 min read

Disputes over moving hours: how to avoid them

“You were here six hours, not eight.” Every moving company has heard it. Most of the time nobody is lying: there is simply no proof both sides accept.

Where disputes come from

The customer counts from when they see the truck, the crew from leaving the depot. The customer forgets the break, or thinks it was billed. One person arrived later than the others, but the sheet shows the same time for everyone.

In the evening everyone has their own version, and a paper sheet filled in at the end of the day settles nothing: it was written from memory, by only one side.

1. Record times as they happen

A time written down on the spot is worth far more than one rebuilt in the evening. Ideally: a timestamped clock-in on arrival, at the start of work, at each break and at the end, with no way of rewriting it afterwards.

2. Count each person separately

Billing “three people for eight hours” when one of them arrived at 10 am invites a dispute. Counting each person's actual minutes is fairer and, paradoxically, easier to defend.

3. Separate time on site from travel

Customers hate paying for traffic jams. State a fixed travel time in the quote, calculated in advance, and bill it on a separate line. Time on site is counted to the minute.

4. Give every incident a cause

Lift out of order, furniture not dismantled, truck access refused: record the incident, its duration and its cause as it happens. Waiting caused by the customer is billed; a crew mistake is deducted; an outside event is discussed. Written down at the time, an incident stops being an argument.

5. Take timestamped photos

A photo of the furniture before loading and on delivery settles most damage discussions. It must be timestamped and filed with the job, not lost on a crew member's phone.

6. Get sign-off on site and send the statement the same day

Before leaving, show the customer a clear summary: each person's hours, breaks, incidents. Get it signed, or record the refusal and the reason. A statement received the same evening, while everything is fresh, is rarely disputed a week later.

In short

A dispute over hours is almost always a problem of proof. Hours recorded at the time, per person, with breaks, incidents and a signature, turn a painful argument into simply reading a statement.