People read our name as a marketing choice more often than you’d think — like Beau picked “Honest” the way another company might pick “Premier” or “Elite.” That’s not where it came from. He spent four years as a foreman for an Atlanta-based van line’s Savannah satellite crew, watching dispatch quote one number over the phone and a driver collect a different one at the curb. When he opened his own outfit off Louisville Road in 2016, he put the name on the truck as a rule he’d have to keep, not a word that tests well in a search ad. Here’s what that actually means in practice, quote by quote.
Binding vs. Non-Binding: The Difference That Actually Matters
A non-binding estimate is a starting figure based on an average — average cubic footage for a “typical” 2-bedroom, average hours for a job nobody has actually walked. It’s allowed to move once the real inventory shows up, and in a lot of the industry, it usually does. A binding estimate is a fixed number issued after someone has actually seen the job, either in person or over video, and it holds regardless of how the day goes — longer traffic, a heavier sofa, a slower elevator, none of it changes what’s on the invoice.
At Honest Moving, local hourly jobs are quoted at a confirmed crew size and rate before the truck leaves Louisville Road, so you know exactly what you’re paying per hour before Trey or Yolanda’s crew ever knocks on your door. Full-home moves and anything leaving the Savannah area are quoted flat rate and binding, built by Cordell Ashby after he’s walked the property himself.
What Actually Changes a Quote
| Situation | What Happens to Your Number |
|---|---|
| You add a storage unit, garage, or shed after the walkthrough | Repriced and confirmed in writing before it’s loaded — not silently added to the invoice |
| Access turns out different than described — a walk-up instead of ground floor | Adjusted once, in writing, before the crew starts, based on what Cordell actually finds |
| You add a second stop or a different drop-off address | Priced as a scope change and confirmed before the truck rolls |
| Your move lands inside the historic district and needs the shuttle-truck transfer | Built into the estimate up front once Cordell knows the address, not discovered on move day |
| You request full packing the morning of, having originally planned to do it yourself | Priced as an add-on service, agreed to before boxes start getting taped |
What Should Never Change a Quote
- Traffic on I-95 or a slow elevator that isn’t anyone’s fault.
- A binding job running longer than the crew expected.
- “Discovering” extra cubic footage on move day that was sitting in plain sight during the walkthrough.
- A smaller crew showing up than the one confirmed in writing.
- Fuel or mileage inside the service radius that was already part of the original number.
If any of those show up on an invoice from a mover, that’s not a pricing quirk — it’s the estimate failing to do the one job it exists for.
Why It Runs Through One Person, Not a Call Center
Cordell is both our estimator and our dispatcher, which is a smaller way to run things than a lot of moving companies operate, but it closes the gap that causes most of this trouble in the first place. The person who prices your job is the same person who sends the crew, confirms the truck, and fields the call if something on-site doesn’t match what was walked. Selena runs the office and the calendar around him, and Trey Bonnet and Yolanda Pruitt lead the crews that actually show up — the same rate, the same crew size, the same address Cordell wrote down.
The point of putting a number in writing is that neither of us has to remember it later. We just have to honor it.
— Cordell Ashby, Estimator & Dispatcher
That’s the whole mechanism behind the name — not a slogan, just a smaller company built so the number Selena gives you on the phone, the number Cordell confirms at the walkthrough, and the number on the invoice are the same number every time. If you want to see it work on your own move, call (888) 278-9005 or request a quote through the site. We’ll walk the job before we price it, every time, and write down what we find.