Labor-Only Movers
West Valley City

Portable containers dropped in the driveway have become a common way to move, and they suit a lot of situations. They also have requirements that a rental truck does not, and getting them wrong is how contents arrive damaged after a journey nobody watched.

Just-In-Time Moving loads and unloads containers across West Valley City and Salt Lake County. We are licensed in Utah and carry general liability insurance.

The difference that matters

A truck is loaded, driven and unloaded in a day, usually gently and by the people who packed it.

A container is loaded, then lifted, set on a carrier, driven, possibly stored, lifted again and set down. It experiences tilting and vertical movement that a truck never does, and it may sit for weeks in between.

That is why a container has to be loaded tightly rather than merely neatly. Anything with room to move will move, and nobody is there when it does.

How it should be loaded

In tiers, floor to ceiling, wall to wall, each strapped to the tie-down points before the next is built. Containers have rails specifically for this and they are the whole system.

Weight distributed evenly and low, not concentrated at one end. Unlike a truck there is no axle to favour, but a container lifted with all its weight in one corner handles badly.

Gaps filled with soft goods, every time.

Nothing leaning on the doors. A load that has settled against the doors during transit is genuinely dangerous to open.

Storage changes what should go in

If the container will sit for weeks, it is unheated and unventilated. Candles, electronics, anything liquid, and upholstery that is even slightly damp are all worth reconsidering.

Mattresses and fabric should go in covered and dry. Anything that would suffer at a summer or winter temperature extreme belongs elsewhere.

The insurance question

Worth understanding, because there are three parties. The container company covers its own equipment and typically offers content cover you buy separately. Our general liability covers damage we cause, including to your property while we are working. Your homeowners or renters policy may or may not extend to stored goods.

Ask the container company what their cover actually includes rather than assuming, and check whether it depends on who loaded it.

Practical points

Confirm the placement is legal and that the driveway can take it. Photograph the load before the doors close. Keep an inventory. Do not put anything you will need soon at the front of the build.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.