Start a Moving Business Without Trucks: The Broker Model

It's entirely possible to start a moving business without trucks, without drivers, and without a single piece of moving equipment — the model is called household goods (HHG) brokerage, and it's a federally licensed business that runs on phone calls, a CRM, and a network of carriers who own the actual trucks. A moving company requires a fleet, drivers, fuel, insurance, and maintenance — capital costs that typically start at $100,000 and climb fast. An HHG brokerage requires none of that. Total startup cost runs under $2,500, and the entire operation is built on connecting customers who need to move with carriers who already have the equipment to move them.

What a Moving Broker Does Instead of Owning Trucks

A moving broker is a licensed intermediary, not a moving company. The distinction matters legally and operationally. You hold an FMCSA household goods broker authority, which permits you to arrange transportation of personal property between customers and licensed motor carriers. You never touch the customer's belongings, never drive a truck, and never employ movers.

What you do instead: source the customer, gather move details, generate a quote, book a licensed carrier to execute the move at an agreed rate, and manage the transaction from booking to delivery confirmation. The difference between what the customer pays and what the carrier charges is your gross margin — typically $200 to $400 on local moves and $600 to $1,500 or more on long-distance interstate moves.

Why the No-Truck Model Actually Makes Financial Sense

The capital intensity of owning trucks is the single biggest barrier to entering the moving industry directly. A single commercial moving truck costs $40,000 to $80,000 new, requires commercial insurance running several thousand dollars annually, needs ongoing maintenance, and depreciates the moment it's purchased. Add drivers — who require wages, workers' compensation coverage, and DOT compliance training — and a basic two-truck moving company easily requires $150,000 to $250,000 in startup capital before generating a dollar of revenue.

The broker model sidesteps all of it. You're not buying depreciating assets. You're not managing a payroll of drivers. You're not carrying commercial auto insurance on vehicles you don't own. Your only ongoing financial obligation tied to operating legally is the annual surety bond premium — $900 to $2,000 per year for a $75,000 bond — and whatever software or advertising costs you choose to take on.

The Licensing You Actually Need

Operating a truckless moving business legally still requires federal licensing — this is not an unregulated gap in the system. The FMCSA requires every HHG broker to obtain an OP-1 operating authority specifically designated for household goods brokerage, not general freight brokering. That distinction matters: a general property broker authority does not permit you to broker household goods moves.

Beyond the OP-1 application ($300 government filing fee), you need a $75,000 surety bond (BMC-84) and a BOC-3 process agent filing — both filed by third-party companies, not by you directly. You'll also need a registered LLC ($50 to $200 depending on state) and a federal EIN (free through the IRS). All in, total startup costs run between $1,275 and $2,575 when filing independently, or $1,799 flat through a done-for-you service that includes every government fee.

For a complete breakdown of each required filing and the exact sequence they need to happen in, see the how to become an HHG broker guide in the BrokerFilings blog.

Where the Carriers Come From

The model only works if you have access to licensed carriers willing to execute the moves you book. This is the part that intimidates new applicants most, and it's also the part that's most solvable with the right tools. There are thousands of FMCSA-licensed household goods carriers across the country, many of which actively seek broker relationships because broker-sourced jobs fill capacity they'd otherwise have to find through their own marketing.

Platforms built specifically for HHG brokers — MagickPlat is one example — come pre-loaded with carrier databases organized by state, along with call scripts for carrier outreach. This removes the cold-start problem of finding carriers from scratch. Instead of researching who's licensed and operating in your target states, you start with a working list and move directly to relationship-building calls.

A reasonable target for a new broker is 15 to 20 vetted carrier relationships within the first 30 days of active operation — enough coverage to handle most customer requests without scrambling to find capacity mid-transaction.

What Income Looks Like Without Owning a Single Truck

The income math for HHG brokerage comes from two places: per-job dispatch margin and, for brokers who build carrier networks, monthly carrier subscription income. On dispatch margin alone, a broker closing 10 jobs a month at an average margin of $800 per job is earning $8,000 in gross monthly income — without owning equipment, without payroll, and without the liability exposure of operating commercial vehicles.

Brokers who add carrier subscriptions — where carriers pay a recurring monthly fee to stay active in the broker's dispatch network — layer on recurring income that doesn't depend on job volume in a given month. Twenty active carrier subscriptions at a typical structure adds roughly $1,780 in monthly income on top of dispatch margin. For a deeper breakdown of both income streams with volume-based projections, see the moving broker income guide.

Who This Model Actually Fits

The no-truck broker model fits people who are comfortable on the phone, organized enough to manage multiple moving parts across customers and carriers simultaneously, and willing to invest real effort into relationship-building in the first few months. It does not fit someone looking for a fully passive income stream with no active sales work — closing jobs requires outreach, follow-up, and consistent carrier communication, especially in the first 90 days.

What it does offer that traditional moving companies can't: a path into the industry with under $2,500 in startup capital, no employees, no fleet liability, and a federal license that takes 4 to 6 weeks to obtain rather than the months of buildout a truck-owning moving company requires before it can take its first job.

Getting Licensed Without the Guesswork

BrokerFilings was built by Erica Dorsey, a tax accountant who filed her own FMCSA household goods broker authority from scratch — forming the LLC, registering the EIN, filing the OP-1, and coordinating the BOC-3 and surety bond personally before building a service to handle it for others. You can read more about that background on the BrokerFilings founder page.

The Standard package handles the entire licensing process for $1,799 flat — LLC formation guidance, EIN registration, FMCSA OP-1 filing, BOC-3 process agent filing, and surety bond referral, with all government fees included. It also includes a free website deployment and a 30-day MagickPlat free trial, so your carrier database and CRM are ready before your authority even activates. Average approval time is 4 to 6 weeks, with full support until your authority is granted.