How do gas prices affect the cost of moving?

It’s clear that gas prices will affect your move because of the need to transport your belongings from one place to another. Sometimes, you might even need to do it multiple times. Depending on the number of things you are transporting, that is. On the other hand, we can talk about whether you need long-distance movers or you are just doing a move across the city. As you have probably already guessed, the gas price is a much bigger concern when you have decided to move to another state or let alone another country. But how much do the gas prices affect the cost of moving? Do they truly end up being most of the expense? We are here to answer those questions for you. So sit back and enjoy this not-so-little article we’ve prepared for you.

What causes gas prices to rise up?

First off, in order to better understand what we are dealing with, let us look at what exactly causes gas prices to fluctuate. One of the key things we are going to talk about here is crude oil. Simply put, as crude oil prices rise, chances are that the retail gas price will rise also. The highest price of WTI (World Texas Intermediate) crude oil has ever been was $172.05 per barrel. That record is from the year 2008. As a result of the high crude oil prices, gas prices rose up to $4.114 per gallon that year, according to the EIA (the U.S. Energy Information Administration). These statistics get us closer to answering how gas prices factor into the cost of moving.

The other key factor is the demand along with the currently available supply of gasoline. To be more precise, when the current supplies are not enough to meet the demand, the price of gasoline will naturally rise. Every year, during late summer, gas prices tend to peak because of how many people drive around during that period. So summer isn’t exactly the most affordable times to move cross country. Alternatively, gas prices get lower as the winter approaches.

Why did gas prices rise so much in 2022?

This probably is one of the reasons why you are even here, so let’s briefly go over this question. Gas prices have rocketed to a record high of $5 in June in the year of 2022. The biggest culprit is in actuality the price of crude oil. As we’ve mentioned earlier crude oil is closely connected to the gasoline price. The price of crude oil in June was running close to $120 per barrel. Interestingly enough though, in April this year, crude oil accounted for 60% of the gasoline price. For comparison, it used to be 25% in April 2020. Once again, these statistics are from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Bit by bit, we are getting closer to debunking the question: “How do gas prices affect the cost of moving?”

How do gas prices affect the cost of moving?

After going through some basics about how the prices of gasoline change and why it’s finally time to dive into our main question. Which is how do gas prices change the cost of moving? Well, no matter the way you are moving your things, whether it’s a DIY move, or with a full-service moving company, you’ll be emptying your pockets for the gas. When you are paying for a company to do your move, the company will take a part of the pay for the gas. Alternatively, during a DIY move, you will most likely have to rent a truck and pay for the gas yourself. So the answer is that gas prices highly affect the cost of moving, especially during cross-country moves. Now let’s be a bit more exact and look at the few ways you can choose to move your belongings and how the gasoline price affects it.

DIY moving

When it comes to moving all of your things yourself, it is really one of the cheapest ways to move furniture to another state. For that occasion, you will more than likely rent a truck. Otherwise, you will be forced to go back and forth multiple times, which is a drag and an even bigger gas expense. If you do that, you’ll realize how gas prices indefinitely affect the price of moving. So renting a 15ft or 17ft truck seems to be the go-to solution for a big long-distance move. Moving on, the gas mileage of trucks this size is estimated to be about 10mpg. Might be a bit too low of a number thought, so expecting a bit more is never a bad idea.

If for example, you are moving from Los Angeles to Austin, you would be crossing about 1,300 miles. Along with some simple calculations, we would use up about 130 gallons of gas for that trip. Which equals up to $432 if we use the current active average USA price of gasoline ($3.329 per gallon). Keep in mind that this is only the estimated price for the gas which is bound to be higher than expected. So that’s how much you would expect to pay if you are doing a DIY move across the state.  The answer to “How do gas prices affect the cost of moving?” seems a lot clearer now.

How do gas prices exactly affect the price of moving with full-service moving

On the other hand, when the theme is full-service moving, you are going to be relying on a company to charge you for their fuel costs. How do gas prices affect the price of moving with full service? In reality, the difference won’t be that big (if we’re talking about the gas price of course). Depending on the estimate that the company offers, you might have to pay more if they get stuck in traffic and use up more fuel. What we’re talking about here is the non-binding estimate. If a company offers you a non-binding estimate they can change the price for their services towards the end of the move. Why? Because they might have used up more fuel or time than expected, which is what you are paying for. If the company offers you a binding estimate you will just jam the price upfront.

Usually, the fuel costs would add up to 20% of the full-service company cost. Nowadays though, companies have seen an increase to 28% of the whole check being the fuel costs. What does this even mean? It means that if you were moving from Detroit to Chicago, a one-bedroom place to be exact, which is approximately 280 miles, you’ll most likely pay something between $850 – $2,300. Now, obviously, this depends on a lot of other factors, not just the distance. Now, let’s add up that 28% fuel increase. That gives a new price range of $1,088-$2,944. This is directly the answer to “How do gas prices affect the cost of moving?”

Is it better for me to do a DIY move because of how gas prices affect the price of moving?

Here’s the thing, you could save some money by doing a DIY move. We’ll talk about how you can save some fuel a bit later. So how do gas prices affect the cost of moving if you are going DIY? We’ve already mentioned that the company you entrust with your move will factor in the same cost of gas. In essence, that means that you will be pretty much on equal terms with the pumps, no matter the type of move. The difference being you do not control how the fuel is used up. If you are looking at some other factors though, a DIY might be worth a shot. The real culprits here are things like loading the truck yourself, driving it yourself, etc. Now those are fees and costs to factor in when defining your moving budget if you want to lower the budget that is.

Though you clearly should not forget about your gas price. In order to closely estimate the gasoline costs, you would use this formula: Mileage / MPG * Current gas price = Gas expense. Be vary of difficulties that you may face along the road, which very well may raise the expense of gas. The mentioned formula will lead you to better understand how gas prices in actuality affect the price of moving. Preparing a relocation budget is a delicate matter, so you’ll need to put a lot of work into it. After all, that is one of the most important factors to consider when preparing for a cross-country move.

Can I still save fuel by doing a DIY move?

If you decide to move your belongings yourself, after all, you’ll be wondering if you can save some fuel on the road after all. So how can I move long-distance cheap? Honestly, the change with gas might not be the biggest. Still, it’s always worth saving every penny, you never know when it’ll be useful. You can keep an eye on the stuff that we will mention below:

• Control your driving speed – If you drive too fast you’ll be burning up fuel. Simply maintain a constant slower speed, not too much under the speed limit. Then you should be preserving some gasoline.
• Downsize the luggage – If you have to transfer a smaller load, you will be using up less gas. Therefore, downsizing before a state-to-state relocation can be of big importance.
• Pick the correct truck – Be careful when picking a truck, it might cost you less for the rent, and not to mention it might use up less gas. Afterward, go ahead and carefully lay out all of the belongings you will need for the move and pick up your truck accordingly. The trucks you can rent will have different prices according to their size. Smaller trucks go from 10ft to 12ft, and medium ones from 14ft to 20ft. Finally, the larger trucks are 22ft to 26ft. Now we’re starting to get why the question “How do gas prices affect the cost of moving?” is so important.
• Plan your route wisely – We’re not talking about just taking the shortest route. Keep in mind that some states have higher gasoline prices than others. Therefore, filling up your vehicle before entering that state is an extremely useful tip that goes along our question of how gas prices actually change the cost of moving.

In which states should I NOT buy gas?

As we’ve mentioned before, if you can evade using the pumps in certain places, you might actually save a substantial amount of money. That’s why we’ll mention some of the states with the highest cost of gasoline as of December 5th. Try skipping the pumps in California ($4.770 per gallon), Nevada ($4.475), and Washington ($4.318) will equal a lesser gasoline budget for your journey. Also, if you are moving to Oregon in 2022, you’ll be displeased with a gas price of $4.207. Essentially, just buying enough gas before entering one of these states will result in a substantial decrease in your gas expenses.

In which states should I buy gas?

Alternatively, let’s look at some of the states that if you happen to go through during your move you should definitely fill up your truck in. Obviously, we are talking about the states with average prices of gas lesser than the national average. The states we’ve got in mind are as follows: Texas is in the lead with a $2.783 cost of gas per gallon. Next up is Oklahoma, offering a $2.868 price of gas per gallon. Moving on, Arkansas will charge you $2.922, followed up by Mississippi with a $2.940 price for gas. Finally, Missouri is the final state on our list, with a price of $2.953 per gallon of gasoline. When you look at the difference in costs of gas in California and Texas, you surely realize why we wrote an article on “How do gas prices affect the cost of moving?”

In Conclusion

After reading this whole article we can finally ask you: “How do gas prices affect the cost of moving?”. We’re sure you’re now adequately prepared to answer that question. These analytics have led us to realize how much the costs of an everyday product can change your cross-country move budget. Not just that, you’ve learned by what gas prices are affected, and why they change. We’ve talked about whether just the gas is worth doing a DIY move or not, and how to save gas if you do a DIY move. Finally, we’ve covered which places you should buy gas in and which states you should completely avoid buying it in. Hopefully, now you understand how to handle the gasoline problem of this long and hard year. Best of luck with your long-distance move.