Prairie Line
(402) 555-0194
Two movers in navy uniforms carrying labelled cardboard boxes through a bright empty room with tall arched windows and a bare wood floor.

South 13th · Omaha, Nebraska Since 2007 · four trucks

Every box gets a number. So do you.

Local moves, long hauls out of state, packing and heated storage on our own floor. Everything that goes on the truck is tagged, numbered and written down in front of you — and at the other end you read the numbers back to us.

Get a binding estimate (402) 555-0194

Inventory · job 2214

Sheet 1 of 3

An inventory sheet with four numbered lines: tag 041 a sofa in three seats marked scuffed on the left arm, tag 042 a dining table with a leg noted loose, tag 043 a wardrobe box, and tag 044 a television in its own crate marked fragile. TAG ITEM CONDITION AT LOAD 041 SOFA, 3 SEAT SCUFF, LEFT ARM 042 DINING TABLE LEG LOOSE — NOTED 043 WARDROBE BOX SEALED, OWNER PACKED 044 TV, OWN CRATE FRAGILE — RED TAPE

You get a copy before the truck moves. If something arrives with damage that is not on this sheet, it happened with us, and that is the end of the argument.

01 — What we do

Four trucks, twelve people, and none of it subcontracted.

We are not a broker. The people who quote your move are the people who show up, and if somebody offers you a price over the phone without seeing your house, that is a broker.

Local moves

Anywhere inside about ninety minutes of Omaha, hourly, two or three people and a truck. Most houses are done in a day.

Hourly · 3 hr minimum

Long distance

Out of state on our own truck, not pooled with four other families. One crew loads it and the same crew unloads it.

Binding estimate · fixed dates

Packing

All of it, the kitchen only, or nothing at all. Materials at cost with the receipt stapled to the invoice.

Full, partial or fragile-only

Storage

Heated, on our own floor, in wooden vaults with your tag numbers on them. Not a rented unit across town.

By the vault, by the month
02 — Why the numbers matter

The tag is the only thing that turns trust into proof.

Almost every argument in this business is about one missing box or one scratch that was already there. Both of them stop existing if somebody wrote it down at the door.

Two cardboard moving boxes with hand-lettered labels reading SUMMER CLOTHS taped to the side, and a roll of packing tape resting on top. TAG 043 FRAGILE
  • Numbered at the door, not on the truckThe tag goes on while you are standing there. You can read the condition column and argue with it before anything moves.
  • Called back at the other endWe hand you the sheet and you tick them off as they come in. It takes ten minutes and it is the ten minutes that matters.
  • Red tag means fragile, and it means somethingRed goes in last, comes off first, and never has anything stacked on it. Ask us to show you where the red tags ended up in the truck.
  • Boxes you packed say so on the sheet“Owner packed, sealed” is written down, because we cannot certify what is inside a box we did not fill. That is honest rather than convenient, and it cuts both ways.
03 — What it costs

Published rates, and a binding number if you want one.

Hourly is honest for a small local move and terrible for a big one, because you carry all the risk. Over about three rooms, take the binding estimate.

Two movers & a truck

Hourly, local

$168

per hour, 3 hour minimum

Clock starts when we arrive and stops when the last thing is in the room you want it in. Travel inside Douglas County is one flat half hour, not billed twice.

Most houses over three rooms

Binding estimate

Fixed

quoted after we walk the house

  • The number does not move on moving day
  • Twenty minutes in person, or a video walk-through
  • If it takes us longer than we said, that is our problem

Heated, our own floor

Storage

$88

per vault, per month

A vault holds roughly a room and a half. First month free when it sits between two legs of a move we are doing anyway.

  • Basic liability is included, and it is not enoughSixty cents a pound is the legal minimum and it means a broken sixty-pound dresser pays out thirty-six dollars. Full value protection is extra, and we will tell you what it costs before you ask.
  • Stairs, long carries and pianos are on the sheetNot discovered at 8 AM. If we missed something on the walk-through, it is on us, and it is on us in writing.
04 — Packing

The part people underestimate by about two days.

  • Kitchens take a full day on their ownEvery plate wrapped individually, every glass in a cell. If you only hire us for one room, make it this one.
  • Furniture gets blanketed, then wrappedPad first, film over the pad. Film straight onto wood traps moisture against the finish and it comes off cloudy.
  • Labels say the ROOM, not the contents“Kitchen” gets the box to the right place; “pans and the good bowls” does not, and it tells anyone walking past what is worth taking.
  • Pack one box yourself and keep it with youChargers, medicine, the coffee maker, a change of clothes, the paperwork. Everyone forgets and everyone regrets it.
Two people wrapping a wooden chair in bubble film on a hardwood floor, with labelled boxes and a covered armchair behind them. PAD FIRST
05 — Storage

A wooden vault with your numbers on the door.

Your things go into a sealed plywood vault on our own heated floor and nobody opens it until you do. It is not a roll-up unit on a lot with your padlock and everyone’s hope.

A cutaway of a plywood storage vault about seven feet tall by five wide by seven deep, with blanket-wrapped furniture stacked inside, a tag plate on the door and dimensions marked down the right-hand side. 041-88 SEALED · JOB 2214 7 FT 5 FT
  • Heated all winter, and that is the point in NebraskaWood furniture splits and pianos go badly out of tune in an unheated unit between December and March.
  • Sealed once, opened onceThe vault is closed in front of you and stays closed. Nobody “consolidates” your things into a smaller space to free up a bay.
  • Your tag numbers are on the doorSo getting one thing out does not mean emptying the vault. Two days’ notice and it is waiting by the dock.
  • Month to month, cancel any timeNo annual contract and no exit fee. If the closing date slips three weeks, that is just three weeks.
06 — The part nobody puts on a website

Moving day is not a logistics problem. It is a hard day.

People are usually moving because something changed — a job, a marriage, a parent, a baby. We are in your house on one of the worst-organised days of your year, and how we behave in it matters more than how fast we carry a sofa.

A small child peering over the flaps of an open cardboard box in a half-packed kitchen, with two adults talking in the background. THIS IS THE JOB
  • We work around the children, not through themIf a four-year-old has decided to live in a box for an hour, we move around the box.
  • The bed goes up first, before anything elseWhatever else is still in boxes at 9 PM, there is somewhere to sleep. It costs us fifteen minutes and it is the thing people write to us about.
  • We take the boxes backCall within a month and we collect the flattened cartons for nothing. They get used again, which is also why we would like them back.
07 — Where we go, and when to call

Book earlier than you think, especially at the end of a month.

The last three days of any month and the whole of June are the busiest, and they fill six to eight weeks out. Mid-month, mid-week, we can usually do next week.

OmahaAll neighbourhoods
Council BluffsSame rate
Bellevue & PapillionSame rate
LincolnOne hour travel
Fremont & BlairOne hour travel
Out of stateQuoted per job
  • 4180 S 13th St, Omaha, NE 68107The office is the door beside the dock. Boxes and materials can be bought here Monday to Saturday without booking a move.
  • (402) 555-0194Answered by one of us between seven and six, and by the owner on a Saturday morning. Estimates are free and there is no deposit to hold a date.
  • dispatch@prairielinemoving.comSend the two addresses and roughly how many rooms, and you will have a range the same day and a firm number after the walk-through.
Call (402) 555-0194 See the rates
08 — Asked on nearly every estimate

Including the ones we would rather you asked.

Why is your quote higher than the one I got online?

Because an online quote from a company that has not seen your house is not a quote, it is a lead being sold to whoever picks it up. The number goes up on moving day, when your things are already on a truck and you have no leverage. Ask any cheap quote one question: who exactly is showing up, and do they work for you or for a dispatcher three states away.

Do I need to empty the dresser drawers?

Clothes can stay in a solid wood dresser and we will pad and film it shut. Empty anything glass, anything liquid and anything heavy — books in a drawer will pull the bottom out of the piece halfway down a staircase. Particle-board furniture has to travel empty or it will not travel at all.

What will you not take?

Anything flammable or pressurised, so propane tanks, petrol cans, paint, aerosols and fireworks. Also plants over state lines, and we would rather you carried cash, jewellery and documents yourself — not because we do not trust our crew, but because those are the things nobody can prove either way.

Do I tip?

Nobody is expecting it and nobody will hint. If a crew has carried your things up three flights in July and you want to, twenty to forty dollars each is normal in Omaha. Cold drinks and telling us where the bathroom is genuinely counts for more than people think.

Something got broken. Now what?

Tell us before we leave if you can, and within five days at the latest. We check it against the condition column on your inventory sheet, and if it was fine at load and it is not fine now, it is ours. We repair rather than pay out where a repair is possible, and we use a furniture restorer, not a crew member with wood filler.

Can you do it in one day if I have not packed?

Honestly, usually not, and anyone who says yes is planning to bill you for the surprise. A three-bedroom house that is not packed is a packing day plus a moving day. We would rather tell you that on the phone in March than discover it together at four in the afternoon.