How We Are Different from Other International Movers to or From Mexico

Author: Chuck Bolotin, Founder and CEO of Best Mexico Movers. Modified: September 23, 2026

Why We Started Best Mexico Movers

In 2016, Jet and I weren’t sure where we wanted to live, but we knew we wanted to experience Mexico.

So, we gave away or put into storage anything that could not fit into a big, white van, and for more than eight months, along with our two dogs, we traveled through Mexico, from the U.S.-Mexico border with Baja all the way to Mexico's border with Belize. (On our site you can read The Best Mexico Movers Story and you can download our book, One Year on the Road & Living in Mexico for free.)

We decided that we liked it here in Mexico, so we rented a large house.

But the problem was that our household goods were still in a storage unit in Arizona.

“Easy enough,” we thought. “Just get a mover to bring them here.”

But, as it turned out, it wasn’t that easy.

We were not at all happy with the alternatives available to us. Not only were the prices too high, but we were not comfortable enough with the movers we talked with to entrust them with our cherished household goods we had accumulated over a lifetime.

So, having a background in starting and running businesses, we did a lot of research to see if we could create something better. We saw no reason to start just another moving company like the others that we were not happy with. If that was the best that we could do, we would just choose one of the companies we had contacted, cross our fingers, pay the price they demanded, and hope for the best. Fortunately, after several months of research, we came to believe that we could do better, not just for ourselves, but potentially for others as well.

It turns out that what we wanted to create and what we believed we could create were the same thing and could be summarized in just four words: “Better process. Lower prices.”

Testing to See if Best Mexico Movers’ Process Worked and the Result

In order to test our process to see that it worked, our first move was our own. Here’s the video of that first move.

After our own move was successful, people started calling us to ask if we could move their household goods as well, and our business just grew from there.

We started by moving people from the U.S. to the Lake Chapala area. Then, slowly, we added more destinations until we could deliver to pretty much anywhere in Mexico. Later, when we had the ability to do it properly, we added moves from Canada to Mexico. And finally, we added moves from Mexico to the U.S.

Since 2018, we have helped move more than 1,000 households to or from Mexico.

Where We Wanted Best Mexico Movers to Fit

During our research, we discovered that we could group the ways to move household goods to or from Mexico into five categories, which we explain in more detail in our guide "How to Lower the Cost to Move Your Household Goods to Mexico"

These categories are:

• Option 1: Sell or Donate Almost Everything and Move with What Fits in Two Suitcases.
• Option 2: Move a Small Amount Yourself in Your Own Vehicle.
• Option 3: Hire “A Guy with a Truck” (an unlicensed or improperly licensed mover).
• Option 4: Use a Smaller Licensed Independent Mover to Move Your Household Goods.
• Option 5: Go With a “Household Name” Mover (A Big Corporate Moving Organization You’ve Probably Heard of Before)

Options 1 and 2 did not require a mover.

We had no interest in being “A Guy with a Truck” (Option 3) for all sorts of reasons, so that was out.

Option 5 included the types of movers we had decided we didn't want to use for our own move, but in order to be thorough, we investigated further to see whether it was possible for us to become one of them but just do a better job. It turned out that while we believed we could improve the customer service, a fundamental part of their problem was structural. It was their process. Their process had been developed decades earlier, we didn’t like it, and it could not be changed in any meaningful way.

That left Option 4. Unlike working within a large moving network, as long as we were legitimate and operated within the law (of course, non-negotiable features for us), with this option, we had the freedom to create our own model that we believed could provide that better process at lower prices.

How and Why We Designed Our Model How We Did

In order to do that, conceptually, we laid out all the components of the move to Mexico process. Then, we separated those components into two groups:

1. Those that were core and essential.
2. Those that were generally available without requiring any particular expertise.

We defined the essential parts as our know-how in the overall process, including customs clearance, and providing guidance and expertise to our clients from beginning to end.

We defined the components in the second group as the more commodity parts of the process, such as packing and loading, transportation and unloading, which were generally available and did not require the kind of specialized expertise that is necessary to complete the entire process of a move to or from Mexico. As a result, we didn’t need to provide the services in the second group ourselves. Instead, under our strict standards, we could work with trusted partners to provide these services while applying our management so that these services met our standards.

To our happy surprise, breaking up the business like this allowed us to provide service in a way that the bigger movers could not, making the process simpler and less expensive, while giving our clients choices.

We had our model.

Here’s how we implemented it.

Background to the Moving to or From Mexico Process and Some of the Areas We Identified for Improvement

Moving your household goods to or from Mexico is not like moving from one state or province to another in the same country.

There are customs regulations to understand and comply with, trucks on both sides of the border, specialized inventories, insurance, packing and loading, and lots of details that need to happen correctly—and often in a particular order.

There are also very different ways a moving company can put all those pieces together. Option 5 companies operate through large moving networks with defined practices that are usually mandated via contract as to what is allowed and what is not, so they tend to use similar processes for international moves.

That was the process we sought to replace. We looked at that process and asked:

• Why should our clients have to use the packing and loading services provided by the local agent / licensee from the big moving network? Why couldn’t they have a choice of who does the packing and loading of their household goods?
• Why shouldn't our clients be allowed to pack some—or even all—of their own household goods if that's what they wanted to do?
• Why should our clients’ household goods be repeatedly unloaded, put into warehouses, combined with other people's possessions, loaded again, and then have the process repeated?
• Why should our clients be charged at least partially based on the weight of their household goods when almost nobody knows what all their household goods weigh?
• And why should our clients have to worry about navigating the entire process and all the details of moving their household goods across the U.S.-Mexico border without someone to closely guide them?

We built Best Mexico Movers to remove these limitations and problems.

The Short Version: How Best Mexico Movers Is Different

When you move with us:

• You have choices. We don't force you to buy the same moving package that everyone else buys. You can choose among independent packing and loading companies, do some or all of your own packing, and make other choices about how your move is put together.
• We don't repeatedly transload and consolidate your household goods. With the exception of our San Diego process, your move with us has one planned crossload, directly from one truck or trailer to another, and zero consolidations in Mexico.
• Your truck in Mexico is for your exclusive use. Your household goods aren't mixed with someone else's shipment, and your truck doesn't pick up or drop off another customer's household goods along the way.
• You get your own Personal Moving Assistant. Your PMA is responsible for your move, works with you, and guides it from beginning to end.
• You get a customized moving checklist. We keep track of the important things that have to happen and when they need to happen.
• We try to identify potential problems while they're easier to fix. That includes reviewing your inventory while you're creating it and monitoring your packing and loading as it happens.
• We charge based on cubic feet, not weight. You can understand your pricing better and there will be fewer surprises because you can see how much room your household goods occupy.
• We will show you ways to lower your moving costs — even when doing so means we make less money or don't gain you as a client at all.

Those aren't slogans. They're parts of how we designed our process to work.

Here's more detail and examples of what our process means to you.

You Have Choices — Including the Choice to Pack Yourself

One of the biggest differences between Best Mexico Movers and many traditional international moving companies is very simple:

We give you choices.

For example, we don't have an Origin Agent assigned to you who requires you to purchase your packing and loading services through the moving network. With that model, you pay the network, and the network pays the Origin Agent.

Instead, we can introduce you to independent packing and loading companies in your area. You can talk with them, compare them and decide which one you want to use.

And you pay them directly.

Best Mexico Movers doesn't receive a commission, referral fee, markup or anything else from the packing and loading company you choose. But that doesn't mean we just give you their phone number and disappear. On the contrary, our work continues on your behalf. We work with your local packers and loaders on your inventory, packing and loading, and insurance requirements, and we monitor their work remotely.

And we don't make one penny from any of this.

Why do we do it this way?

Because we want you to be able to choose the packers and loaders who are right for you—not the ones who make us the most money or the ones who are the licensees in your geographical location for a big moving network. This can create better value for you. You may be able to save a considerable amount of money while still choosing qualified packing and loading professionals, and you have control over who comes into your home to pack and load your possessions.

And this way of doing it provides you with some very important flexibility leading to another very important difference.

You Can Pack as Much — or as Little—of Your Own Household Goods as You Want

Want professionals to pack everything? OK.

Want them to pack just your fragile and valuable items while you pack your clothes, books and other things you're comfortable packing yourself? That's fine, too.

Want to do all the packing yourself? You can.

It's your move, your possessions, and your money.

It’s our job to provide these options to you and to explain how they work, so you can get the best value for your move according to your needs and your preferences.

With the traditional big-network moving model, the Origin Agent generally handles the packing, so your ability to do your own packing can be limited. We wanted to do it differently.

When you choose how your items will be packed and loaded, there is an important insurance consequence we will explain before you decide how much you want to do yourself. In short, items you pack yourself don't qualify for the same damage coverage as items professionally packed according to the insurance requirements.

We explain this to you, before you make your choices.

We give you the information, explain the tradeoff, and let you decide.

We Don't Keep Unloading and Reloading Your Household Goods

This is one of the most important differences in the way Best Mexico Movers moves your household goods.

In order to explain this, there are two words we need to define:

Transloading means taking your household goods out of a truck or trailer and moving them into another truck or trailer, a warehouse, or another location. This can happen multiple times, using different trucks, trailers and warehouses in different locations, in multiple countries.

Consolidating means combining your household goods with other customers' household goods for transportation, usually in a big, 53-foot trailer.

Traditional moving networks can use repeated transloading and consolidating as household goods move through their network. For moves to or from Mexico, a version of this same process can happen in different countries. That's one of the reasons so many of these companies use large wooden boxes called lift vans to pack your items into: they can get a forklift under the lift van and move your household goods around their warehouses.

And this doesn’t happen just once.

Think about what that means.

Every time they unload your couch, television, artwork and everything else in your shipment, move those things somewhere else, and then load them again, there is another opportunity for something to get damaged, misplaced or mixed up. Ever wonder how part of one customer's shipment can end up being delivered to another customer altogether? And ever wonder how it can take a mover weeks to move your household goods over a distance you could drive in your own car in a few days? Their transloading and consolidating can be part of the answer.

Our objective was to create a model that was more direct and that handled our clients’ household goods much less often.

How We Do It

Except for moves we import through San Diego, Best Mexico Movers does zero consolidating in Mexico and only one planned crossload.

And that crossload isn't your household goods being unloaded into a warehouse to wait for another truck.

The truck or trailer transporting your household goods from the U.S. or Canada actually meets the truck or trailer that will transport your household goods through Mexico at our customs broker's facility.

We position the two trucks or trailers so your household goods can be transferred directly from one to the other. In this way, our crews can walk your household goods directly from one truck or trailer to the other. Then, we move your household goods just one time, from the truck or trailer that transported your household goods from your origin in one country to the truck or trailer that will deliver them to your destination in the other country.

Your household goods are not stored in the warehouse during the crossload, and they are not combined with another client's shipment.

Once your household goods clear customs, a numbered tamper-proof seal is attached to the truck or trailer carrying your shipment, and that’s the seal we break at your destination.

In Mexico, that truck or trailer is for your exclusive use.

It doesn't stop at another warehouse to unload your possessions. It doesn't pick up somebody else's household goods. It doesn't stop somewhere else to deliver somebody else's shipment.

The truck or trailer assigned to you goes to your destination.

And that numbered seal remains on the truck or trailer until delivery.

Our San Diego process is somewhat different. If that route applies to your move, before your move, we'll explain exactly how your household goods will be handled.

Your Personal Moving Assistant Is Responsible for Your Move

International moves have a lot of moving parts, and our clients deserve to be aware of those parts and guided personally through the process.

That's why every Best Mexico Movers client gets a dedicated Personal Moving Assistant, or PMA.

With us, you aren't sold the move by one person and then simply handed off to an employee or a large network.

Instead, your PMA is responsible for your move and guides you through the process from beginning to end. Not all moves are the same because not all of our clients’ needs are the same. Your PMA will get to know you and your specific needs for your particular move and act accordingly.

That includes coordinating and supervising the packing and loading process, truck scheduling and arrivals, your inventory and other documentation, customs clearance, insurance, and the other significant things that have to happen in order to get your household goods from your old home, safely and legally across the border, to your new one.

Your PMA will also create for you your customized moving checklist and share it with you.

Your checklist identifies the important events in your move, the order in which they're scheduled to happen and when they're scheduled to happen. We do this so you don’t need to wonder or guess what will happen next or, even worse, if you forgot to do something that needed to be done. If you forgot to do something, your PMA will remind you.

Of course, international moves can be affected by things outside anyone's control, so schedules sometimes have to change. When this happens, we’re on top of that as well.

Behind the scenes, we use project-management software to help our team keep track of all of it.

Why do we need the project-management software?

Because there are too many important details in your international move to rely on someone's memory or a collection of sticky notes.

We designed our internal process to work like a well-oiled machine while making sure that, for our clients, the experience remains personal and human.

We don't like surprises.

We're guessing you don't like them either.

You can meet the staff on our team here.

We Try to Find Potential Issues While They're Easier to Fix

This is a big part of how we operate. As we say internally, our clients and we are on the same team, with the same objective. And part of that objective is to identify potential issues early and address them before they become big problems for you or for us. A core practice of ours is to act proactively, before a potential issue becomes a problem.

Here's an example.

For your household goods to clear Mexican customs properly, your inventory needs to contain the right information in the right format. (For moves to Mexico, this involves the menaje de casa, explained here.)

So, we don't want you to spend days creating your entire inventory incorrectly and then send it to us only when you're finished, when there may not be enough time to calmly redo it.

When possible, we ask you to send it to us when you're only about 10% to 20% done.

Then, we review it.

If you're doing it correctly, great. Keep going.

If you're not, we'd much rather tell you after you've done 10% to 20% than after you've done 100%. That way, if there is a problem, you can correct it before repeating it throughout the rest of your inventory and having to start over from the beginning—many times under much more time pressure.

We use the same basic philosophy throughout our process for all our clients.

We believe that the best time to solve a potential problem is usually before it becomes one.

You Can Understand What You're Paying For — and You Have Ways to Lower Your Cost

Best Mexico Movers prices its moves based on volume (cubic feet), not weight.

Why?

Do you know how much your dining-room table weighs?

How about everything in your kitchen?

Probably not.

Neither do most people.

So, if you’re given a price based on the weight of your household goods and that weight cannot be verified until your items are on the truck and the truck is weighed, the price you have to pay can be more than you were expecting.

We didn’t like that way of doing things.

The way we do it, you can understand how much room your household goods occupy in a truck because you can see it with your own eyes.

That's why, when we price our moves, we use cubic feet.

In the extremely unusual situation in which a shipment is extraordinarily heavy for the amount of space it occupies—think more than one grand piano in the same shipment, for example—we may have to limit your shipment based on weight. That happens perhaps once a year.

And if this happens, we still don't switch you to weight-based pricing. You just have to limit the size of your shipment to fewer cubic feet. Which you can see.

We Will Also Help You Lower the Cost of Your Move

Here's something else that is important to us.

We will show you legitimate ways to lower the cost of your move, and you can decide whether any of them make sense for you.

Sometimes that may mean that you do some of your own packing.

Sometimes it may mean reducing the amount you're moving to just under one of our pricing tiers.

You don't have to do any of these things, but we give you the choice.

We will also go over your insurance options and coverages with you so you don't unintentionally over-insure your household goods—for example, by assigning an item a value higher than the maximum amount the insurance company would pay for that item in the event of a covered claim. We also help you understand your deductible and other insurance choices so you can make the choices that are right for you.

If your shipment is too small for us to do a good job for you at a price that makes sense, given your needs and budget, we'll tell you. This can happen when a shipment is too small to justify the cost of using the menaje de casa process. In that situation, we'll discuss other alternatives with you—even though that may mean that we don’t do business together.

Our job isn't to figure out how to get you as a client or to make the most money possible out of your move. Our job is to get you the best value, whether you work with us or not.

The best way for us to do that is to use our experience, know-how and extensive network to help you figure out the best way to configure your move for your needs—even if the best answer doesn't include us.

That’s how we built our business and our reputation. You can see reviews of us by our clients here.

We Help You Prepare for the Customs-Specific Parts of Your Move

Moving household goods across the U.S.-Mexico border in either direction is not something you want to improvise.

There are rules about what you can bring.

There are inventory requirements.

For moves to Mexico, there can be menaje de casa requirements. For moves to the U.S., there are U.S. customs documents and requirements.

There are documents that have to be prepared and submitted, and they have to be done properly and on time.

There are insurance decisions.

And sometimes things need to happen in a particular order.

That's why we spend so much time helping our clients to prepare.

For example, our Master Inventory instructions explain how to document powered items and instruct our clients to photograph manufacturer/model/serial-number plates so the information can be entered correctly.

Our prohibited-items instructions go well beyond telling clients, “Don't pack prohibited things.” Sometimes, what items are prohibited is not a straightforward, one-size-fits-all determination, as we explain in our guide to the menaje de casa. To help you get this right, your PMA uses their experience and training to consider your shipment as a whole, along with other relevant criteria. Your PMA then reviews potential issues with you and helps you understand what may or may not be permitted. If anyone else on our team notices a potential problem, they notify you or your PMA. If your PMA doesn't know the answer to a customs-related question, they ask one of our independent, licensed customs brokers.

We also provide information about preparing for a menaje de casa, storing household goods before an international move, insurance, packing and loading, and the order in which important moving and immigration-related steps may need to occur. If you become a client of ours, we will apply this knowledge and experience when discussing these topics with you so you can make informed decisions and get the best value for your particular move. (Anyone, current client or not, can download our guides for free, without any obligation whatsoever.)

We don't expect you to become an expert in moving to or from Mexico.

That's our job.

We do want you to understand enough to make good decisions based on your needs and avoid preventable problems.

Insurance Choices You Can Actually Understand

We offer insurance for your household goods through a third-party insurance company based in the United States.

In our process, the value of your household goods—and the amount you may be able to recover for them in a covered claim—is not based on how much they weigh.

Instead, you assign values to your household goods, and our insurance specialist helps you understand the available coverage and the requirements that go with it.

Those requirements matter.

For example, as we explained earlier, choosing to pack an item yourself affects the damage coverage available for that item.

We would rather explain that before you pack than afterwards because what we explain may change what you decide to do.

That's another example of something you'll see throughout our process:

We take the time to understand your situation, your needs, and your preferences. Then, we apply our knowledge, our experience, and our network to give you choices and explain how they work. After that, you decide what’s best for you.

How Our Process Can Create Lower Prices

Big moving networks have big overhead and big costs. There are licensing and network fees, big warehouses, big offices, lots of coordination in the network including but not limited to transloading and consolidating, lots of trucks belonging to lots of different participants. Someone has to pay for all of that.

In our view, the value that comes from that type of process is not worth the cost, which is why we did it differently.

We deliberately concentrate our resources on designing, coordinating and managing moves to or from Mexico rather than maintaining the infrastructure of a large national or international moving network. We then purchase or coordinate the specialized services needed for each move through independent providers.

All this lowers our costs, so we can lower your costs, all while providing what we believe is a better model overall.

Is Best Mexico Movers Right for You?

We're not going to tell you we're the right choice for everybody.

If you want a mover that is part of a network that is a household name, we’re not that mover.

If your goal is finding the lowest possible price regardless of licensing or compliance with the law and the potential consequences, whether you can get insurance for your move, or how your household goods are handled, we're not the right mover for you.

Or if your move is so small that our process doesn't make economic sense for you, working with us may not be worth the cost.

But if you want choices about how your move is put together; want the option but not the requirement to do some or all of your own packing; want one person responsible for guiding your move from beginning to end; want help with the customs-specific details; and don't want your household goods repeatedly unloaded, warehoused and consolidated with other customers' shipments, you should probably talk with us.

And if we're not the best solution for your particular move, we'll tell you that, too.

Better process. Lower prices.

Here’s how to contact us.