Short notice moves
Last minute movers
in Vancouver
Movers fell through, a closing date moved, or the plan changed this morning. Call and you will get a straight answer about today from the actual schedule — not a form response.
- Open 7 days a week
- 7am–10pmOpen 7 days a week
- Google, 90+ reviews
- 5.0Google, 90+ reviews
- Liability insurance
- $2MLiability insurance
A last-minute move is a normal move booked against whatever the schedule has left. Boss Moving takes short-notice and same-day jobs in Metro Vancouver when a crew is free, at the same published hourly rate as any other move — $140/hr for 2 movers and a truck, 2-hour minimum, no fuel, stairs, elevator or mileage surcharges. Whether today is possible depends on the day, so it is settled by phone rather than promised in advance. Operating out of Kitsilano since 2017 — 9 years, 500+ moves, 5.0 on Google across 90+ reviews, $2M liability insurance and WorkSafeBC compliant.
What “Last Minute” Actually Means Here
Most moving companies answer this question with a marketing promise. We would rather answer it with how it actually works, because the promise is the part that gets broken at seven in the morning when there is no truck.
Short-notice availability is not a service tier we hold in reserve. It is the space left in a day once the jobs already booked into it are accounted for. Some days there is a lot of that space and a same-day move is easy. On the last Saturday of a month there is usually none, and no amount of notice would have helped — that date was gone weeks ago. This is why the useful question is never “how fast can you move me” but “what does that particular day look like”, and why the answer comes from a phone call instead of this page.
Why People Call Us on Short Notice
Very few short-notice moves are the result of poor planning. The common ones are a completion or possession date that shifted, a rental application that came through late, a landlord or buyer who needed the place empty sooner than agreed, a relationship or job that changed the plan quickly — and, more often than you would think, a moving company that stopped answering its phone the week of the job.
That last one has a practical upside worth knowing: if another company already quoted the job, you are holding most of the information we need. An inventory, a room count, or even their written estimate turns a ten-minute call into a two-minute one, which matters when you are trying to solve this today.
Booking on short notice
How it goes, start to finish
Five steps, and the first one is the one most people get wrong.
Call rather than fill in the form
The quote form is built to return a written estimate quickly, but it cannot tell you whether a crew is free this afternoon. Only the schedule can, and that is a phone call. For anything inside a few days, ring (604) 726-9828 — it is the shortest path to a yes or a no.
Four details decide the answer
Where you are moving from, where you are going, roughly how much there is, and the access at both ends — stairs, elevator, or ground floor. Those four are what determine whether a job fits into the gap that is actually open. Everything else can be sorted out afterwards.
We check the day against the crews already out
Availability on short notice is not a policy, it is arithmetic: how many crews are working, what they are already committed to, and whether your move fits around it. That is why the honest answer changes day to day, and why nobody should quote you one over the internet.
You get the rate before you commit
Short notice does not change how the job is priced. It is the same published hourly rate, the same 2-hour minimum, the same truck and equipment included. If anything about the date or the job makes the number different, you hear that on the call — not on the invoice.
Confirm, and prepare what you can
Once the slot is held, the useful thing you can do with the remaining time is clear paths and set aside anything that must not go on the truck. You do not have to be packed — the crew can pack — but a clear route from the door to the truck is what protects the clock on a rushed day.
What Actually Decides Whether a Short-Notice Move Works
Four things move the odds more than anything else. None of them are about how politely you ask.
Month-end and weekends go first
Leases in this city turn over on the first, so the last few days of a month and the weekends around them are the hardest slots to get on short notice. Mid-week and mid-month are far more likely to have room. If your date has any flexibility at all, that is where it is worth spending it.
The building may be the real constraint
Plenty of Vancouver towers require the service elevator to be booked, and some strata offices only take those bookings during weekday business hours. A crew being free does not help if the loading bay is not. Worth one phone call to your building manager before ours.
Unpacked is fine — undecided is not
A crew can pack you. What costs time on a short-notice job is deciding what comes and what does not while the clock is running. Anything you can pull out of the move before the truck arrives is time you do not pay for.
A smaller job is easier to fit
A studio or a one-bedroom slots into a gap that a four-bedroom cannot. A studio runs about 2–3 hours and a one-bedroom about 3.5–4.5 hours on the standard 2-mover crew, so those are the moves most often placed the same week.
What It Costs
The same as it would have cost with a month’s notice. Rates are hourly and include the truck and equipment: $105/hr for 1 mover, $140/hr for 2 movers, $195/hr for 3 and $239/hr for 4. There is a 2-hour minimum, which on the two-mover crew is $280 to get started, and 5% GST is added. Nothing is charged for fuel, stairs, elevator use or mileage.
For a rough shape of the time: a studio is about 2–3 hours, a one-bedroom 3.5–4.5 hours, a two-bedroom 5–6 hours. Vancouver has a lot of walk-up housing, and stairs at either end put a job at the top of its range more often here than people expect.
Some dates do price differently from others. If yours is one of them you will hear the number on the call, before anything is booked — a surprise on the invoice is not a business model we are interested in. For a full breakdown of how hourly moves are billed, see our hourly moving service.
People Who Called Us in a Hurry
Two reviews from our Google profile, both from short-notice jobs.
“These guys saved my move! I haven’t had any time off to prepare to move and the movers I hired fell through last minute — my friend recommended Boss to me and they were able to help me out with super short notice!”
“He was fast, easily available, and packed our chaotic short-term really skillfully. He put in the extra effort until late at night to help us out in a pinch.”
Frequently Asked Questions — Last Minute Moving
Can you move me today?
Sometimes. Same-day and next-day moves do happen, and they depend entirely on whether a crew is free once the jobs already booked for that day are accounted for. There is no honest way to answer it in advance, which is why we will not publish a promise about it. Call (604) 726-9828 and you will get a straight yes or no against the actual schedule.
What is the shortest notice you can handle?
There is no fixed cut-off. What decides it is whether the day you want still has room, not how much warning you have given us — a quiet mid-week date can be easier to fill at short notice than a month-end Saturday booked well in advance. Ask about the specific date and you will get a real answer for it.
Do you charge extra for a same-day or short-notice move?
The published hourly rates are the rates: $105/hr for 1 mover, $140/hr for 2 movers, $195/hr for 3, $239/hr for 4, truck and equipment included, 2-hour minimum. There is no fuel, stairs, elevator or mileage surcharge on any move. Some dates do price differently from others — if that applies to yours, you will be told the number on the call, before you commit to anything.
How much will a last-minute move cost?
The same as the identical move booked a month earlier. Most short-notice jobs are on the 2-mover crew at $140/hr with a 2-hour minimum, which is $280 to get started, plus 5% GST. A one-bedroom typically runs 3.5–4.5 hours; a three-bedroom 6–7 hours.
My movers cancelled on me. Can you take the job?
That is one of the more common reasons people call us on short notice, and it is worth calling even if the date is tomorrow. Bring whatever the previous company gave you — an inventory or a quote makes the call much faster, because it answers most of what we need to know about the job.
What if I have to cancel a booking I just made?
There is no cancellation fee, at any notice. The $100 booking deposit — which is applied to your final invoice, not an extra charge — is refunded in full with 3 or more days notice; inside 3 days it is non-refundable, since it covers the crew time held for you. We ask for 3 days minimum and 7 where you can manage it, simply because a late slot is hard to re-book. The one exception is a no-show: if the crew arrives at the scheduled time and cannot start, the 2-hour minimum applies, which covers a crew already dispatched rather than penalising a cancellation. Rescheduling is always free, subject to availability, and your deposit carries over.
Are you open on weekends?
7 days a week, 7am to 10pm. Weekends are the busiest slots in the week, so they are also the hardest to get at short notice — but the phone is answered on them.
Send us your move details
For anything inside a few days, calling (604) 726-9828 is faster — the schedule is the only thing that can answer you.