Is App-Based Moving Work Right for You? A Look at the Trade-Offs

If you do moving work in BC, there are three broad ways to get paid: as an employee at a moving company, as an independent operator taking jobs through a platform like Tingsapp, or by running your own company and finding your own clients. Each has a different mix of stability, control and cost. This is an honest look at where platform work fits, so you can decide if it suits how you want to work.

The Three Ways to Do Moving Work

	Employee at a company	Platform (independent)	Your own company
Who finds the work	The employer	The platform	You — marketing, quotes, calls
Schedule control	Set by the employer	You choose which jobs	Full, but you chase every lead
Vehicle and gear	Provided	You supply	You supply
Income stability	Steady hours, hourly wage	Varies with jobs claimed	Varies; feast or famine
Cost to get work	None	No lead fee, no commission	Marketing spend, lead-service fees
Benefits, EI, WCB	Employer handles	You arrange your own	You arrange your own

What a Platform Gives You

Jobs without marketing spend. No paying a lead service for inquiries that may not convert, no ad budget, no cold-calling. The jobs are already booked and paid for when you see them.
Details and payout upfront. Before you accept, you see the pickup and drop-off, the item inventory, access notes and exactly what you'll be paid — no on-site haggling.
Schedule control. Claim jobs that fit around other work, fill open days, or scale up toward full-time. Nothing is assigned to you.
Paid reliably. The customer pays the platform at booking; you get a weekly deposit for completed jobs. No chasing invoices. Tips go to the crew in full.
No entry cost. No sign-up fee, no monthly subscription, no per-lead charge — so a slow week costs you nothing in platform fees.

What You Take On

You are not an employee. No employer-paid benefits, EI or vacation pay. You register for and pay your own WorkSafeBC coverage, and you handle your own taxes as a business.
You supply everything. The van or truck, the dollies, blankets, straps and tools, the fuel and the insurance. Those costs come off the job payout.
Volume varies. Bookings rise in the May-to-September peak and around month-end, and thin out in winter and mid-month. Most movers use a platform as one channel alongside others while they build up.
Ratings matter. Customers rate every job. A strong rating gets you priority on bigger jobs; a poor one limits what you see.
You own the outcome. Damage, delays and disputes are yours to manage, backed by platform support — there's no manager absorbing it for you.

Who It Suits Best

Platform work tends to fit:

An experienced mover with their own van who wants steady jobs without building a brand.
A small two- or three-person crew filling gaps between direct clients.
Someone testing whether they can make moving work full-time before committing to marketing spend.
An established small company that wants extra booked work in defined service areas without paying for leads.

It fits less well if you need a guaranteed 40-hour week and employer benefits — that's the employee route — or if you already have a full pipeline of direct clients and don't want any platform involvement.

The Economics, Briefly

Local moves are priced to the customer at roughly $130 to $190 an hour for two movers and a truck, with a two-hour minimum plus travel. On a platform with no commission and no per-lead fee, more of that price reaches the crew than on a lead-generation service that charges $20 to $60 per lead whether or not it books. Against running your own company, you trade some margin and the marketing workload for booked, pre-paid jobs and predictable weekly pay. Whether that trade is worth it depends on how much you value not doing sales.

Work out your real cost per working hour before you judge a payout: fuel, vehicle payment or depreciation, commercial insurance, WorkSafeBC, maintenance, equipment replacement, and whatever you pay a second or third crew member. A job that looks good at the payout figure can be thin once a 45-minute dead-head drive and a helper's wage come out of it.

Making Platform Work Pay

Cluster jobs by area and day. Two moves in the same part of the city on one day beats two moves across the region on two days — less unpaid driving, more billable hours.
Match the vehicle to the jobs you want. A cargo or sprinter van fills up on single-item and studio moves in dense areas; a 20 to 26 ft truck is needed for full-home jobs in Surrey and Langley. Buying the wrong size limits what you can claim.
Build the rating fast. Take smaller, simpler jobs first, do them cleanly, and get the early reviews in. A solid rating is what unlocks the larger, better-paying work.
Read the inventory and access notes before accepting. Stairs, no elevator, a long carry, a narrow street — these change how long a job takes. Decline the ones that don't pencil out rather than eating the time.
Keep your documents current. An expired insurance or WorkSafeBC record takes you off the board until it's fixed.

Common Mistakes Movers Make on Platforms

Treating it as guaranteed income from day one, before the rating and the job history are built.
Not tracking real costs, so a busy month doesn't translate into money kept.
Accepting every job regardless of location, then losing hours to cross-city driving.
Skipping their own WorkSafeBC registration and finding out on a job that a building requires proof.
Under-equipping the vehicle and slowing every job down — or damaging items and taking a ratings hit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Am I an employee if I take jobs through a moving platform?

No. You operate as an independent business. That means schedule control and no commission, but also no employer benefits, EI or vacation pay, and you register and pay for your own WorkSafeBC coverage and handle your own taxes.

Are there fees to use the platform?

On Tingsapp, no — no sign-up fee, no monthly subscription and no per-lead charge. A slow week costs nothing in platform fees, unlike a lead service that bills per inquiry.

How steady is the work?

It varies. Bookings peak from May to September and around month-end and thin out in winter and mid-month. Most movers treat platform jobs as one income channel while building direct clients or a rating.

Do I need my own truck?

Yes. You supply an insured van or box truck and standard moving equipment. Fuel, vehicle and insurance costs come off the job payout.

How do ratings affect my work?

Customers rate every completed move. A high rating gives you priority access to larger, higher-value jobs; a low rating limits what you can claim.

Next Steps

If platform work fits how you want to operate, see what you need to become a Tingsapp mover for the requirements and onboarding, and how the platform works day to day. To register, go to Tingsapp.

Sources

WorkSafeBC — Coverage for independent operators and the self-employed (worksafebc.com), 2025.
Canada Revenue Agency — Employee versus self-employed and business income (canada.ca), 2025.
Consumer Protection BC — Moving companies and consumer expectations (consumerprotectionbc.ca), 2025.