If you plan to move within Orange County soon, you probably heard about the term double drive time and wonder what it means? This is very important, so you should be aware of its meaning before booking a company to assist you. Luckily this text will help you understand everything about the terms and processes related to it and how it works in your favor.
It Is Essential to Prepare for a Move if You Want to Lower Your Stress and Maximize Your Efficiency
After choosing an ideal home around the best buy locations in the OC, you must be worried about your upcoming relocation. Even if you have plenty of good reasons to move, this process can get challenging. You probably want to move efficiently and comfortably without experiencing any relocation stress, and that’s only possible if you know all the right relocation hacks. You have to plan the whole process by making a good relocation to-do list and tracking all spendings in your expenses checklist.
That’s why understanding DDT is so important – if you know this law and your rights well enough, you can calculate potential expenses much easier. After making a packing list of all the stuff you want to relocate, you should consider hiring professionals to assist you during the relocation process. That’s why you’ll need to know everything about their pricing methods and how double drive time in California is calculated.
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Every relocation company has different services, payment options, and it is essential that you are familiar with all of this before making any final deals and agreements. If you’re not familiar with the way this industry works, you should take some time for online research and inform yourself about the basic rules and regulations. This is the only way to protect yourself and have a comfortable and enjoyable relocation experience.
What Is Double Drive Time (DDT) and Why Is It Important for Everyone Relocating Within California?
Double drive time is something all the licensed moving companies in California are obligated to charge. This is one of the basic charges, but it often confuses the customers. It is a law that protects customers from being overcharged. This rule requires that they only pay for the ride duration from the customer’s origin location to the final destination, which is their new home. The distance between the company’s office should not be charged.
Also, you are not supposed to be charged for the hours movers spend driving after leaving your belongings at the desired location. Now that you know this, you might think this makes sense, but what about the ‘double’ part? This means that if your crew needs 15 minutes to get from your old house to the new one, they are supposed to charge you for 30. Yes, it might seem illogical to double the length of the ride, but it’s actually much more transparent and fair than the previous charging method, the infamous “portal to portal.”
What Is the CA Law on Double Drive Time?
This regulation is specially designed for all the relocation companies in Cali to protect clients from potential scams and frauds. This law might seem like something that protects companies or gives them more room to increase their fees, but it is actually quite the opposite, and it works in customers’ favor.
California Has a Strict Law About DDT
The definition of this term written in the California Public Utilities Commission is: “the time used shall be the total of loading, unloading and double the driving time from the point of origin to the point of destination.” The customer is paying for all the driving between the new and old house, that is, from the point of origin to destination, not from the warehouse. These terms are something that might seem unclear to you, so we’ll explain them further in the following part.
What Is the Warehouse?
It is essential to understand the meaning of these key terms in order to understand how the law works. For example, the warehouse is a term that stands for the company’s office, a place from where they start and end their ride, basically their address. DDT protects customers from getting charged for large distances if the warehouse is far away from their home or final destination. With DDT, the company is not allowed to charge you the hours they need to get from their warehouse to your home, and vice versa.
What Is a Place of Origin?
The ‘origin’ is a place where your relocation officially starts. In most cases, this will be your old home from which you’re relocating to one of the best cities in OC. Obviously, this doesn’t have to be home – it can be your office, storage unit, or wherever you’re relocating from. This is a place where the team of local Orange County movers will come to pick up your inventory once they leave the warehouse and where they start counting the driving duration for DDT. So it serves as a starting point, point A, from where the clock starts ticking.
What Is the Final Destination?
The “destination” is the point where your relocation officially ends, and the DDT clock stops. This can be any place where you want your belongings to be delivered – this can be a storage unit, a new apartment, or an office unit. It doesn’t make any difference. The only thing that actually counts is the hours your crew spends driving from the origin to the destination, that amount of time will be doubled. Anything apart from that is not your concern.
Is DDT Cheaper Than the Previous Charging Method?
As crazy as it might sound, this is actually much cheaper, and the best part is it protects all the customers. There is no way to know how many minutes or hours the crew spends driving from their warehouse to the origin – it can be five minutes, but they can also spend an hour if the traffic gets busy. The previous “Portal to Portal” method wasn’t very transparent because clients usually never knew how far the crew was actually traveling until they reached their home.
So it was not unusual that the crew said they came from their distant garage when in reality, they were just a few blocks away. With DDT, you know exactly how much it took for them to get from origin to the final point – the overall rate will be twice this time. If you require other services such as packing service, loading and unloading, and so on, these will also be added to the final price.
Do All Companies Charge This?
This is a strict law that applies to all moving companies in California – meaning that every mover should follow it. If you’re relocating to some of the best places in OC and hiring one of the trustworthy companies in this area, don’t be shy to ask them about DDT and show them you’re fully aware of how things should work. If you notice that this isn’t the case with your company, you may become a victim of fraud, so keep your eyes wide open and ensure they are licensed.
What Are the Exceptions to the DDT Law?
There are some exceptions to this regulation under the Maxim Rate Tariff 4. These exceptions are addressed to complications that might occur during the DDT. Here are the situations in which your local moving service bill might be higher:
- DDT Exception 1 is related to situations when the relocation cannot be completed in a single trip. The final fee includes loading and unloading hours for each trip, DDT of the first trip, and driving time for additional trips.
- DDT Exception 2 is related to multiple shipments done on the same occasion when the move requires more than one vehicle. The final fee includes loading and unloading hours, drive time, and additional 25 minutes for every shipment.
- DDT Exception 3 applies to relocations that require pick-ups from different origins that should be transported to the same destination. The final fee includes loading and unloading for each origin and both DDTs from each origin to the final destination.
It Is Also Important to Avoid Common Moving Scams
One of the things that can happen during the relocation is becoming a victim of a moving scam. These frauds are becoming very common, so it is important to learn how to protect yourself. This can prevent anxiety development and other problems that come in packages with moving scams.
One thing is certain – getting information about the laws and how this system works can be more than helpful. If you have never moved before, you probably don’t know a single thing about the way this process goes, so you need to learn step by step what to expect and how to protect yourself. DDT law is just one of the ways to protect people like you from getting scammed.
All Payment Regulations Should Be Transparent
Most reliable companies offer you a free quote for their relocation services. By getting this free quote, you are able to calculate potential relocation expenses in advance and see how the final price fits your budget. DDT is a unique advantage, especially for these calculations. If you know everything about it, you’ll easily calculate your upcoming expenses by yourself and avoid getting scammed. You should also consider deposit options. Trustworthy companies will rarely ask you to pay the whole amount before the relocation process is ended – they’ll usually require just a small part of the final price in advance.
Hire Reputable Orange County Movers and Don’t Worry About Being Overcharged
Are you relocating in a hurry and wonder how to organize important documents or feel overwhelmed by house-hunting? Then hire the best movers in Orange County, CA. With their timely assistance, you’ll have more energy for move-out cleaning and other things you need to take care of to be fully efficient in drying your relocation. Our company and reliable Orange County, CA, movers can offer you great deals when it comes to residential relocation services and many different options.
If you need to relocate your office, our commercial moving service might be more than beneficial. Apartment relocation service is convenient for relocating your apartment belongings, and in- and-out-of storage relocation is suitable for relocating items from your storage unit to the desired destination – following the DDT rules, of course. Our packers and movers can also offer you additional labor moving service if you need help with handling heavy belongings around your home. Just make sure you check what items movers won’t move – everything else will be under our control. We can also offer you a free quote. Feel free to contact us if you have any other questions, and we’ll be happy to help you out.