How we rank movers
Nobody buys a position on this site. The order comes from one formula — and below you can run it yourself on real companies from our Kentucky database and watch the number move.
Who appears at all
We start from the federal FMCSA register — every carrier recorded there for Kentucky. A company cannot ask to be added and cannot ask to be removed.
Two groups are excluded everywhere on the site, whatever you filter by:
- Carriers whose federal registration is no longer active. They may still be trading, but we hold no current record of them.
- Carriers with no phone number on file — there is no way to reach them.
That leaves 120 companies we will show in Kentucky.
1. How close the company is
We hold postal codes for carriers, not coordinates, so proximity is approximated in five bands. Everything in band 1 is listed before anything in band 2, and so on.
- 1Based in the city you are looking at.
- 2Same three-digit postal region.
- 3The neighbouring postal region by number.
- 4Elsewhere in the state, but the carrier reports drivers running beyond 100 miles.
- 5Everywhere else in the state.
Band 3 is the weakest link here: postal codes were issued in geographic blocks, so neighbouring numbers are usually neighbouring places — but not always.
2. The quality score — try it yourself
Run the formula on a real company
These are genuine carriers from our Kentucky data, with their real figures. Pick one, then change anything below and watch the score move.
This calculator runs the same arithmetic as the site. It does not change anything — the live listings always use the company's real figures.
How the rating is damped
A single five-star review is not evidence, so every rating is pulled towards the middle until enough reviews accumulate:
score = (reviews × rating + 10 × 4.0) ÷ (reviews + 10)
Companies with no reviews at all score zero on this component rather than being given the benefit of the doubt. Review counts are Google and Yelp added together; where a company appears on both, we show the Google rating.
What advertising does and does not buy
Moving companies can pay to receive quote requests through MoverScout. That is how the site is funded and why it costs you nothing.
Paying does not move a company up this list, does not remove a crash record, does not hide a lapsed licence and does not change a rating. Every input to the score above comes from the federal register or from review platforms — there is no field in it for money. You can verify that by running the calculator: there is nothing to switch on that we sell.
What changes when you use the filters
The filter panel does something more drastic than it looks. With no filter set, we show companies serving the area, including nearby ones, in the bands above.
The moment you set any filter or choose a sort order, we narrow to companies based in that city only and order them the way you asked. That is deliberate — arguing with your own choice would be worse — but it explains why a filtered list can be much shorter than the default one.
What we cannot tell you
- Our copy of the federal register is a snapshot, loaded on 30 July 2026. A licence can lapse the day after — check the USDOT number yourself before you sign.
- Reviews were last collected on 9 July 2026. Newer ones are not here yet.
- We hold no prices and no completed bookings, so nothing on this site ranks by what a move actually cost.
- Crash and inspection counts come from federal records. A company with none may simply never have been inspected.
- Distance bands are approximate, as described above.
Questions about the method? Write to us.