Cost estimate for gas, etc. for cross-country household move?

I'm also looking into a cross-country move, and found several references in previous AskMe questions to the much lower-cost option of ABF Freight's "U-Pack" service. They drop a trailer at your current residence, you fill it up (or hire people to do so) and then they'll drive it to your destination and you unpack (or hire unpackers). My quote for a 1100 mile move was around $1000, as contrasted with $8000 for a full-service moving company.

Financial considerations aside, driving with a truck full of everything you own in order to go through customs TWICE sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. All you need to do is get a border agent on a bad day.

One, is there a reason you wouldn't rent the truck? Two, Border Patrol are going to fucking *hate* you. One time on a day trip to Waterton National Park, on the way back the US customs wanted to detain me for a South African orange that I'd bought back home in St. Louis, Missouri.

In addition to problems mentioned above there is the problem of a buying a used truck. How old is it, how many miles on it, how much abuse has it suffered? Save yourselves many headaches and check out the trailer option mentioned above. Drive your car across country, fly, take a train. Safe travels!

Have you considered selling the stuff that is replaceable and buying new furniture when you move? Unless you absolutely love and can't live without the furniture you have, it may be best to sell it all on craigslist and buy new stuff when you get there. Then, you can just drive in a car. Bring all your most important need-right-away stuff, like clothes, in the car with you for the drive, and ship yourself smaller items like books, small appliances, etc. so it will arrive to your new place once you get there. You can also ship extra clothes. I shipped a 60-pound suitcase of clothes 3,000 miles for $70. Buying a truck and then re-selling it, which includes a bunch of crap about title registration, car insurance, going through customs, finding a buyer for the amount you want, etc. sounds like a seriously awful idea and an unnecessary gamble. What if you get in an accident during the move? You can just rent a truck, you know. I tried to do that for my cross country move but "reservation" is a misnomer in the vehicle rental industry -- the smallest truck I had "reserved" was unavailable and all that was left was very large, scary trucks that I would not even be able to fill. Instead I loaded as much as I could into my car and bought new stuff in my new city. I think moving everything you own cross-country is a luxury for people who can afford it. I've moved across country a couple times and one time I drove and did what I described above. The other time I flew and spent $300 in baggage overage fees (I brought clothes and small appliances on the plane) and bought new stuff when I got there.

I would definitely shed as much furniture as possible and buy new/gently used when you get there.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we've investigated every other option, including all the 'here's a trailor/pod, fill it up and we'll transport it' options, renting a U-Haul, etc. They are all between 7K-9K mark, which surprised the hell out of me, but what can you do? That ABC Freight company doesn't do Canada, but wow, what a good price. Tell me more about this border crossing business. I really don't know how it works when you've got a big truck full of stuff. Like, a BIG truck full of stuff.

Ok, thank you platypus - no need for the US route. Sorry, Google suggested it and we were remembering that relatives had taken this route travelling back and forth on family vacations. If you are able to help with the fuel estimates, it looks like the mileage is the same.

The new (a decade or so old) highway has tolls, fees can be found here https://www.cobequidpass.com/COB/About/TollsAndFees.aspx Maybe slightly less weight but also dragging a car cost $500 in fuel between Halifax and Montreal. You might be able to extrapolate. We used a uhaul (total cost with fuel was around 1700). They told us to go into any scale that was open but we'd probably just get waved through. We ended up doing most of the driving overnight and so there were no open scales, so we didn't have to worry about that.