If you’ve searched “get a couch moved” lately, you’ve seen the names: Dolly, GoShare, Lugg, and now us. From the outside they all look alike. Open a thing, describe your stuff, a truck shows up. So the real differences live in the part you can’t see from the outside: how the money moves.
This post is about that. Not a takedown, just an explanation of how the money works on Trucka and what to ask of anyone else you’re comparing.
First, credit where it’s due
Dolly and GoShare have both been around since the mid-2010s. They operate in a lot of metros, they’ve completed a huge number of jobs, and plenty of people use them happily. If you’re outside New York, Washington DC, or San Francisco, one of them is probably your move, because those are the only three cities we’re in.
We’re not going to quote their prices or their driver rates. Those numbers change, they vary by market and vehicle, and we’d rather say nothing than print something stale. Their sites have the current numbers. Go look. This post is about the structure underneath, because the structure is the part that doesn’t change week to week.
The three numbers behind every hauling app
Every job on every platform in this category has the same skeleton:
- What you pay. The fare.
- What the driver keeps. Their cut of the fare, plus any tip.
- What the platform keeps. The gap between the two.
That third number is the quiet one. As a customer you might not think you care. Here’s why you should: the driver’s pay decides who takes your job. Platforms that squeeze drivers end up with drivers who are new, rushed, or halfway out the door. The person carrying your dresser down three flights is the person the economics attracted.
How the money works on Trucka
We’ll just show you ours.
You pay a flat price: a base fee plus distance. The base depends on the truck: Trucka for a pickup, Trucka XL for a cargo van, Trucka Box for a box truck. Distance adds the rest. Need loading help? A flat $35 puts your driver on the heavy end, with small add-ons for stairs and heavy pieces, all priced before you book. We text you the total before you book, and there’s no hourly meter, so nobody profits from your couch getting stuck in a stairwell. Most jobs run $60 to $150. The how it works page walks through it.
The driver sees their exact payout before they accept. Not an estimate. Not a number that resolves after the work is done. Every job card shows the dollar figure the driver will make, and the number they accept is the number they get. Tips are on top and go entirely to the driver.
We keep the rest, and it has to earn its keep. The platform fee pays for vetting every driver (license, insurance, background check, truck photo review), running dispatch, handling payments, and fixing it when something goes sideways. If that can’t cover it, the fix is to run a tighter company, not to shave the driver’s side.
| The question to ask | Trucka’s answer |
|---|---|
| Do I see the full price before booking? | Yes, texted before anyone rolls |
| Flat price or a running meter? | Flat, base fee plus distance |
| What does the driver keep? | The exact payout is on the job card before they accept |
| Can the price change after I book? | No, the number we text is the number you pay |
| Tips? | Every dollar goes to the driver |
When you compare us to Dolly, GoShare, or anyone else, ask those same five questions. Any platform treating its drivers fairly should be able to answer them fast and in public. If the answer to “what does the driver keep” is a shrug, that tells you something too.
Why we’re this loud about the money
Two reasons, one for each side of the marketplace.
For drivers, it’s recruiting. A driver with a paid-off pickup is a small business owner deciding which platform deserves their Saturday. We want the ones who do the math, because drivers who do the math tend to be the same drivers who show up on time and strap the load down right. Putting the exact payout on the job card before they commit is how we start that conversation honestly. If you’re that driver, the application takes two minutes.
For customers, it’s quality control you can reason about. You can’t inspect our driver pool from your couch, but you can think it through: a platform where drivers know exactly what a job pays before they take it will attract and keep better people than one where drivers find out afterward. The driver who rings your doorbell chose your job on purpose.
The honest bottom line
Dolly and GoShare are established, they’re in more cities than we are, and they’ve earned their spot. If you’re outside our three cities, use one of them. If you’re inside our three cities, get quotes and compare, because a ten-minute comparison beats any blog post, including this one.
Just compare the structure along with the number. One flat price you see up front. A base fee plus distance, no meter. A driver who saw the exact pay and took the job on purpose.
That’s how the money works here. Get a price and see the number for your job, or read how the whole thing works first.