How did you go about finding the carrier yourself? I ask because my cousin tried the same thing last year when he moved from Spokane down to Phoenix and he ended up getting jerked around by some guy with a beat up truck who showed up two days late and wanted extra cash at the drop off. The broker thing feels like a rip off with all the fees but at least you know who to yell at when stuff goes wrong. Sounds like you did your homework and it worked out though, six hundred bucks is six hundred bucks. Makes me wonder how many people just pay the broker markup without even checking what it would cost to call the company direct.