My Fast Movers publishes cost estimates for 27,854 long-distance moving routes. That number sounds comprehensive until a user types in a route we have not published, and then the honest answer is that we do not have a specific number for that pair of places. How we handle that moment matters more than the size of the catalogue.
The first rule is never to invent a precise-looking number. A quote calculator that returns a confident figure for a route it has never priced is lying with formatting, and users can feel it when the real quotes arrive wildly different. So for an unpriced route, we show a range built from the nearest comparable routes: similar distance, similar region, similar home size, with the comparison explained in plain language next to the number.
The second rule is to say what the range is made of. A range without an explanation is just a vaguer lie, so the page shows the distance band, the home-size assumptions and the factors that move a real quote up or down: stairs, long carries, packing help and timing. A user who understands why the range is wide trusts it more than a user handed a single number with no workings.
Under the hood, the fallback is a distance-and-size model, not a lookup. We take the mileage, apply the per-mile cost curve fitted from our priced routes, adjust for home size, and widen the band as the route gets further from anything we have actually priced. The further the extrapolation, the wider the band and the clearer the warning. Precision that is not earned is worse than a wide range that is honest.
We also log every unpriced-route request, anonymised, and those logs decide what gets priced next. A route requested fifty times in a month jumps the queue for proper pricing, because demand is the best evidence of what the catalogue is missing. The catalogue grows in the direction users actually travel, not the direction we guessed.
The lesson generalises beyond moving. Any estimator, pricing tool or calculator will meet inputs it was not built for, and the choice is always the same: fake precision, or an honest range with its workings shown. We chose the range, and our users have rewarded us for it.
You can try the calculator yourself at My Fast Movers, where long-distance moving costs are estimated without an address form: https://myfastmovers.com
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