Colonial Van Lines's affiliates perform intrastate and long-distance moves. The company also offers professional packing, storage, and combined storage and redelivery services. Colonial Van Lines serves residential customers as individuals and also offers corporate moving services that are employer-paid.

Although the Better Business Bureau gives Colonial Van Lines a B+ rating, the consumer organization has received hundreds of complaints about the company, some of which are quite concerning. Final bills well in excess of estimates, belongings gone missing for months at a time, not showing up on the assigned date—these are troubles no one wants to have with their mover. We also read complaints of movers essentially holding customers hostage: showing up on moving day and demanding customers agree to a higher fee before they will execute a move. The Department of Transportation has received and registered a total of more than 160 complaints against Colonial Van Lines in the past three years. But consumers who review the company on Trustpilot—over a thousand of them—award the company 4.2 out of 5 stars. We can chalk some of this discrepancy up to the fact that Colonial Van Lines is a moving broker that has hundreds of affiliated moving companies that actually perform moves for consumers. Quality of service is bound to vary somewhat. But ultimately, the buck stops with Colonial Van Lines. Consumers who have had issues with the company report that their complaints were mishandled or, worse, even ignored by Colonial Van Lines. So at the very least, we highly recommend that customers investigate the reputation of the moving company assigned to them, that they read their contracts very closely, and do their best to document every aspect of their moves in photos and written documents prior to the commencement of their move.

Colonial Van Lines operates as a moving brokerage and partners with independent moving companies to perform moves nationwide. The company works with hundreds of actual movers to get customers' belongings to and from. Colonial Van Lines does not own a major fleet of its own—less than a handful of tractors and trailers.