Should I trust movers with my equipment?

Most movers have a hard time NOT damaging furniture!

That would be the biggest NO, NOT EVER ever heard.
I am an old man , hard for me to move dishes, but I'm behind that U-haul wheel with my gear !

I'd be more likely to throw my wife in a box and put her in the moving van than let them touch my equipment. And just for the record, I do love my wife.

No, do not trust them. I'm not kidding. I work for a Fortune 500 company with hundreds of locations that are constantly moving and remodeling. It's a high turnover, labor intensive low paying job. Most of the guys have an addiction problem. As I said turnover is high and there not much training.

Here's how I roll. Wife in the car... Check. Dog in the car...check. Amp, pre-amp, etc in the car.... Check. All the other crap goes with the movers. I have three boys all in their twenties and none of them live at home anymore......priceless.

I guess I've been lucky. Moves fron CA to FL to MN to NC--all without any problems whatsoever. I packed all my gear in original boxes. Staged them all separately, explained the contents to the driver/lead mover. I have gear ranging in size/bulk from Vandy 5s and Maggie 1.6s, down to the 'delicacy' of Avid and W/B 'tables. I think this is where original boxes really make the difference, as well as tipping the moving crew at both ends.