581 moving companies are federally registered in Iowa, from national van lines to one-truck local crews, with the largest cluster in Des Moines (35 companies). Every one of them has a public federal record: registration, fleet size, and four years of consumer complaints. This page lists them all; click any company to open its full MoverAudit report.
Before you shortlist anyone in Iowa, know the local landscape: 2 of these companies are registered as brokers only, meaning they resell your move to a carrier you never chose, and 30 have zero trucks on file with FMCSA. At the other end, the largest registered fleet in the state belongs to West Side Transport Inc with 550 power units. Fleet size does not equal honesty, but a company promising statewide next-day service with one truck deserves a hard look at its report.
Start with the record, not the reviews. Star ratings can be bought and buried; the federal complaint database cannot. Open the MoverAudit report for every company on your shortlist and check three things: is it a carrier or a broker, does the fleet size match its promises, and what do the complaint categories say about how it fails. A "Loss and Damage" complaint at a large van line is ordinary friction; a "Hostage Goods" complaint anywhere is a walk-away signal.
For interstate moves (leaving Iowa), the company must hold federal household goods authority and print its USDOT number on the quote. Verify that the number on the paperwork matches the company name here: a borrowed or mismatched USDOT number is one of the oldest tricks in moving fraud.
For moves within Iowa, state rules apply on top of federal registration, and complaints also go to the state's consumer protection office. The habits stay the same: written binding estimate after a real survey, small traceable deposit, and the truck does not get loaded until the paperwork matches the company you actually vetted.