We used POD's when moving from Texas to Iowa. Did a lot of the packing and loading ourselves, but when it got to be too much we hired movers from a local company (like Two Guy's Will Move You) to help out. Had them pack my kitchen also. We had a three month delay before our new house was completed when we were living in our RV, so storage was necessary. We had 3 pods total, and were able to order when we wanted one delivered, load it, and have them take it away to storage. Then we'd have the next one delivered, and so on. Our pods were stored in their facility in Texas until we were ready for them. Then they were trucked to an Iowa storage facility, and again we were able to have them delivered one at a time. We kept track of what was in each pod, and unloaded what we needed the most first. Once again, we hired some local movers to move the big stuff into the house.
If we had hired a big truck moving company, they would have had to pack and load the truck, go to the storage facility and unload, and then reload and transport 3 months later. The storage and loading and reloading was going to cost a big bundle. With the pods and hiring movers for help with the heavy stuff and packing the kitchen items, it was way more cost effective than the big movers. And our belongings only had to be loaded and unloaded once. And we knew that only our belongings were in those pods. Way less chance of breakage (if you pack well) and loss with pods. One more thing, storage of pods is in an enclosed warehouse facility, so no worry of weather damaging anything.