You don’t hire a welder to fix a plumbing leak…so why would you ask your friends and family to help you move? Professional movers are regulated, carry a multitude of insurance and valuation coverages and employ people whose full- time vocation is moving household goods. So why hire a local moving company? We’ll explain a few reasons in this post.
We carry automotive, general liability, bodily injury, property damage and worker’s compensation insurance just to name a few. This completely exonerates our customers from potentially backing a rental truck into a neighbor’s car or if cousin Jimmy hurts himself because he refuses to acknowledge he is not the same man in his 40s that he was in his 20s.
Your Protected With Professional Movers
When it comes to all your worldly possessions legitimate moving companies offer you multiple valuation options to pick from that cover your goods while they are in the mover’s care and control or being stored in their warehouse. Warehouseman’s valuation is not a coverage you will find at many mini-storage locations.
Most professional moving companies make background checks and random drug testing a requirement of employment for their van foreman and helpers. This is to protect the safety of the moving company’s customers as well as their other staff members.
Van Foreman inspect their truck daily to insure it’s safe and in proper working order. In addition to looking for mechanical defects, excessive wear and other potential safety issues they are making sure they have all the handling equipment and materials they need to properly do the day’s job/s.
Professional movers handle furniture every day as a career. They come with the necessary and proper equipment to perform the task at hand. They also come with the experience and knowledge it takes to remove items from the home, pad wrapping, transport them and deliver them as efficiently and safely as possible into the destination location.
Part of their knowledge includes how to prepare a home prior to a move in an effort to protect floors, carpets, areas with corners to go around or the walls in narrow hallways, stair bannisters and any other part of the home that might be at risk during the moving process.
We also carry ramps which in some situations can be used to bridge over outside stairs and also have methods of securing doors open or even removing and replacing them as necessary . Professional moving companies often have specialized equipment such as Ultra-Lifts for heavy/bulky items, appliance dollies and specialized dollies and boards for moving pianos.
Moving Your Home & Possessions Safely
In addition to the proper handling, protective and securement equipment, a certificated local moving company owns trucks that are built and licensed to handle the weight of the household goods shipments that they will haul. Typically they have lower floor heights and logistics tracking in the walls that allow the crew to snap in logistics straps that prevent shifting in transit.
On two occasions we have had customers who loaded all their books on rental trucks in an effort to shave down the cost, show up at our office after we loaded the rest of their shipment. They did not feel safe driving the overloaded rental and wanted to know if we could transfer the books onto the truck with their household goods.
The van foreman behind the wheel has passed a general knowledge test, an air brakes test and subsequently been trained for as many months as it takes for a veteran van foreman to deem them ready to run solo. They have then gone and taken and passed the driving test and are subject for the rest of their career to scrutiny from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and any state governing bodies of their home state.
A well administered moving company has a safety committee as well as a routine maintenance program for all of its equipment. The cargo handling equipment is checked and replaced as needed by the van foreman.
How Much Do Moving Companies Cost?
Within Pennsylvania local moving companies charge by the hour. These hourly rates are the most cost effective move option from the customer’s perspective in comparison to moves over 40 miles. This gives the customer the option to have the mover move everything in the home in its entirety. Conversely the customer may opt to move all the items they feel comfortable moving and pay a local moving company to move strictly the pieces that are too large for the customer to move on their own.
When considering employing a local moving company you will definitely find we are more expensive then pizzas and a case of beer. However you have to weigh the fact that they are insured, providing all of the labor and completing the job more quickly than the customer can. When doing a comparison you must factor in the cost of the rental, topping off it’s fuel, labor, supplies and be sure to factor in an hourly cost for yourself at a minimum. More then anything though factor in the lack of physical duress and stress that comes from employing a local mover who is operated within the regulations of their state’s oversight entity.