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Heard On The Street |
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There's not the usual amount of gossip and rumor-spreading this month than in months past.....Still, we're hearing some interesting things out there...let's get to it:
Las Vegas, where business has remained great for the moving industry, has a situation developing that is squeezing the profit out the movers' pockets....The Teamsters are really putting the pinch on Las Vegas Moving Companies....$95 an hour labor charges are making it difficult to conduct commercial business on The Strip.....
SPEAKING OF VEGAS....We're hearing of three (3) companies that might be for sale in that market....More to come regarding this AND our announcement of a new business brokerage affiliation that we hope benefits the moving industry.......
CONGRATS to WESTHEIMER TRANSFER in Houston, celebrating their 125th year in business......
Movers:
Meet the next level of service from your competition...big changes over at PODS.....more to come (watch this space)........
GUESS WHO'S soon going to open their 20th location? Hint: We've chronicaled this company's growth in this Newsletter over the past 5 years....more to come......
DAVID GRAEBEL is the recipient of the MOVING AND STORAGE INSTITUTE's Lifetime Achievement Award For Distinguished Service.....The AMSA surprised Dave with the award that was announced during the AMSA's Annual Educator Conference & Expo.....
Speaking of GRAEBEL....The company recently moved their Mid-Atlantic Service Center from Chantilly, VA to Sterling, VA......
MANY OF YOU are attending the ERC Conference in TX this week....interesting to note this year's Moving Company attendees: A-ARNOLD, ARPIN GROUP, CROWN RELOCATIONS, GRAEBEL, NEW WORLD VAN LINES, NORTH AMERICAN VAN LINES, THE MI GROUP, UNIGROUP and WHEATON WORLD WIDE MOVING.........
WHITE MOVING & STORAGE, BEKINS agent in Denver, has closed its doors........
MICHAEL NEELEY has been promoted to chief information officer for ATLAS WORLD GROUP......
WE FORGOT to mention in last month's Newsletter that ROB WENDLAND was the recipient of UNITED VAN LINES' Operations Achievement Award.....
AGAIN, speaking of UNITED and UNIGROUP as a whole, TRANSPORT TOPICS (The transportation periodical that has just a SLIGHTLY higher readership than this Newsletter) recently ranked UNIGROUP 13th out of the top 100 largest for-hire carriers in the United States......
Here's a company who's growing: AMERICAN WAY VAN & STORAGE of Dayton, OH has almost doubled their warehouse capacity with the move into their new building....Check this agent out at www.awvs.com .....
IT WAS POINTED OUT TO US, and rightly so, that regarding the recent switch of some SIRVA companies to other van line affiliations, that once the dust settled, the agents that did leave SIRVA represent only 1% of the total SIRVA agent network.......
DAN BURKE, former VP of OPs For CORRIGAN MOVING SYSTEMS has been repositioned as VP OF SALES...KIRK HENSLER, former GM of PREMIER RELOCATIONS (Corrigan's Mayflower branch) has been promoted to VP Of OPS for Corrigan......
PHIL WATTS, a veteran of the international moving industry has joined the EUROUSA group of companies as their new Group Sales Manager and will be based out of Charleston, SC......
CHARLIE MORRIS, old friend and well-known industry veteran, is now with RELOCATION.COM LLC as their new Manager, Strategic Accounts.......
You have GOT to see this: go to www.matadoors.net and get a look at ED KATZ' (The Office Moving GURU) latest invention.....This latest product (marketed more to building and facilities managers than movers) is just another example of Ed's creativity. More and more professional office movers are relying on ED to train and certify their sales staffs and labor on how to succeed and profit in the Office Moving niche...Ed's primary site is www.officemoves.com . Check it out! (ALSO: Watch this column for another BIG announcement from Ed's INTERNATIONAL OFFICE MOVING INSTITUTE)........
BEKINS A-1 MOVERS, INC., is another one of those companies who refuses to take the current economy lying down....In a March 31st press release, the company announced a continuation of it's rapid growth rate with a 43% increase in revenues over the previous year...Bekins A-1 is the largest agent for Bekins Van Lines with 23 profit centers nationwide......Check them out at www.Bekinsa1.com ........
ATLAS VAN LINES has announced that it will expand its portable container business, ACCELL and serve COD customers in addition to the national account business that was this division's original focus......
The SUDDATH COMPANIES awarded their ORLANDO office with the "OFFICE OF THE YEAR" designation for 2007........
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST:
I can't tell you how exciting it is to make the following announcement:
CHRIS NOBLIT and his RELOROW.COM are BACK ON LINE! Many of you know CHRIS, who really was a leader in pushing the HHG industry into the Internet Age with the formation of the AVATAR MOVER'S FORUM, the first and only website devoted entirely to on-line discussions of issues facing the Moving Industry......NOBLIT refined the Forum and developed ReloRow.com that was a more sophisticated and broader-ranged site for the moving and relocation-related industries. Well, after a hiatus, CHRIS IS BACK ON-LINE...It's great to have him back. PLEASE go to www.relorow.com and sign up and get involved with your fellow relocation professionals....
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Movers Search Group's National EMail Newsletter
May 2008
"The Newsletter Of Record For The Moving And Storage Industry" |
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OUR VIEW
Dear HHG and Relocation Industry Professionals:
Guess what? We're having a hard time buying into all of the gloom and doom and dire economic forecasts others have editorialized of late. Sure, certain sectors of the HHG Industry are taking a wait and see approach regarding this year's upcoming busy season....some are even wondering if we will have a busy season at all.
As a professional recruitment and staffing firm serving the Moving Industry exclusively, we've got a different take.
In our daily national conversations and business dealings with with Clients and Candidates in your industry, we're finding the following indicators that underscore a growing optimistic trend:
-Clients who were idle in the first quarter of this year are now suddenly finding their scheduling calendars rapidly filling up.
-Sales Candidates who once were anxious to have us find them new positions with companies who have more business are lately less inclined to move as their business has picked up. Sales appointments have risen dramatically over the past two weeks.
-Diversified companies (those with a mix of business (O&I, Records Retention, Logistics, etc.) are FAR MORE optimistic than those agencies that are primarily HHG oriented.
-Most importantly (and from a purely selfish standpoint) our job orders (candidate search assignments) are up 100% over this time last year! Want proof? Simply go to our website at www.MoverRecruiter.com . I want you to look at two specific pages: "Current Job Opportunities" and, even more impressive, click on our "HOT JOB OF THE DAY"....there you will find an unbelievable array of high-end positions, ALL of which have come open in the last 30 days. DON'T TELL US THAT THE MOVING AND STORAGE INDUSTRY ISN'T HIRING!
Granted, there have been instances of more cutbacks, layoffs and downsizing, but in reality, the majority of these cuts have been done with a surgeon's scalpel rather than a machete.....Companies are trimming some higher-salaried postions rather then effecting wholesale eliminations.
BOTTOM LINE? It isn't as bad as you may have been lead to believe. Be agressive. Position yourself to be able to take advantage and perform once the market does pick up in your area like it already has in many other parts of the country.
My sincere best wishes for a successful and profitable season for you all....
Sincerely,
Mark Gray
Movers Search Group
"Moving Companies And Careers Forward"
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| THIS MONTH IN HHG HISTORY:
(This Year Marks the 10th Year of Publication of Our Newsletter. From time to time we will re-visit old issues for an historical look at what was happening in the moving industry during this month, many years ago)
MAY 1999:
-The ERC Conference was held in Las Vegas the first week of May, 1999
-Bekins VL was once again rumored to be on the selling block...the whispered Wheaton purchase having fallen through a few months earlier
-The State of Texas announced that beginning in September of 1999 that it would require all TX intrastate and local moves to be quoted on a binding rate basis
-Business was still down for most movers, especially when compared to 1998
-There was a reversal of the then- recent trend of California movers firing, not hiring....In May of 1999 we reported that CA movers were screaming for quality candidates to hire, particularly in the Bay Area and in Orange County. In the preceeding 18 months, we were inundated with CA candidates fired or leaving CA for greener pastures.
OUR QUOTE OF THE MONTH was:
"The best way to end up with a small fortune in the moving business is to start out with a large fortune"
Our May 1999 Newsletter had a circulation of 2,500 moving and storage professionals....Today we have tripled that.... |
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WHAT'S AHEAD..........
-Announcement Of Our New Business Brokerage Affiliation
-Remember to go to the HHG Industry's MOST VISITED WEB PAGE: Our HOT JOB OF THE DAY. Go to www.MoverRecruiter.com and click on the "Hot Job of the Day" Page for our VERY LATEST search assignment. -Samuel H. Gray Scholarship Contest
-Interactive HHG Industry Calendar of Events
-Movers Market Place Upgrade (go now to www.MoverRecruiter.com and click on "Movers Market Place" to see an exciting business opportunity....we're going to expand this feature on our website.
-More "HEARD ON THE STREET" tidbits, whisperings and announcements.....
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Until Next Time......
Sincerely,
Mark Gray
Movers Search Group |
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