A look back at summer 2004 in the moving industry

I was just reviewing some of the documents we have sent out to our accounts in the past, and came upon an e mail sent in June 2004. Maybe this is what we will see next summer? or sooner? Military repositioning, shortage of trucks and drivers?

"This year has been unprecedented with the amount of people moving nationwide. With the repositioning of the military nationally, and the pent up demand from prior years when people held off their moves because of the economy, the amount of people moving is stretching the resources of every major van line.

As a result, we are experiencing delays with some members in their loading and delivery dates. We expect that delays will continue throughout the month of July and into August.

We are working very closely in monitoring these delays of customer's shipments, and doing everything possible to be sure that if a customer's shipment is delayed that their needs are taken care of. All of our contracts with the movers for interstate shipments include delay claim payments that are either flat daily dollar amounts or reimbursement of living expenses for every day the delay continues. Any other needs that arise are also being addressed.

We are advising all customers of the possibility of a delay when scheduling their move. We are also advising them to build in some flexibility in their travel plans for possible delays.

All Client/Consumers Relocation moves take precedence over all other COD moves(general consumer moves) for loading and delivery. Many of the van lines have cut off the general public from scheduling moves and are only taking national account moves as ours are.

Additionally, in the past 45 days, anticipating this capacity problem, we added a very large agent of one of the largest van lines to assist us with customer's moves. Specifically this agent has the ability to cover Southern California, the south, southwest, and several major metro areas in the mid west. They have really "stepped up to the plate" and we have reduced the amount of customers we are sending to the companies that we are experiencing delays with.

We striving to insure that we take care of all customer's needs as they arise. We will work to insure that all customers needs are taken care of with the van line that they are moving with. To date, we have been able to satisfy the small number of customers that have been inconvenienced. "

WOW what a look back