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Welcome to the third edition of Supply Line, with news, information and tips from your AMSA suppliers. Please take a few minutes to see what’s new on our side of the industry. I hope something you read or learn here can help your organization. Suppliers are experiencing the rough economy just as our mover partners are, so we’re always looking for new ways to operate. Several of the articles in this issue have great suggestions on how you can help your bottom line by reducing expenses. With several van lines and associations canceling their annual conventions this year, next year’s AMSA Annual Educational Conference & Expo will provide an excellent opportunity for both networking and education, especially with our suppliers. Please keep the dates in mind, February 21-24, 2010 in Phoenix. We’ll be there to welcome you, so please join us. As always, you’re encouraged to send suggestions or comments to me at meschbac@aeworldwide.us, or to AMSA’s Norma Gyovai at ngyovai@moving.org.Mark Eschbacher, 
When our insurance costs quadrupled a few years ago, I thought nothing could be done about it. After paying higher premiums, we decided to shop for insurance using a different type of agent. Not only were we classified incorrectly, but the agent saved us over $2,000 in fees the first year. Other costs of business include taxes and compliance with governmental regulations. Twenty-six years ago, I wanted to repair furniture and not become a tax collector! I learned that I can’t control the burden of governmental regulations imposed on business, but I could control my operational costs. Here are a few tips that Image Restoration, Inc. employs to control our costs while maintaining quality:
To get great service and great prices on furniture repair, visit www.imagerestoration.com. Image Restoration, Inc. specializes in providing on-site repair services for moving companies, the construction industry, retail stores, and private individuals. While the majority of our repairs are performed on furniture and fine woodwork, we also repair a vast variety of other items that may be damaged in a move.
According to a compliance official at FMCSA, the agency is aware that many carriers who have interstate operating authority are transporting shipments without having a published tariff. The primary reasons were said to be both that the smaller carriers simply don’t know what to do and that the price for getting a tariff published is more than they can afford. Requiring a carrier to determine its own rates and charges, its own tariff rule items, then maintain that tariff in compliance with consumer protection regulations and federal requirement and pull that all together in a published tariff is one thing, but the reality is that most carriers are not equipped to undertake such a daunting task. When the Justice Department effectively ended the ability of the Household Goods Carriers Bureau to publish the 400N tariff in 2007, several thousand AMSA tariff members faced having to find a way to publish their own tariffs either themselves or through a third party company. Since HGCBC had published the official interstate tariff since 1936, there was a severe shortage of tariff publishers available. Many small carriers still “don’t know what to do” and need consulting help to understand things like regulatory requirements and rule items. They need help from people who understand tariffs and the application of charges. They want to be confident their tariff is kept in compliance. And most of all they need all of this at an affordable price. Shop around, but make sure you are in compliance with federal law. Moving Pros Network, LLC, is a new tariff publishing company offering tariff publishing and consulting services. For information, call (571) 236-8746.
The woman, without breaking a sweat or even the slightest flinch, said “I am sorry but you have the wrong address. I am just a house sitter. The people who lived here moved to a new neighborhood and have a new ZIP code.” Mr. Recession was visibly flustered by this response. We are living in a time when Mr. Recession is knocking at everyone’s door. He is traveling throughout the land seeking those who are at the brink, who are on the edge of the cliff, and have raised the flag in surrender. He exists to sift you as wheat and siphon off every ounce of positivity that may exist. In the midst of this world war against your mind, you must stand up and protect one very important asset. This possession is more valuable than your home, car, and 401k retirement plan. Don’t let Mr. Recession repossess it. This asset has been around since the beginning of civilization. This asset has made you who are today and will be what helps you break free. This asset is your confidence. Richard Nixon said that a “recession happens when people lose confidence in the future.” As I travel around the country, I have observed that there are people who have decided to stay in their ZIP code of fear. Some of you need to go to the post office of life and submit a change of address. I have decided to relocate my mind, relocate my spirit, and relocate my future, because this zip code no longer works for me. A ZIP code locates you, but doesn’t define you. It’s time to discover life beyond your ZIP code. There is a brand new world that is waiting for you to think your way into it.
For more from Simon, visit www.simontbailey.com.
Direct Systems, Inc. continues to bring the latest advances in technology to the 700-plus US and Canadian movers who rely on its sales, dispatch, operations and accounting software. To further enhance the Internet functionality of these modules, a complete re-write into Structured Query Language and the Microsoft .NET Framework continues at a rapid pace. The accounting system has been completed and is in testing. The programming effort is now concentrated on customer service and dispatch. Sales, warehouse and commercial records storage will follow. Progress reports on this and other new software can be followed at www.directsystems.com. With more than 700 installations across North America,Direct is the largest provider of software to the moving and storage industry.
The moving industry is suffering; revenue is down by as much as 30% for many carriers, the housing market has been on life support, third-party service providers have abducted many national accounts, and rogue movers continue to put downward pressure on pricing. What’s the answer? Effective marketing. Over the years, I have had countless movers proudly tell me that 90% of their jobs are generated through referrals or repeat customers, and that they close at 80% plus. After they are done patting themselves on the back, I often suggest that these two statistics usually mean:
As the above example illustrates, sales and marketing are not just about the numbers….but about the right numbers. Tracking quantifiable results, understanding what the data mean and managing your business to specific goals are the hallmarks of a well-run business. You may believe if you operate a Web site, it will automatically generate business. It’s like asking, “I bought a truck, where are all the shippers?” The Internet is the single most powerful and least expensive marketing and sales tool ever invented, but you have to know how to put it to use for you. Some companies generate the vast majority of their business over the Web. Your Web site is the face of your business, a demonstration tool, and a critical facet of sales. It’s not the place where people somehow stumble upon your company and you show them a picture of a pretty truck. Your Web site should be similar to what you attempt during an in person presentation: make a connection and then hold a prospect’s hand through the sales process. A prospect’s experience with your Web site is a direct reflection of your company and you need to dictate how that experience goes. Ask yourself the following questions: What message am I trying to project? What is the call to action? Am I trying to get the prospect to call my sales team, fill out a questionnaire, complete an online cube sheet, or what? Am I effectively “asking for the sale” on my Web site? Once you have answered these questions, you need to get people to visit your site. There are two ways to do this; the “organic” approach, or a “pay-to-click” approach. The organic approach involves working with a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist who can manipulate your site to improve its search engine ranking , including adjusting its meta tags, modifying the text, changing individual page names, creating links from other sites (blogs,) etc. To some degree, the more traffic you drive to your Web site, the higher your ranking. If you want to see what terms consumers are using to search for moving companies in your area, you can use tools such as www.keyworddiscovery.com. The pay-to-click approach is the other option. It guarantees that you will be at the top of the list, but every time someone clicks on your Web site, you’ll have to pay a fee to the search engine company. Before you write off this approach, do a careful cost-benefit analysis. How much money are you spending currently to make the phone ring? There are nuances to this approach and you do not have to necessarily bid the most to be at the top of the list. Results are instantly quantifiable and changes can be made in order to optimize performance. Another possibility is to use the services of an external resource such as a leads provider or a broker. These companies stay on top of search listings and either they do a good job, or they are soon out of business. Granted, some brokers have built negative reputations over the years, but they are generating thousands of leads daily. There are numerous software vendors who take the leads and parse them into a searchable database. The third party vendors/brokers are here to stay, and therefore you should at least consider finding a way to work with them, and by extension, to make this wealth of leads work for you. So your Web site, Internet leads, and the rest of your marketing plan are in place and starting to bear fruit. Now you need to make sure that you do everything within your power to convert and close these leads. No process, procedure, or technology will ever supplant a good salesperson. But there are some basic guiding principles in the moving sector that relate to on-site surveys:
While the above appear relatively obvious, it is remarkable how many of these are often overlooked in a presentation. Good luck! Piet Gauch is an executive with TechMate International, a provider of sales and inventory solutions to the relocation industry. For more information, visit www.techmateinternational.net or call (800) 837-6283.
Q: Should I rent moving equipment or purchase it outright? A: Renting saves time, money and space. Often, you need to bring in large volumes of bulky and heavy equipment to stage an office or industrial move event. When you rent from New Haven, you can return this kind of specialized equipment after your move instead of dedicating storage space and management time to tracking it. With one phone call to New Haven you can have everything you need to pack and move your valuables delivered right to your door. Rent only what you need, when you need it. Q: We occasionally have to move heavy machinery and vending machines, but we don’t have a lot of space to maneuver. What product would help? A: We recommend the New Haven Rol-A-Lift, a favorite of movers and warehousemen around the world. This versatile lifting device is used in pairs and can transport safes, crates, vending machines, machinery—anything too bulky or delicate for a forklift. We also recommend our heavy-duty Lift Levers, with your choice of steel or rubber wheels. Lift Levers can move a variety of heavy objects, lifting and rolling easily whether the load weighs 50 or 5,000 lbs. They are also extremely easy to store. Keep in mind that if you only have an occasional need for this specialized equipment, you can always rent it from New Haven and return it when you’re done. Q: What is the difference between a model NH55 & NH99 furniture pad? A: The model NH55 Dreadnaught and NH99 Carrier furniture pads are constructed with the same quality quilting, and finishing. The basic difference is the outer covering, or cloth quilted on the pad itself. Model NH55 Dreadnaught furniture pads have about 50% more cloth /sq inch than the NH99 Carrier. The model NH55 Dreadnaught is also about 5 pounds heavier, per dozen. Use the NH99 for most purposes; the NH55 is for more fragile items. For more Q & A on products or services relating to the moving and storage industry, visit www.newhaven-usa.com/ask-newhaven. New Haven offers thousands of products from packing tape to E-CRATEs; hand trucks to straight trucks. Customers can test-drive New Haven's products before they rent or buy at their 18 locations nationwide which offer showrooms and warehouses.
Finding an employee who is engaged, committed, passionate and skilled is hard to find. It means conscientious employers are investing more into their hiring and screening practices. While things like drug and alcohol testing, and more recently criminal background checks, have been around a while, employers are becoming more demanding with what they ask for on the application, getting more in-depth with their interviews, and being more careful in how they follow-up on references. Some employers have gone even deeper to include various personality profiles and integrity screens to help them screen out applicants who may demonstrate aggressive behavior, an entitlement mentality, theft, lying, and other at-risk behaviors and personality traits. Despite all these new approaches and techniques to minimizing hiring errors, very few employers are actually matching the workers they hire to the physical demand of the job itself. And while it is nice to have someone who is skilled, committed and passionate, if they cannot stand up to the rigors of the job and are injured, then it is most often a costly and at times a contentious situation. To this end, there is a growing body of science in the medical community that a substantial contributor to repetitive motion and overexertion injuries to the various joint systems, referred to as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), or soft-tissue injuries such as the shoulders, knees and back, are created by a mismatch between the physical demands of the jobs and physical capabilities of the worker. These types of injuries are usually very costly, and are difficult to diagnose, treat and rehab. As a result, getting an employee back to full duty is often a significant challenge. In many such cases, a careful investigation in search of the proximate cause leads not to a failure of the company’s safety program, training or operating procedures, but rather a failed hire - someone who either was not physically capable of standing up to the rigors of the job, or they had a pre-existing injury that was compromised as a result of repetitive motion or overexertion. While physical abilities testing in a number of forms has been around for a while and has demonstrated a significant return on investment for many companies, one emerging technology using isokinetics from Cost Reduction Technologies is proving to be a leader and state-of-the-art approach to pre-employment physical abilities testing. Unlike the bulk of these types of tests that involve job simulations using steps, weights, benches and the like, the CRT process uses an isokinetic dynamometer to measure an applicant’s strength across the range of motion without loading a muscle group. As a result, the test is safe, objective and quick generally taking 15 minutes or less with the results delivered in under a minute. The basic format of the test is structured as a strength and agility test and therefore can be administered on a pre-offer basis, clear of ADA regulation that might involve reasonable accommodation. The process for implementing pre-employment CRT testing can be done in 6 steps:
Because the vast majority of workplace injuries occur in the first two years of employment, and in some companies much sooner, an employer can simply and quickly evaluate their results and measure their return-on-investment. While there are obviously a number of ways in which a company can measure their results for this type of testing, a sampling of companies who have been doing CRT testing for a number of years demonstrates ROI’s ranging from 4:1 to upwards of 9:1. Unlike many of the investments companies make in their risk management programs such as training, policy development, engineering solutions, personal protective equipment and incentives, the results of CRT testing are directly quantifiable- something that is really refreshing to many employers. The bottom line: if your employees are experiencing costly soft-tissue injuries to the shoulders, knees and back, it is likely that a significant number of these injuries are the result of a mismatch between the worker’s abilities and the job demands. To create a safer work environment, prevent human suffering and significantly mitigate claims cost you may want to consider taking a closer look at CRT pre-employment physical abilities testing. Scott Insurance specializes in insurance, benefits, risk management, bonds and financial management.
Movers looking for an effective way to demonstrate their “green” credentials and save money in the long haul should consider switching to polymer-based dollies. They last longer, so less wood is consumed, and are often stronger than their wooden counterparts. One example is the Samson Dolly®, modeled after the Samson Cart®. It is designed to not only be environmentally friendly, but to also address design criteria not previously considered in other plastic (or wooden) dollies on the market. The dolly is also “Designed for the Environment” (DfE), an EPA-recognized designation given to products which reduce waste and any impact on the environment. A Samson Cart or Dolly has an estimated life span of 15 or more years (roughly eight to ten times the life span of wooden dollies), thanks to its structural integrity, which eliminates the need for any add-on reinforcement. These new dollies have other advantages as well. If you manage to break one of these dollies, the modular design enables easy replacement of broken components without glue or paint. Damaged components, made of environmentally-friendly engineered polymers, can be easily recycled. The carts are comparable in weight and configuration design to emulate currently acceptable industry equipment weights. The Samson Dolly weighs in at approximately 40% of the standard wooden dollies weight. The carts are designed to meet moving industry standards, specifically stacking, strength, wheel placement and balance. The structural integrity and “true” or “square” frame is enhanced by the patent-pending product design. The manufacturing process is an environmentally friendly alternative to off-shore deforestation and manufacturing. Utilizing natural gas, the process is so energy efficient that it actually uses less fossil fuel per pound and emits significantly less airborne pollutants than hardwood dolly production. Samson Dollies also saves our planet from emissions when considering landfill gas emissions and reduced carbon absorption. Samson Carts was recognized by the EPA for agreeing to purchase more than 220,000 kilowatt hours of green electric power annually – more than half of the organizations’ electric use. Samson products recently passed a third-party lab test for low-emitting products, and Samson Carts are listed on the GREENGUARD low-emitting Web site as the first plastic material handling product to be “green”-certified by an independent environmental design organization. Samson designs and manufactures sustainable material handling equipment such as library carts and furniture dollies to replace similar equipment made from wood. To learn more, contact David King at (847) 818-8977. Samson Carts can be found on the Web at www.samsoncarts.com and www.cratexpress.com.
The class of 2010 is now forming, and members will begin their journey on October 12th and complete it at AMSA’s Annual Conference in Phoenix in February. The program application is available at http://www.promover.org/leaders. Beginning with the Class of 2010, The Moving & Storage Institute has made scholarship opportunities available for participants from small companies, which will include tuition reimbursement and a partial reimbursement of the costs related to the seminar and Annual Conference. For more information, please contact AMSA’s Maryscott Tuck at (703) 706-4985 or mtuck@moving.org.
If that doesn't whet your appetite, you'll find some surprises in the special section on the Sun Belt states and the changes in those markets over the few years. Once considered a mecca for the moving business, these areas are no longer booming. Learn more about the key indicators in Arizona, Florida and Nevada. Contact Carol Laird, AMSA Products and Services Specialist, at (703) 706-4971 or claird@moving.org to order. $275/year for AMSA members; $550/year for non-members. For more information, visit www.promover.org/industrytrends. Send in your ideas and article submissions for Supply Line to Norma Gyovai at ngyovai@moving.org.
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It was a warm summer day when a woman heard a knock at the door. It was a startling continuous knock. The woman scurried to put on her robe and slippers as she made haste to see who had disturbed her peaceful sleep. She peeked out the curtain to see what looked like a delivery truck, but she wasn’t certain. She opened the door and there stood a man who said “Hello, I am Mr. Recession and I have come to repossess your uncommon hope, your unfulfilled dreams, and your unrealized future.”
