Common Mistakes When Preparing for Long Distance Movers

When you are moving home or office, it’s imperative to prepare thoroughly in advance of the removal day itself.

Here at Total Care Removals we do occasionally encounter people who are not entirely ready for that big event!

Here are a few scenarios that might be well worth avoiding in such situations:

 

• Doing your own packing and not being ready. It’s not unusual to encounter people who are understandably trying to save money and who have decided to do their own packing.  Fair enough but don’t underestimate how long that will take.  Having lots of your items unpacked at the time of vehicle arrives could involve you in delays and therefore extra charges.

• Inadequate packing. This is something else that long distance movers occasionally encounter, though in fairness it can be as much of a problem on short-distance moves. Perhaps the most commonly found problem arises from boxes that are too weak to be stacked on top of each other without collapsing and furniture that is inadequately padded and protected. Once again, severe delays can be caused and some of your items may be put at risk. If in doubt, let us arrange the packing for you.  

• A failure to arrange disconnection and cleaning services. Frantically ringing around on the morning of your departure trying to get final readings and the property cleaned because you forgot to do so earlier is simply a recipe for stress and tension.

• Disruption due to young children. Needing to provide lots of hands-on attention and care to young children, babies and toddlers, whilst at the same time trying to get your household contents packed and loaded onto the vehicle, might be something like one of the labours of Hercules. If at all possible, it might be better to get other family members to give you a hand with looking after the kids whilst you are in the thick of things.

• Not arranging for removal vehicle access. Clearly, in most circumstances your removal vehicle will need to be able to park reasonably close to your property.  If it cannot do so, for whatever reason, your long distance movers may be unable to continue. So, take whatever steps are necessary with your neighbours and the local authorities to make sure that the vehicle can reach you when it needs to!  

Top Myths – Household Movers

We occasionally encounter some myths relating to household relocation.

In what follows below we will try to set right some of the more common examples.

  All household movers will pack for you

No they won’t.

Some household movers will only provide transport services, including the loading of your already packed items on to the vehicle.

Others, if you ask them, may simply start ringing around packing companies to get their own quotations for someone to do the job for them.  They will then typically add their percentage profit to the packer’s quotation.
At Total Care Removals we will provide a professional packing service as an integrated part of our quotation and service delivery.

Removal companies are fully insured

If only it were that simple!

Space doesn’t really permit a full discussion of the intricacies of professional indemnity and third party liability cover etc.

All we can say here is that you should make sure you understand exactly what insurance cover your household movers have by asking them about how it would protect you in any of a number of different potential problem scenarios.

All storage is pretty much the same

This is, unfortunately, not the case.

It’s still possible to occasionally find some instances where household removal items have been simply ‘chucked’ in the corner of a not particularly weatherproof and suitable warehouse while on-delivery is pending.
If you do need to ask your removers to store your items for you for a period of time, make sure you understand that the facilities they are using are modern, secure and environmentally protected.

The only thing you need to worry about is the price

This is probably one of the commonest and arguably most dangerous misconceptions we encounter. 

Sure, inevitably, your eyes will be drawn to the price on a quotation before anything else.  That is human nature.

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Asking Questions of Office Movers

We make no apologies for brandishing our own credentials in terms of office relocation.

Nevertheless, we know that you may be looking to take into account quotations and services from other organisations.  That’s fine and healthy – and at Total Care Removals we are more than confident in our ability to come out on top in any such comparison.

If you are looking at the capabilities of other office movers, you may wish to take into account some of the following questions:

• How extensive is their past experience in this domain?  If it’s limited or non-existent, are you really sure that you want your business to be something of a proof-of-concept trial for a novice office relocation company?

• Do they understand the totality of what is involved?  Office moves and relocation are fundamentally different to domestic household or furniture removals. For example, how competently will they be able to cope with the technical infrastructure side of your move? If they look hazy and unaware on these subjects then it should be seen as a warning sign.

• How flexible can they be in terms of working days and hours?  Sometimes losing a day’s work Monday-Friday may simply be unacceptable to you and if that’s the case then your office movers are going to need to work out of hours or over weekends.

• What is their insurance position?  Your office moves may involve highly expensive specialized equipment or technology kit and it will be advisable to ensure that their policy will cover such items in transit against all forms of damage.

• Can they offer packing services? If they can’t and you need to arrange those yourself, it’s perhaps not a showstopper but it will involve work and coordination that you may prefer to avoid given that you will presumably still be trying to run your daily business whilst your relocation is being planned and executed.

Above all, investigate their reputation.  Their own assurances are of course important but make certain that you have a look at two or three of their past customers who will be willing to confirm that they are competent office movers.

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Why Good Furniture Movers are Essential

Typically, someone who is careful in moving furniture will be so for one of three different reasons:

• Somebody has thoroughly trained them and they are determined to do a professional job;
• They are worried that they’ll get into trouble if they don’t do a good job;
• They have an instinctive love of and feeling for, furniture.

  In one sense, you could argue that it doesn’t really matter why someone is being careful with your furniture - only that they are being so.

Yet at Total Care Removals, we always value particularly highly those individuals who come into the third category.

That’s because for many families, their furniture is something precious.  It may be something that they struggled to buy in the early years of a marriage or partnership when money was tight.  It may be something that they’ve seen their children playing on happily as toddlers or perhaps it’s a family heirloom handed down by their ancestors.

Even if it’s a modern and relatively inexpensive piece, the chances are that some care was taken over its selection and seeing it damaged or even destroyed by careless handling would be extremely distressing.

In fairness, furniture isn’t one of the easiest things to move.  It can be heavy, awkwardly shaped and sometimes in spite of its size and weight, very fragile.
This is something good furniture movers know instinctively and why they will take that bit extra care.

Of course, not every individual is so gifted and it is still perfectly possible to do an exemplary furniture moving job because you have been extensively trained and developed in terms of customer property care and management.  We make no apologies whatsoever for investing heavily in that area and demanding the very highest standards of our personnel.

We don’t expect you to be anything other than a little nervous when seeing your prized furniture being packed, protected and loaded onto vehicles but we will do everything it takes in order to ensure that it arrives at its destination without trauma.

So, yes, we consider our company to be good furniture movers for a number of different reasons and we welcome the opportunity to prove that to you. 
 

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