Electric Trucks, Vans And Lorries – Are They On The Horizon?

Many environmentalists are understandably pushing hard for more investment in cleaner methods of propulsion.

Over the past 10 years, electric (battery) cars have become a practical reality. True, progress and market take-up have both been slower than anticipated perhaps 20 years ago but even so, things are now starting to move and gain momentum.

In terms of commercial vehicles, including larger trucks and vans, progress seems to be happening at little more than a snail’s pace. What’s the problem?

The History

It’s worth remembering that electrically-driven vehicles go back a long time – in fact over a century.

Even more puzzling when considering the current position is the fact that perhaps 50-75 years ago, the most commonly seen electrically-driven vehicles on the roads, excluding trams and trolley busses, were battery-powered commercial delivery vehicles. In the United Kingdom, for example, milk and other groceries in the 1950s were regularly delivered to inner-city doors by battery-powered vehicles called ‘floats’. Read more http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/electric-trucks-vans-and-lorries-are-they-on-the-horizon/

Household Removals – Things To Move Yourself

When we’re moving home, typically we’ll want to leave us much as possible to the professionals we’re paying to do the job for us.

If you’ve selected a top-class furniture removals company for your move, you can be sure they’ll take 101% care of your household items.  Nothing in what follows should be seen as contradicting that.

Even so, there is typically a range of items that it might be advisable to take care of yourself, including:

• Precious metals and jewellery to include precious watches. This is not really a theft-risk issue just the sheer uncertainty and problems that might arise subsequently if you can’t find something. Remember as well that if you are moving such items to check your insurance. Individual items above a certain value might need special cover.

• Credit cards and cash – even in foreign currencies. The same logic here applies as per jewellery above. Disputes and suspicion can arise even when totally unfounded. It’s a situation best avoided by keeping these items in your own hands at all times.

For more details, please visit - https://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/household-removals-things-move-yourself/

Office Removals – Handling Larger Items

Almost every professional office removals specialist will have tales of troubles they’ve encountered with unexpected large items that were considered to be part of an office move.

True, a site inspection should always take place first but it’s far from unknown for ‘surprises’ to arise on the day of the move itself. That usually involves someone in the office concerned suddenly saying something like “Oh, didn’t you know that was to be moved?”

Here are three categories of item that are well-known to cause difficulty, particularly when not highlighted in advance to your professional office removals specialist.

Safes

Safes aren’t designed to be easily moved. If they were, thieves would be very happy.

In fact, some were originally built into the fabric of older buildings and just can’t be moved short of demolishing part of the building.  Even those that are theoretically movable are usually far too heavy to manhandle and specialist lifting equipment is usually required.

For more details, please visit - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/office-removals-handling-larger-items/

Top Tips on Making an Insurance Claim Under Home Removals Cover

If you’re doing your own removal and have taken out appropriate insurance, be aware of a few realities of life with respect to making a claim if you break anything.

Here are our top tips relating to DIY furniture removals insurance claims.
      
1. Lodge your claim quickly – preferably initially by phone. Insurance companies can become suspicious about lengthy delays between a removal and receipt of a claim. Some policies may specify a maximum number of days for this.

2. Take photos and send them with your claim if the insurer requests.

3. Don’t throw anything away as ‘broken – to the tip’ until your claim has been dealt with.
  
4. Try to have your original purchase receipts to hand. Remember, what you think your item is worth and what the insurer thinks it’s worth might be two VERY different things! You may need to support your estimation with hard evidence if possible.

For more details, please view - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/insurance-claim-under-home-removals-cover/

Top Packing Tips Using Cartons

OK, we admit it.  This probably isn’t the most exciting blog title you’ve ever seen and reading on might seem to have all the attractions of watching paint dry!

We can’t pretend that cartons are, in themselves, a thrilling subject to read about but they ARE important in helping get your household or office removals items safely from ‘A’ to ‘B’. So, please excuse us for saying a few words about them – words that are aimed at trying to help customers who are considering doing their own packing.

It hopefully goes without saying that a little thought is required.  Just picking up any old tatty cartons is going to be risky.  Sure, if you have a few older and ‘pre-used’ cartons and you’re going to put in them a few old soft toys that are unbreakable and light then those cartons might be OK even if they’ve seen better days.

However, for anything that’s heavier or more valuable, you really should select sturdy new or nearly new cartons that are in excellent condition.  We always recommend that the cartons you purchase are ‘export rated’ – but what does that mean?

For more details, please visit - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/top-packing-tips-using-cartons/

Infestation Treatments

                                     

We hope we can promise you that you won’t have to worry about treating Total Care Removals’ personnel for infestation before letting them into your house!

More seriously, the issue here relates, typically, to properties you’re about to move into. It’s rare but it does happen.

The ‘it’ referred to here is when you’ve purchased a new home and prior to moving in, have decided to have it treated for, say, boring insect infestation. In those circumstances, the treating company may well advise that the property should not be entered into until a specified date.  That gives the products they’ve used time to dissipate and become largely inert in terms of human inhalation and skin contact.

So, in a household removal situation, if you’re having such treatment then you need to be sure that it will be conducted in sufficient time for the ‘danger period’ to have passed prior to your removal day itself. We have heard of cases where removals vehicles have arrived at a property and been unable to enter and unload due to hazardous chemicals signs inside warning that it would not be safe to do so for several more days.

For more details, please view - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/infestation-treatments/

New Office Premises Checklist

                                                               

Moving your office equipment into new premises is something that we’re expert at – we don’t mind blowing our own trumpet on that one!

Yet there are a few things that can catch you out in your new offices, even if your furniture and other equipment have arrived exactly as planned.

So, here’s a quick checklist for office removals. We hope you’ll find it useful.

1.       Make sure all utility providers (phones, Internet Services Providers, power, gas etc.) have been notified and are ready to go from zero hour on day-1.

2.       Re-route all mail from your old address to the new one for a specified period. You can be absolutely sure that there will be somebody, somewhere, who didn’t get the message you’re moving or who forgot to update their systems.

3.       Be clear that your new premises meet all fire and other employee safety regulations. That’s usually done as part of the purchase or leasing legal formalities but double-check.

For more details, please view - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/new-office-premises-checklist/

Electric Trucks for Removals

Like many New Zealanders, we care deeply about the environment and want to do all we can to help.

Sometimes we’re asked about ‘Green Removals’ where that relates to electric vehicles.  So, we’d like to share our thoughts on that one.

In just a few years, electric vehicles have gone from being a novelty (we need to remember, they had battery-powered vehicles over a century ago) to a real commercial and practical proposition. Cars like the incredible Tesla-S and others have proven that beyond doubt.

However, things aren’t quite so far advanced as far as electrically-driven vans and trucks are concerned. While they do exist, many remain in the ‘proof of concept’ stage and so far, trial rollouts have been restricted to city centres and so on.

There are still some problems with the technology when applied to vehicles such as household or office removals trucks.

For more details, please view - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/electric-trucks-for-removals/

How to Avoid Nightmare Furniture Removals

    

Moving home is almost always stressful and you certainly won’t thank your removals company for adding to that stress unnecessarily.

Here you’ll find some tips for how to go about selecting a company that won’t cause you subsequent grief.

 No Exaggeration

If you don’t think this is a serious issue, just consider some of the following real incident examples:

§  The removals company who provided a large van but one that was in such poor condition, the removals team had to literally part-push the vehicle into the house’s drive. After it had loaded, it departed with much engine noise and smoke. Two hours later, the home-owners passed said van broken down on the highway and seemingly on fire, with all their possessions inside.

§  One company arrived at 08.00 but with one of the team clearly massively hungover and another still so drunk he could hardly walk.

§  Another company apologized for being more than three hours late arriving, due to their driver having ‘got lost’ on the way to the removal address. Their vehicle depot and the driver concerned were based only about a 45-minute drive away.

§  Yet another example involved a vehicle that arrived but with the removal team stating they’d forgotten to bring any boxes or packing materials with them.

   For more details, please view - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/avoid-nightmare-furniture-removals/

Carpenters / Joiners and Moving Home

Most domestic removal customers typically don’t put “find a carpenter or joiner” at the top of their ‘things to do’ list when planning their move.

Yet there are times when they might be either highly advisable or even essential.

That’s typically the case in two sets of circumstances:

• When you need to remove doors, windows, paneling or other wooden features in order to get large items out of your home or into your new one
• In situations where an item needs to be dismantled before removal – something that may or may not be easier than removing doors and windows.

As part of our household removals service, we may well be able to help in certain situations here and if so, you won’t need a specialist. Clearly, if a piece of furniture is self-assembly then you can easily dismantle it yourself.  If doors can be just lifted off their hinges then we can perhaps help there.

For more details, please view - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/carpenters-joiners-and-moving-home/

      

One of our proudest boasts is that we can cope with anything that you need to have moved from ‘A’ to ‘B’ when relocating your offices.

In some instances though, we may need to bring with us (or help you to rent) some special equipment. That can arise in situations where you have something that is unusually heavy, large or awkward to shift as part of your office removal.

Here are just a few things where special attention may be required.

• Safes. Some of these are so heavy that they’re impossible to lift without mechanical lifting gear and wheeled transport. Note also that even if the safe is ‘yours’, it may require special dismantling if secured into the floors and walls. A tip here also relating to fixed safes and sales contracts – remember that if you’re selling office premises you own then a safe may be seen as a fixture and fitting and may need to be left in place, unless you have explicitly mentioned it in your sales contract.

• Printing or other machines.  Although technology has hugely reduced the size of such devices in the last 20 years, some large-volume specialist printing machines are too heavy and big to move by hand and again, lifting equipment may be required.

For more details, please view - http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/office-moves-some-special-requirements/

Top Tips for Finding Treasures When Moving House

There is an issue there about responsibilities because professional furniture removals companies aren't also waste disposal specialists but there's an even bigger question to be asked: Do you know what you're throwing away?

In the last 10-15 years, the arrival of online selling and the huge growth in antique programmes on TV has raised awareness about the value of ordinary household items yet people are still just throwing them out.What looks like junk to you just could have some value.For more details view -  

http://ezinearticles.comTopTipsforFindingTreasuresWhenMovingHouse&id=9463019

MOVING LARGE PLANTS IN POTS

We are perfectly happy to take on the removal of plants in pots. Nothing is too much of a challenge for Total Care Removals!

Even so, this is a category of item that can, at times, cause some unexpected problems for home furniture removals. So, here are a few of our best tips.

1. Make sure you can legally remove them.  Plants in pots are usually considered to be movable and therefore not a problem but there can be grey areas, such as plants in pots that are secured in place by screws or cement etc.  If in doubt, take legal advice.

2. Please let us know if the pots they’re in are very large and heavy – such as very big solid stone or concrete troughs.  We made need some lifting equipment to help. For more details visit http://www.totalcareremovals.co.nz/moving-large-plants-in-pots/