Moving Company Life

Thought I've been mulling about since switching from box truck moving company to van line... @Sharky88 and anyone else, please share your insight.

Why do you see ABF, YRC, OD etc using pups and doubles but not United, Allied, or Atlas?

It's pretty common for a 53-footer to not fit in a neighborhood, storage unit facility, or apartment complex, and yet this is what we are commanded to do on a daily basis.

When tight maneuvering fails and blocking a street is illegal, what do we fall on? Ye olde shuttle. Unload from a tractor-trailer parked down the road from the destination into a UHaul or some other such critter, then scoot on down to the shipper's house to unload again.

It's a tedious hassle and could be bypassed 9/10 times if a pup trailer was on hand. I mean, if UPack services make it work, why not van lines?

Summary of advantages:

-Reduces need for shuttles
-Potentially easier separation of multiple shippers' belongings
-Could drop one trailer for a whole trip, if you knew the load(s) were small enough.

Cons:
-Requires doubles endorsement and experience
-???

 

The big van lines also have thousands of drivers and trucks across the country.

 

@LoneRanger I'm the same way with my stuff, but my customers have their reasons for hiring us.

Gun safes and pianos going upstairs, old folks with bum kids who won't help, families moving from one mansion to another with 500 lb china cabinets, armoirs in the 3rd floor bedroom, and 1000 lb hot tubs are just a few examples.

 

Right, so my question was, why don't van line agents do that?

Another advantage to using doubles in household: driveways. 90% of the time 53-footers have to be loaded/unloaded from the street, even if they fit in the neighborhood. If you could drop a trailer, pull a pup to the doorstep, load or unload, then repeat, it would save a lot on labor costs.

In that sense, having pups available seems even more appropriate for van lines than UPack, since with the latter the driver just waits for the customer/third party to do all the work on their own time and dime.

 

Lol this is a bit like going on a thread about driving reefer and saying, "I like to grow my own vegetables, thanks!"

I've heard before that movers are the black sheep of the trucking world. These kinds of reactions validate that completely.

People will always move, they can't always do it on their own, and so until robots replace all human functions there will continue to be a market for professional movers, as much as you may despise our existence.

Can anyone explain this mysterious enmity against movers? Bad customer experiences or scam companies can happen in any industry.