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Detecting Scam / Rogue Movers – Your Rights

Remember, you have rights!
Unfortunately, only ethical movers follow the rules and allow you your rights. There are many, many good movers out there. Most movers are good people and want to help. They do not need laws to enforce ethical business practices. The only effective way to avoid trouble with your move is to detect a criminal mover before they are allowed to touch your items.

What to do and who to call
Check up on a mover’s license:
http://www.safersys.org/
You can type in the company name or the license # and find out if they have a valid license and if they have insurance coverage:

Dept. of Transportation Hot Line:
(888) 368-7238
Call this number to file a complaint with Department of Transportation. The DOT needs to know about the unethical practices of movers.

Watch Dog Committee for Moving Companies:
(202) 366-4553
This is part of the Division of Office of Enforcement & Compliance under the Federal Motor Carrier & Safety Administration. These folks have the authority to do something about it.

Division of Office of Enforcement & Compliance:
FMSA
400 7th St. S.W.
Washington, DC 20590
Ph: 202 366-4553
Fax: 202 366-3462

Special thanks to Jay Clithero of Sterling Van Lines for all the helpful information on scam and rogue movers.

Happy and safe moving this summer!

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Sterling Van Lines, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based moving and storage company specializing in small moves. With over 50 years of combined moving experience, over 10,000 moves, and a reputation for quality in our industry, our goal is to customize our services to the needs of each customer — whether you’re moving your home or office, or just a few pieces, we’ll make your move worry free! Visit us at www.sterlingvanlines.com

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Detecting a Rogue / Scam Mover – Part 3

Why are pounds important?
The known tariffs are based on mileage and pounds. You always have the right to have your things weighed at a certified weigh station. You can witness the light weight (before pickup) and the heavy weight (after pickup).

You meet the driver at the closest scale to your home and follow them back to the scale after pick up. You will have a certified weight ticket; you will then know the exact pounds.
Standard movers will be perfectly willing to accommodate you.

Is your “estimated” cost significantly lower than other estimates from major moving companies?
Your costs between movers should not vary that much, if you have an “estimated” cost that is too good to be true – it is too good to be true. The normal method of operation of these “Movers” is to quote very low, sound very nice and professional, then you will be informed on the day of pick up that you have a significant amount more than you reported and the cost will go up – usually about 2-3 times the original estimate.
By following the above guidelines you should be able to avoid “rogue movers”.

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We’ll have more helpful information on scam and rogue movers from Jay Clithero of Sterling Van Lines throughout the summer – subscribe to our RSS feed to stay up-to-date!

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Sterling Van Lines, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based moving and storage company specializing in small moves. With over 50 years of combined moving experience, over 10,000 moves, and a reputation for quality in our industry, our goal is to customize our services to the needs of each customer — whether you’re moving your home or office, or just a few pieces, we’ll make your move worry free! Visit us at www.sterlingvanlines.com

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Organizing Before Your Move – Clearing Out Paper Clutter

Moving is a great time to clear out that clutter that collects in your home and make sure it doesn’t find its way in to your new home. While it’s easy to focus on getting rid of “stuff” clutter – actual physical things – it’s important to look for ways to clear out other types of clutter in our lives that can also get in our way. One of the big ones that I help clients get rid of is paper – we all have it, we all need to deal with it, and wouldn’t it be nice if we had less of it at our new destination?
Here’s how:

Get rid of what you don’t need
In my experience, people I work with usually have been keeping far, far more documents than they need, or could ever find useful. Paper can take up a lot of space, can get messy really quickly, and can feel overwhelming when it’s stacked and piled all around you. A great way to start reducing your existing paper is by setting some retention guidelines for what you want to keep and for how long. Do you really need your junior-high reports? Probably not. Last year’s medical records? Quite possibly. The government’s information site has some helpful retention guidelines. You can customize these guidelines for what fits your life and your retention needs.

Go electronic
So much paper comes into our lives that may be available in electronic form. For instance, a little-used feature on most computers is the ability to send and receive faxes on-screen, without even printing out a document (check your computer’s instructions for how to do this). If there are documents you want the information from but don’t need the paper version of, try scanning them using a tool like the Neat family of scanners (www.neatco.com).

Do you really need those bills?
I’m thinking bills from cable or satellite TV, your cell phone, garbage bill, and the like. Most vendors are happy to help you go paperless – just visit the website for each vendor and sign up for paperless billing. When your bill comes due, you’ll receive an email instead of a paper notice. You’ll be able to pay online if you so choose, saving you stamps and checks. Less paper all around!

Stop the influx
If you’re receiving a lot of junk mail, use a service like Tonic Mailstopper (http://mailstopper.tonic.com) to do the work of getting you off junk mail lists. If you get catalogs, judiciously choose which ones to receive, and which ones will get the boot. Call the numbers on each catalog that you no longer want, and ask to be taken off their list and the lists of their partners.

Once you’re done discarding your paper, make sure to dispose of it securely and responsibly, by shredding and/or recycling as appropriate.

What are your strategies for getting rid of your paper clutter?

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Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer ® is a guest blogger for One Simple Move and the founder of Custom Living Solutions, an organizing and productivity consulting firm specializing in helping clients maximize their creativity and productivity in their offices and homes. He is the 2009-2010 Chapter President of the National Association of Professional Organizers, San Francisco Bay Area chapter, and speaks nationally and locally on organizing and productivity topics. For more information and FREE organizing ideas, visit www.customlivingsolutions.com or call 415-830-6345.

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Detecting a Rogue / Scam Mover – Part 2

Does the “Mover” demand a deposit or ask for half the money up front?
Standard movers do not demand half of the money up front. Their service speaks for itself. Unless you require a very specific day or time it is highly unusual for a standard mover to need a deposit.

Did the “Mover” give you a guaranteed price?
If the mover guaranteed a price for cubic feet*, now you must know how to determine cubic feet, very few people know this or take the time to do it. You are thus under the complete mercy of the “Mover” and you could be taken advantage of. This should not be debated after the “Mover” picks up your things. If they are criminal, it is too late. The best rule if you are quoted in this fashion is to find another mover. If you really want to keep working with that mover there are a couple of ways to solve this:

1. If you have a decent size move, say, more than 2 bedrooms, have the mover come out and give you an estimate. If they won’t, have another mover who may be closer to you come out and see your things and give you an estimate. You want to know how many cubic feet and how many pounds the mover saw. That mover should be able to fix a price for you and the “Mover” who would not come out may be able to fix a price now. The point is, now you have data that you can share with other movers to get a quote.
2. If you have a smaller move, will the “mover” allow you to list your items and guarantee the price to move those items, in writing?

*Cubic Feet: Length X width X height, example: 2’ X 3’ X 4’ = 24 cubic feet. In inches the equation is: 24” X 15” X 30” = 10,800 cubic inches. To convert to feet do this: 10,800 ÷ 1728 = 6.25 cubic feet.

All movers want to know your cubic feet so they can convert it into pounds. The equation is generally 7 pounds per cubic foot so in the above example 24 cubic feet would convert to 24 X 7 = 168 pounds. 6.25 cubic feet would convert to 6.25 X 7 = 43.75 pounds.

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We’ll have more helpful information on scam and rogue movers from Jay Clithero of Sterling Van Lines throughout the summer – subscribe to our RSS feed to stay up-to-date!

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Sterling Van Lines, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based moving and storage company specializing in small moves. With over 50 years of combined moving experience, over 10,000 moves, and a reputation for quality in our industry, our goal is to customize our services to the needs of each customer — whether you’re moving your home or office, or just a few pieces, we’ll make your move worry free! Visit us at www.sterlingvanlines.com

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Organize Your Digital Photos Before Your Move

Easily organize your digital photos in 4 easy steps!

When you prepare your computer for your move (make sure to back up your files!), consider organizing all those digital photos that have piled up. Digital cameras make it easy and fun to capture your memories, but the sheer number of photos that can come from one memory card can be a challenge. Managing your digital photos can be easy – and fun – with a few simple tips:

1. Toss the junk
Unflattering photos, bad camera angles, and just plain awful shots can take up lots of space on your hard drive. Before packing up your computer and camera, go through your digital photo collection with a fine-toothed comb, and make sure that you’re only keeping photos that you like. Not only will you free up space on your computer, you’ll make it easier to organize your photos by reducing the number of photos that need to be sorted.

2. Sort and separate
If you’ve been keeping all of your photos in one folder on your hard drive, it can be tough to find the one that you’re looking for. Instead of using just one folder, create multiple folders by month and year, or by month/year and subject or event. Once you have your folders set up, them sort your photos into their new, separated homes. As you take new photos, create folders in the same manner to store your new shots. This will make it easy to find your photos later on when you’re looking for them.

3. Software makes it a snap
Once you’ve set up your folders, managing your photos is easy, using readily available software. On a Mac, iPhoto is the standard, and on the PC, I usually recommend Picasa or Adobe Photoshop Elements. These software tools are designed to make it easy for you to organize, fix, search, and print your digital photo collection. Using software, you can browse your photos in various thumbnail sizes, repair the dreaded red-eye effect, add tags to your photos to make them searchable, and create slideshows to share with your friends and family.

4. Backup for safety
If something happens to your computer during the move, you could lose all those photos and memories – what a disaster! For that reason, I always suggest backing up your digital photos to an external hard drive, CD, or DVD (preferably the rewritable variety, so you can reuse your discs again and again). Many of the software programs used for organizing digital photos have a backup feature built-in, which can make the process of storing you files for safekeeping very easy.

Photos (digital and traditional) are meant to be seen. Once you’ve organized your photos, it’s easy to share those memories in photo albums, prints, and slideshows. Spending a little time organizing your photo collection before you move is not only great organization, but is also a fun way to pack up your memories before you move on to your new life in your new home.

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Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer ® is a guest blogger for One Simple Move and the founder of Custom Living Solutions, an organizing and productivity consulting firm specializing in helping clients maximize their creativity and productivity in their offices and homes. He is the 2009-2010 Chapter President of the National Association of Professional Organizers, San Francisco Bay Area chapter, and speaks nationally and locally on organizing and productivity topics. For more information and FREE organizing ideas, visit www.customlivingsolutions.com or call 415-830-6345.

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Detecting Rogue / Scam Movers – Part 1

Did the “Mover” “Quote” you by Cubic Feet?
If so, it is a virtual certainty that they are not operating from any known tariff. By law movers must have and subscribe to a published tariff. The tariff has all charges laid out and accounted for. You should find another mover!

Definition of a Tariff
List of charges for moving services published and filed with the surface transportation board (DOT).
(This definition is gleaned from existing data and experience in the moving industry.)

The American Heritage Dictionary defines tariff as:
“n. 1) A list or system of duties imposed by a government on imported or exported goods. 2) Any schedule of prices or fees.”

In order for a mover to get his authority to move, he must first file a tariff and it must be approved. Most U.S. movers used to use the tariff called the 400N. This is because it is a monumental task to formulate all the possible charges for all the possible moving services in all the possible cities of the U.S. Nowadays the movers are using a version of that or have made their own since 2008 saw the de-regulation of this tariff. The mover should be able to state what tariff he uses and the tariff must be published and available to the public for inspection.
It is almost unheard of for standard movers to quote customers by cubic feet. Movers who have been around a long time sometimes quote customers by the pound. This practice is dying out and you will usually get a quote that is based on a rate. The rate is based on mileage to your destination and the estimated number of pounds in your shipment. The mover will give you a discount off of the rate. No one will charge you 100% of the rate. The discount is driven up by competition. The older movers were used to giving a price per pound – this is done by simple division and is still based on the rate in the tariff.

Can the Mover tell you what tariff he is quoting from?
If not, you should run screaming into the night!

Continue to Part 2: Detecting Rogue / Scam Movers – Part 2

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We’ll have more helpful information on scam and rogue movers from Jay Clithero of Sterling Van Lines throughout the summer – subscribe to our RSS feed to stay up-to-date!

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Sterling Van Lines, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based moving and storage company specializing in small moves. With over 50 years of combined moving experience, over 10,000 moves, and a reputation for quality in our industry, our goal is to customize our services to the needs of each customer — whether you’re moving your home or office, or just a few pieces, we’ll make your move worry free! Visit us at www.sterlingvanlines.com

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Controlling Your New Closet

Moving is a great time to organize that bursting closet of yours. With more clothing and belongings than ever before, it can be a constant struggle to find places to put all our “stuff,” especially if you’re dealing with limited closet space. Here are a few ideas for you:

The first step is to get rid of what you don’t need before you move – that way, you can see exactly what you need to find closet space for at your new home. One of the best ways to do this is to take everything out of your closet, and start sorting it into piles. I like to recommend that my clients create piles for “Keep” (things you definitely wear), “Sell” (things that you can probably make money by selling at used clothing stores), “Donate” (things that are usable but that you probably can’t sell), “Trash” (things that nobody will want or be able to use), and finally a “Don’t Know” pile, for things you’re not sure what to do with. The “Keep,” “Sell,” “Donate,” and “Trash” piles are pretty straightforward, but what about the “Don’t Know” pile?

“Don’t Know” is for items that you like, but never wear or use. If you really can’t part with that $300 dress that you never wore, and you can’t bear to give up those soccer cleats for that league you were planning on joining two years ago, put those items into a box, and seal the box with tape. If you haven’t opened the box to use those items in six months, it’s time to sell, donate or trash those items, because chances are you won’t be using them anytime soon.

So how do you store everything that went into your “Keep” pile effectively in your new closet? The key is to maximize every available inch of storage space in the closet. Look up, look down, look all around, and you’ll find that there just might be a lot more potential storage space in your closet than you originally may have thought. I’m often surprised at just how much storage space there can be in a closet – you just have to be creative about how you use it.

For instance, if your closet has only one rod, you can gain 50% more storage space by hanging another rod. Closet rods are available inexpensively at local hardware stores, and if you don’t want to install one permanently, you can get a removable secondary rod that hangs down off of your primary rod (I often suggest these to renters). No space in your room for a traditional dresser? Try some plastic, stackable drawers that you can use to fit in the floor space under where your clothes hang. I highly recommend the transparent or semi-transparent drawers rather than the opaque ones, because it’s very convenient to be able to see what’s in your drawers without having to actually open them up. If you have shelves above your closet rod, you can fold and stack sweaters and shirts, or use the space for transparent shoe boxes, which stack nicely. Don’t ignore the space behind the closet door, which can be a great spot for hanging a shoe rack, accessories organizer, or for installing a hook to hang long items such as coats and dresses.

So if your current closet is on overflow, don’t despair. Use a few tips that I’ve suggested, and your new closet will soon be your friend.

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Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer ® is a guest blogger for One Simple Move and the founder of Custom Living Solutions, an organizing and productivity consulting firm specializing in helping clients maximize their creativity and productivity in their offices and homes. He is the 2009-2010 Chapter President of the National Association of Professional Organizers, San Francisco Bay Area chapter, and speaks nationally and locally on organizing and productivity topics. For more information and FREE organizing ideas, visit www.customlivingsolutions.com or call 415-830-6345.

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When it Comes to Moving, Timing is Key

One of the key factors in having a smooth move is when you choose to move.
Why? Because it can affect the:

1. Availability of your Mover
2. Price of your move
3. Quality of service

To prove my point, here is some data from the AMSA’s (American Moving & Storage Association) Industry Trends, a quarterly report on data in the moving industry.

Copyright AMSA 2009¹

Notice that big hump in the middle of the graph from June through August? That’s moving season. The percentage of moves in a year occurring in any given summer month peaks around 11% – 13%, compared to 8% or less for other months. The AMSA also had data on the percentage of moves in a year, broken down by weeks. Sure enough, every week that contained the last days of the month saw a jump in percentages of moves.

The takeaway here is that if you have the flexibility, avoid moving during the middle of the summer and at the end of the month. The further away from mid-summer / end of the month you can schedule your move, the better off you will be.

Reasons:
1. Availability of your Mover
The summer months are when moving companies make their money, so it’s a busy time for them. If you’re moving during the summer, you should contact moving companies early on (at least 2 months in advance) to ensure you can get in their books. As is with anything, the best ones will fill up first.

2. Price of your move
If you can avoid the peak season, the tariffs (the rates that moving companies base the cost of your move on) are actually lower, so you can save lots of money on your move.

3. Quality of service
Even the best moving companies come under pressure to perform when the season gets busy. Moving companies can overbook and have to scramble to find a truck and crew to service your move, or a tight schedule of back to back moves can be easily thrown off by a customer not being ready or other unforeseen events. Drivers and crew members are also tired from working long hours, and that could mean an increased chance of damage to your goods.

While we’re rapidly approaching mid-summer, don’t despair if you are moving during peak season this year. Simply knowing about the issues above means you can plan ahead – and good planning will go a long way in keeping your move smooth and problem-free.

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¹Resources:
AMSA Industry Trends

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“You Know You are a Rogue Mover if…”

Our friends at Sterling Van Lines present…

“You Know You are a Rogue Mover if…”

1. You find yourself quoting customers in terms of cubic feet
2. You won’t guarantee anything in writing
3. Your price is 1/3 of REAL mover’s prices
4. You can’t name the tariff you use to quote with
5. You find yourself talking to your customer with your cigarette still in your mouth!
6. You find three times more stuff than your customer “told you over the phone”
7. You won’t let your customer witness the weighing of his goods
8. You demand cash at pick up!
9. Your credit card machine is “broken” or “down”
10. You don’t seem to know where your customers’ goods are!

All jokes aside, if you are moving this summer – please be aware of scam and rogue movers. We’ll have more helpful information on scam and rogue movers from Jay Clithero of Sterling Van Lines throughout the summer – subscribe to our RSS feed to stay up-to-date!

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Sterling Van Lines, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based moving and storage company specializing in small moves. With over 50 years of combined moving experience, over 10,000 moves, and a reputation for quality in our industry, our goal is to customize our services to the needs of each customer — whether you’re moving your home or office, or just a few pieces, we’ll make your move worry free! Visit us at www.sterlingvanlines.com

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